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Corporate Governance Certification
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The AuditNet® community has grown by leaps and bounds over the past ten years thanks to your continued support. Yes it is hard to imagine but it has been a decade since this community was created! Support AuditNet® by supporting our sponsors. Without sponsor and affiliate advertising and contributions from the AuditNet® community everyone would have to pay for use of this site.
This month check out This month check out D'Arcangelo Software Services Web enabled solutions. Galileo is a comprehensive and integrated audit management, documentation and reporting system, with optional links to Magique, an enterprise-wide risk management/control risk self-assessment system. Both are highly customizable, modular systems which support multiple remote auditors with comprehensive security. Remember! Clicking on sponsored ads helps support AuditNet®. Remember: visiting sponsors helps support AuditNet®. A Strategy for Meeting Financial Regulatory Compliance Financial institutions face an increasing number of compliance regulations. IT audit methods and techniques have been enhanced to successfully perform compliance audits in the financial sector. In this article, Nicholas Benvenuto, Protiviti managing director, discusses the objective of the compliance audit. Additionally, he describes a compliance audit methodology that can be customized to each company's unique requirements. This article was contributed by Protiviti KnowledgeLeader, an online service providing tools, templates, and other resources for internal audit and risk management. Free trials available at www.knowledgeleader.com. For a limited time KnowledgeLeader memberships are available for the reduced rate of $595 per year. Tell them you heard about it from AuditNet.org. Click here for the article! AuditNet® What's New This Month? This month we added a page for the new AuditNet PowerPoint Presentation Library Exchange. Auditors have begun to share their work to help the entire community. A new page was added for Expressing an Opinion on Internal Controls. A corporate subscription rate was added to the annual subscription program. Organizations that need more than 2 staff members accessing the service will benefit from this new rate. Watch for new additions to the audit programs subscription service available as an alternative for those auditors that are unable to contribute material to AuditNet®. There are many new audit programs in the queue for the AuditNet® community. All this and more! The best way to find all the resources on the site is by going to the Virtual Library or use the site search. AuditNet® Policies and Procedures Column Policies and Procedures Updateby Rose Hightower Policy Guru for APPLE Thank you to all who have shown support of the Policy Guru. In order to better serve you, when asking questions, please identify the company or type of industry and process you are referring to. Questions are still coming in about how to get started. The policy statement is often the most difficult aspect to determine. I find that unless the policy is driving the process, it is better to begin with the process, representing the current state. For the rest of the story click here! AuditNet® Creates A PowerPoint Presentation Sharing Library AuditNet® introduces a new sharing exchange library for audit presentations. Similar to the popular audit program exchange library, this page will provide sample actual training/briefing presentations from auditors. We encourage contributed material from the audit community. In light of the Sarbanes-Oxley demand this should be of great benefit to auditor communications to Boards and management. As with other AuditNet® services, together, we will build this page to serve presentation needs to shortcut the preparation process. If you have a presentation to share please send it to me for posting in the exchange library or provide the URL link where the presentation resides. Make sure you include the subject area such as: Sarbanes-Oxley I am encouraged by the initial response and believe that this concept will offer the same opportunities offered by the audit programs library by making sure that auditors do not have to "reinvent the wheel" or by facilitating the presentation process with a template starting point. AuditNet: Auditors Sharing Knowledge for Progress For the current additions and page click here!
Management of
Construction Contracts
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AuditNet Job Listings (& more)
Looking for an audit job? Go to the AuditNet® Audit Jobs section for the latest job opportunities. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week you have the ability to not only look at available jobs, but you can also post your resume, apply for open jobs, research companies and obtain career advice. If you are in the market for a new job, make AuditNet® your first stop to check out what's available.
This is just another benefit of using AuditNet® as your one stop shop for all your audit and career resources.
Click here for more jobs!
AuditNet® Fraud Auditing Corner
An interview with Dr. David J. Graham, associate director of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety
By Dick Carozza
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Dr. David J. Graham, a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more than 20 years, says the agency could have prevented 60,000 deaths from the arthritis drug Vioxx. But Graham, the recipient of the ACFE's Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award, says the problems at the FDA go beyond the problems of one drug. |
This article is from Fraud Magazine, the professional magazine
of the Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners
For the rest of the article from the latest ACFE Fraud Magazine click here.
Value Added by Auditors and Accountants
By Tom Crouch, CPA, CIA, CISA, and Otis Singleton, CPA
Accounting is often portrayed as boring and unimportant. Accountants and auditors are depicted in a similar manner. What investors forget is the value added to an organization by these professionals. The reality is that auditors and accountants help create, maintain, enforce, test and evaluate the internal financial controls of an organization. This process helps provide accurate accounting results and tends to keep business risks lower over many years. The value added by these services is not always fully appreciated by investors until bad accountants and unethical auditors combine to fleece investors.
For the rest of the article click here.
Audimation Services
Fighting Fraud with Data Mining Techniques
New 2005 Schedule
Learn how to create, implement, and
maintain a fraud program – start to
finish! ... Tighten controls, strengthen
your fraud program, and recover
millions!
AuditNet® Information Security
How to Prevent Identity Theft
by Rey LeClerc
In one of the largest breaches of personal information to date, Citigroup announced recently that a box of computer tapes containing information on 3.9 million individual customers was lost by United Parcel Service last month while in transit to a credit reporting agency. It was the latest in a series of data losses or breaches that have forced financial institutions and other data collectors to warn customers that their personal information may be at risk of identity theft.
Click here for the rest of the story!
2nd Annual Software Expo
| The market is awash in software to help
auditors meet their respective challenges, especially in light of new
regulations. In response, on April 19, 2005, the North Jersey IIA
Chapter held an all-day software expo at Prime Hotel in Fairfield New
Jersey. The event, with educational presentations throughout the day,
aimed to help auditors sort through software tools and discuss their
associated benefits. It was a follow-up on last year's inaugural event
held on March 11, 2004. With 24 of the top audit and assurance software vendors and over 200 participants, the expo was the second of it's kind and a truly exciting event. Vendors had an opportunity to learn more of their users' needs in order to shape future development efforts. On the other hand, users had a fantastic opportunity to learn which products they need to buy in the coming year, based on the associated benefits. Now that the day has ended, we have captured in this website all of the presentations and other tools used throughout the day to assist anyone who could benefit from such information. For more info and links to the material click here! |
AuditNet® Conference & Training News
Want to announce your professional association conference to the global audit community? Send us conference name, date and URL details. (A reciprocal link to AuditNet is required).
*Integrating the Internet into Internal Audit IIA Chapter Seminar Rochester, NY-Nov. 9, 2005
2005 ACFE Fraud Conferences and Training
2005 IIA Conferences and Training
* indicates events where Jim Kaplan is speaking
Pleier Corporation is still seeking
additional authors to publish on CD and earn royalties. |
AMIGO - Free Audit Documentation Tool Available
Amigo in Spanish means "friend" and this new audit documentation tool could help the AuditNet community. Auditors are always looking for new tools to make their jobs a little easier. I was pleasantly surprised when I received an email from an auditor that developed this audit documentation tool. He advised that he was making this tool available freely to the AuditNet community. AMIGO, the Audit Management and Information Guidance Software is a simple audit documentation software for the individual auditor. It allows internal auditors to
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Design audit programs and program templates based on requirements
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Document work done in simple electronic audit work papers
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Document issues in a simplified issue format
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Print work papers, issues and report as required
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Generate reports
AuditNet will work with this auditor to add features and improve the system. All we need is your feedback on using the system.
To get your copy of AMIGO click here!
New Guidelines for Ask the Auditor Forum
Ask the Auditor has been a popular section of AuditNet® for several years. Previously I required the contribution of an audit program or payment as quid pro quo for the research. Effective immediately there will be no requirement of either payment or the contribution of an audit program. I will decide which questions are posted in the Forum archives. Questioners may not receive an email response answering their question. Therefore to see if your question and answer are posted you may have to check the appropriate Forum archives. The Archive sections are currently as follows:
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More sections may be added. Thanks for supporting AuditNet®! |
E-Books for
Subscribers to the Annual Audit Programs
Note: The SarbOx Section 404 Compliance Tips for IT Managers was updated to reflect new compliance dates.
Heard on the Net!
AuditNet® Capturing Digital Information
Digital documents are replacing paper in the most
dramatic record-keeping revolution since the
invention of printing. Is the current generation of these documents
doomed to be lost forever?
Auditors are spending more time looking for digital audit information using the Internet. That information may be found relatively fast or it may take an investment of a resource that we cannot recapture; namely time. Auditors must understand the transient nature of data and information on the Internet. What is there today may not be there tomorrow. New digital data appears (and disappears) each day. Organizations may remove information that they consider obsolete or they may change the directory structure of their Web site resulting in the all too familiar HTTP 404 Not Found message. It is therefore important that auditors save digital information they find useful. The system of archiving useful information available on the Internet is a major issue that auditors need to consider when performing digital research. Auditors also must consider the availability of digital retrieval systems for information saved.
Whenever I come across an audit program, audit guide, checklist, or questionnaire that I feel would have value for auditors, I save a digital copy on my computer. I also store this data on an external back up drive as well as a remote storage system. My objective is to maintain a digital archive of audit relevant information.
I would be interested in hearing your methods for archiving digital information found on the Net.
Thanks for your support and until next month!
If you have a tip on how you are using the Internet or software applications for auditing send them to editor@auditnet.org Watch for more Internet boot camp tips from the auditing Internet guru!
Audit Work Programs Corner
Auditors Sharing Audit Programs and Working Papers
The following audit programs, ICQs, checklist
or working papers were added this month. They are in
format unless noted otherwise.
Some may only be available in exchange for an audit work program
contribution not currently in the inventory.
Beginning in August 2003 all new programs contributed will include the
date the program was added to the inventory (mm/yy). This was at the
suggestion of an AuditNet® user.
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Cataclysmic Disasters ICQ (Oct 05)
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Claim File Review Form (P&C) (Oct 05)
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Claim Sample Testing Worksheet (P&C) (Oct 05)
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QA Risk Library (Oct 05)
Documents in the Queue!
The following audit documents will be posted next month. Interested in them now? Send an audit work program, ICQ, checklist or other audit template and receive them via e-mail. Your contribution must include your name and email address.
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Accounts Payable-Banking (Nov 05)
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Balance Sheet Reconciliation Audit Program (Nov 05)
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IT Application Questionnaire-Gov (Nov 05)
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Other Real Estate Owned-Banking (Nov 05)
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Life Insurance Underwriting Audit Program-Banking (Nov 05)
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Payroll & Personnel-Banking (Nov 05)
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PC Replacement Audit-Gov (Nov 05)
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Prepaid/Accrued Expenses-Banking (Nov 05)
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Purchasing-Banking (Nov 05)
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Transit Services Audit Program (Nov 05)
Contribution Required Audit Documents!
The following documents require the contribution of an audit program not currently in the inventory. They are also available to subscribers to the Audit Programs Subscription Service.
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COSO Testing Template (Oct 05)
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Death Claims Audit Program (Insurance) Oct 05
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Licensing & Contracting (Insurance) Oct 05
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Oracle Financial Applications Audit Guidelines (Oct 05)
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Project Management (Banking) (Oct 05)
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SAS-70 Review (Oct 05)
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Sarbanes-Oxley Generic Testing Template (Oct 05)
Looking for Auditors?
If your company has any audit job vacancies that you are looking to fill, have your HR people contact AuditNet® to post the job and search for candidates. Using the jobs section helps support AuditNet® as well! For more information click here.
Sarbanes-Oxley Column
Complying with SOX 302 Reporting Requirements: The Practical Benefits of an Issue Reporting and Remediation Management System
by Bruce McCuaig CA, CCSA, CIA
Since August 2003 SOX 302 has required quarterly CEO/CFO certifications of “disclosure control effectiveness” and additional certification that all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses are being reported each quarter to audit committees and external auditors.
Accelerated filers have justifiably been focused on meeting their SOX 404 certification requirements. With that hurdle passed, these companies now need to integrate their quarterly review of disclosure controls with sub certification processes, remediation management and the preparation and review of quarterly disclosures.
For the rest of the story click here!
Bruce McCuaig CA, CCSA, CIA, Principal Consultant, Collaborative Assurance & Risk Design with Paisley Consulting, the Cokato Minnesota business accountability solutions provider. Contact: bruce.mccuaig@paisleyconsulting.com
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Critical Infrastructure Sustainability By Kastuv Ray
Power structures can be compared to spider webs whereby if the spider dies, the whole web collapses. The same theory can be applied to the critical infrastructure of a country where each leg of the spider represents a critical sector of industry and the spider’s body, the government. The following sectors constitute critical infrastructure:
It is imperative for a country to have sustainability strategies and plans in place because with the ever changing climate of the world new threats are rearing their ugly heads. Countries have either been plagued by the terrorist acts of 9/11, epidemics such as SARS the devastating tsunami that swept South East Asia in December 2005 or Hurricane Katrina in the U.S.. These events have rocked the foundations of the countries that they affected but have not managed to destroy the infrastructure. From an internal audit perspective (at a high level), the following action should be taken with respect to critical infrastructure sustainability:
Conclusion The ideas in this article are merely suggestions but governments should be reminded of the age old theory of ignoring one’s health at their own peril. The same principle can be applied to critical infrastructure. |
AuditNet® CAATT Corner
Assess the TCO
Rich Lanza, CPA, CFE, PMP
Technology can act akin to a siren's call as it pulls companies into spending a great deal of money without understanding their total cost of investment.
For the rest of the story click here!
AuditNet® Book Reviews
Sarbanes-Oxley legislation has created enormous interest in risk management and control self-assessment software tools, with several dozen new products appearing in the past three years. But even apart from SOX, the number of “audit software” applications has been rising fast, with new specialized tools for forensic audit, data analysis, data mining, presentation, communication, telecom analysis, workpapers, case management, and more.
For the complete review click here!
More book reviews:
Brink's Modern Internal Auditing
PowerPoint 2003 and Excel 2003 Personal Trainer
AuditNet® Software Compliance Audit Corner
PCProfile Offers Discounted Prices to AuditNet® for the Software Compliance Toolbox©
The Software Compliance Toolbox
provides detailed information and guidance on how you can manage
software compliance affairs across the whole organization with a large
set (over 70 articles) of self help articles that are based on audit
experiences and knowledge gained over 15 years in this industry. To
gain this level of detail most sites traditionally engage
consultants at expensive hourly rates to gain the same level of
awareness. The details in the Software Compliance Toolbox (templates,
policy, declarations etc, resources and tools) are designed to enable
sites to "do it themselves", saving costs all round by focusing on
getting back to business basics.
For AuditNet special pricing click here!
Your Secret Weapon in the War on Fraud
The September 2005 issue of this fraud newsletter features articles on Payments Fraud, E-mail Retention Policies, Employee Ethics, Passwords and more. AuditNet® users qualify for special rates on this publication. For more information click here.
Fraud Awareness Free Pilot Program Available for AuditNet® users
FraudAware is a unique interactive on-line awareness course designed to help managers and line employees recognize the red flags of accounting fraud, embezzlement, theft of trade secrets or confidential customer data, vendor and payroll schemes, identity theft and more. Customizable to your specific risk management policies and procedures and code of conduct, FraudAware also directly supports compliance with the whistleblower provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley by equipping employees with the awareness and knowledge necessary to make effective use of the new law’s mandatory fraud reporting hotline.
AuditNet.org and White-Collar Crime 101 LLC, developers of FraudAware, are pleased to offer Free Pilot programs of the FraudAware course for up to 20 managers or line employees at your company.
For information on this program go to www.auditnet.org/fraudaware.htm
The AuditNet® Audit Bookstore Corner
Looking for books on auditing related topics? We suggest using the AuditNet® bookstore. The bookstore focuses on Internal Audit but includes other related subjects as well. AuditNet® uses Amazon to power the bookstore so each purchase you make through this link helps support AuditNet®.
How to Say It When You Don't Know What to Say The Right Words for Difficult Times
By Robbie Miller Kaplan
As
auditors we constantly interact with diverse stakeholders such as
colleagues, managers, employees and others. Frequently we encounter
people dealing with challenging and difficult times that may or may
not be related to work. Our reaction to these situations is conveyed
in our behavior both nonverbal and verbal.
For the rest of the review click here.
FREE! The Auditor's Guide to Internet Resources 2nd Edition
Interested in a free copy of The Auditor's Guide to Internet Resources, 2nd Edition? Write an article for the next newsletter on how you are integrating the Internet in auditing. If your article is selected, I will send you an electronic copy of the book. Contact us for details.
AuditNet® Vendor News
Check here for the latest news from our AuditNet® sponsors!
Paisley Consulting press releases
AuditNet® Partner Discounts
Check out all the software vendors that offer discounts to the AuditNet® community.
AuditNet® It pays to be a member!
For information on partner discounts click here.
Coming Attractions!
AuditNet is developing a new section with links and tools for audit report writing.
The AuditNet Monograph Series provides useful guides for all levels of auditors from juniors right up to audit directors. New guides are under development for Sarbanes-Oxley, internal controls and Internet for auditors. If you are interested in developing a monograph on a contract basis, contact us.
Watch for new articles on Sarbanes-Oxley, Information Security, Software Auditing, CAATTs, and more from contributors. Reviews are in the works for audit books, Sarbanes-Oxley book series from Wiley and more. Watch the newsletter for more products, services and tools for auditors. Have an idea for a column? Contact us.
AuditNet® continues adding new specialized resources for auditors. Watch the newsletter and keep checking the Library page for updates and new resources.
AuditNet® Resource List Updates
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AuditNet® Statistics
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