Auditing Essentials
High performing auditors possess core competencies. Our auditing courses will build the confidence and competency high-performing auditors require to be perceived as credible and knowledgeable in the eyes of the client, audit office management and their peers.

Audit Objectives and Audit Programs (1-day course)

• Describe the elements of soundly crafted audit objectives
• Understand the critical components of audit programs
• Apply applicable planning standards as identified in the "Yellow Book"
• Perform audits that directly link to audit programs and objectives
• Understand the tests and types of evidence

Yellow Book Update and Highlights (1/2-day course)

      Understand:

• auditors' ethical responsibilities
• the general standards
• standards for performance audits
• terminology changes

Attestation Engagements and Performance Auditing: Understanding the Standards

• Defining "performance audits" and "attestation engagements.
• Differentiating between performance audits and attestation engagements.
• The importance of performance audits
• Describing how attestation engagements add value.
• Reviewing performance auditing standards (Chapters 7 and 8 in the "Yellow Book."
• Reviewing attestation standards (AICPA's Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements and Chapter 6 of the "Yellow Book.")
  

Conducting Effective Meetings

• Key components of effective meetings
• Guidelines for conducting meetings
• Entrance and exit conferences
• Team meetings
• Managing disruptive behaviors

Creating Effective Engagement Teams

• Defining an engagement team
• Including stakeholders to become team members
• The five stages of team development
• Setting operating guidelines
• Insuring effective engagement team communications
• Balancing tasks and people
• Comparing supervision, management, and leadership

Creative Thinking for Auditors

• Understanding learning styles
• Thinking “outside the box”
• Overcoming writer’s block
• Generating ideas
• Using “new” analysis tools
• Applying innovative approaches to teambuilding

Data Collection and Analysis Fundamentals for Auditors and Analysts

• Frequently used data collection tools
• Collecting primary information
• Interviewing techniques
• Designing questionnaires
• Analyzing information to develop findings
• Comparing qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques

Interviewing for Information: A Structured Approach

• The eight-step interviewing model
• Active listening skills
• Effective questioning techniques
• Team interviewing
• Handling difficult interview situations

Performance Auditing: The Fundamentals

• Performance auditing
• Planning
• Data collection and analysis
• Elements of a finding
• Documentation
• Communicating results

Public Speaking for Auditors

• Planning oral presentations
• Organizing
• Employing effective delivery skills
• Preparing and using visual aids
• Video conferencing
• Fielding questions

Reporting and Presenting Findings

• Differentiating different types of audit findings
• Explaining the effect objectives have on findings and message formulation
• Designing a report message
• Writing findings that incorporate all four finding elements
• Writing findings that meet the standards of evidence
• Using charge paragraphs and topic sentences to organize findings

Standards of Evidence and Audit Documentation

• What the “Yellow Book” says
• Tests of evidence
• Reviewing Types of evidence
• Documenting evidence to support findings
• Indexing and referencing

Streamlining the Report Writing Process

• The report writing process as a team process
• The importance of audit objectives and findings
• The link between audit objectives and audit findings
• Differentiating between types of audit findings
• Collecting evidence that meets Yellow Book standards
• Clarifying tests and types of evidence.
• Summarizing findings into a coherent draft report message
• Writing effective charge paragraphs
• Composing report sections
• Writing tools that make audit reports more easily understandable and convincing
• Applying strategies to overcome report writing challenges.
• Clarifying the responsibilities of the audit manager, the AIC, and the performance team
• Conducting productive report planning meetings

Writing Effective Audit Reports

• Developing the message
• Writing reader-friendly audit reports
• Using deductive structure to present report information
• Writing paragraphs with focus, unity, and coherence
• Writing effective sentences
• Choosing words that precisely and directly convey your message

Carole Buncher and Associates: The Competency Company™  is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors.