audit & assurance

planning lays the foundation of audit relevance

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if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. 

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

next time you have your planning meeting about an upcoming audit, print out a page or two of what you say on your website. share those pages around, and ask the planning team members, “how are we going to deliver on what we’ve said on our website?”

more: how do we drive relevance in audit? | before the audit: more than just planning | five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | is audit in crisis because of definitions?
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most people think of planning an audit as an exercise in filling out forms. planning an audit is certainly much deeper than that. the ultimate foundation for success in your audits depends on what you do during the planning stage.

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how do we drive relevance in audit?

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the insights you deliver don’t just add value to the client but also result in a better audit. 

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

business owners and organizations typically regard the annual audit as a cost or “a necessary evil” that adds little or no value to the business. in contrast, auditors routinely say that their audit is different and absolutely does add value to the company or organization. to be sure, all audits have a purpose, as they are generally required to maintain financing or to meet regulatory requirements. but is the auditor genuinely adding value?

more: before the audit: more than just planning | are you correctly identifying the relevance intersection? | lack of relevance drives audit commoditization | five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership | traditional audits don’t deserve premium billing | four basic understandings every auditor must master | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | wanted: great audit mentors | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

there are numerous dictionary definitions of “value,” all centering around the concept of something being useful. “adding value” should then mean making something more useful.  when you plan an audit, are you thinking of ways to make the audit more for your client? you will only convince your clients that you deliver value when you back up your words with action.

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s corp clients beware

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“reasonable comp” audits are coming.

by eric green
tax rep network

“the irs never audits reasonable comp, so don’t worry about it.”

have you ever heard this phrase? well, when it comes to irs priorities and increasing enforcement, s corporations and their owners will find themselves in the crosshairs of the irs.

more in tax: eight steps to getting started with ai: a guide for tax professionals | what’s your value to your tax clients? | are you excited about tax season? | what the corporate transparency act means for accountants | train now before it costs you down the road | surge pricing: what works for uber could work for cpa firms | uncooperative partner might not be the problem | it’s time to fix the problem of qtips and llcs

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

in 2020, the u.s. treasury inspector general for tax administration (tigta) reported more than 10 million non-filers, many of them high-income earners. then, in 2021, a tigta report told the irs to begin cracking down on s corporation owners who take little to no compensation to avoid employment taxes effectively.

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let interns fix the staffing shortage?

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source: iia

critical demand for data analytics, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence skills.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

internships could play a pivotal role in addressing the talent needs of the profession, according to a new study.

more in talent & career development: talent crisis? what talent crisis? | why would anyone become a cpa? | five questions about facing challenges | it’s time to prepare the next generation | fifteen strategies for first-time supervisors | measure knowledge gaps (then close them)

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

with 74 percent of internships designed to lead to permanent employment, these programs are not just supplemental but foundational to preparing students for professional roles.

still, only 28 percent of college programs make internships integral to the curriculum. read more →

before the audit: more than just checklists

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effective inquiry starts with knowing how to ask the right questions.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

to weave relevance into the fabric of your firm culture, your team must shift from just getting the work done, with relevance as an afterthought, to putting the client at the center of the audit. that starts by building a foundation with the four u’s of understanding your client, the industry, the standards and how to audit.

more: are you correctly identifying the relevance intersection? | lack of relevance drives audit commoditization | five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership | traditional audits don’t deserve premium billing | four basic understandings every auditor must master | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | wanted: great audit mentors | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

to master these, you first need a natural sense of curiosity. out of curiosity comes inquiry. we’ve all been taught that inquiry is one of the fundamental components of the audit process. but too often, inquiry doesn’t go any further than getting some answers to the questions on a checklist. and too often, those questions are the same ones that get asked at every audit engagement. the client has probably heard them (and answered them) more times than you can imagine.

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are you correctly identifying the relevance intersection?

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you may be prioritizing the wrong factors. that could cost you clients. worse, it could make you and your audits irrelevant.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

if we can’t demonstrate to our clients that our work is relevant, then the audit will go the way of the dinosaur. relevance underpins the other attributes.

relevance is not a one-time event. it’s a continuous process, woven through everything your firm does. you build it one step at a time. this should be done with every audit, so this becomes core to the fabric of the firm’s culture.

more: lack of relevance drives audit commoditization | five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership | traditional audits don’t deserve premium billing | four basic understandings every auditor must master | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | wanted: great audit mentors | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

without understanding what’s relevant to the client, we can’t practice business-mindedness and help improve our client’s business. with an understanding of the relevance and how the standards impact the client’s business and industry, the quality of audits goes up. relevance helps you evaluate innovative audit methodologies because you understand how they can be used to obtain the required audit evidence. finally, relevance empowers your staff to do their best work because audit isn’t reduced to filling out endless checklists.

but what does relevance mean?

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auditing standards ‘yellow book’ updated

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words "time for an update" on clock face

the changes are more than just technical.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

america has a wealth of governments. they’re all over the place. municipal governments. county governments. parishes, boroughs, villages, hamlets. special purpose local governments. school districts, fire districts, tax districts. independent authorities, tribal councils and councils of governments. state governments, territorial governments and, of course, the big one in washington, district of columbia, with its thousands of branches, arms and agencies.

love them or hate them, there they are. tens of thousands of governments. and they all have one thing in common: they need to be audited.

more: firms culling clients as staffing woes persist | revenue up at 59% of accounting firms … and more good news | chatgpt for the reluctant accountant | survey shows challenges, priorities shifting | can big data spot financial fraud? | accountants torn over 2024 economy, offer advice | survey: are you offering the right services? | survey: 42% of accountants turn away work over staff shortages | talent gap widening: be very scared
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or, to put it another way, they need auditors.

being governments, their accounting and auditing standards are different from those of nongovernmental entities.
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lack of relevance drives audit commoditization

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premium service providers collect premium fees.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

we are all willing to pay more for something that has been custom-created just for us or when we see that the service provider has gone above and beyond to deliver additional value for us. but without relevance, there is little chance that your clients will see any additional value in the audit. for the client, the only reason to get an audit is to meet a regulatory or banking requirement.

more: five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership | traditional audits don’t deserve premium billing | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

as a profession, our actions have contributed to commoditization, but every cpa firm i talk to complains about how audit is becoming commoditized. when someone complains to me about commoditization, the first thing i ask is, what do you do when you’re under a little fee pressure from your client? oh, lower my fee. so, why are you lowering your fee? because quite often, whether you’re thinking about it or not, you probably haven’t delivered anything more than 24 pages with an audit report on it.

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five crucial attributes for successful audit leadership

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as cpas, we exercise due professional care in all we do. when we perform audits, the bar is higher.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

in my work with auditors around the country, and as i’ve thought about where audit is headed, i’ve developed a framework of five key attributes of successful leadership for audit. if we focus on these five attributes, i truly believe we can transform audit from the checklist exercise that it’s becoming into a service that genuinely adds value to our clients.

more: traditional audits don’t deserve premium billing | four basic understandings every auditor must master | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | wanted: great audit mentors | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

let’s look at each of these five crucial attributes of successful audit leadership:

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traditional audits don’t deserve premium billing

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relevance empowers staff to do their best work because an audit isn’t reduced to checklists.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

if we can’t demonstrate to our clients that our work is relevant, then the audit will go the way of the dinosaur. relevance underpins the other attributes.

more: four basic understandings every auditor must master | put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | wanted: great audit mentors | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

relevance is not a one-time event. it’s a continuous process woven through everything your firm does. you build it one step at a time. this should be done with every audit, so this becomes core to the fabric of the firm’s culture.
read more →

four basic understandings every auditor must master

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make your audits more relevant and provide value-added insights and services to your clients.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

the question professionals should always ask is, “are we leaving the profession better than we found it?” so, let’s ask: are we leaving the audit profession in better shape than it was when we inherited it?

more: put the ethics code to work for your clients and your firm | turning audit & accounting into assurance & advisory | wanted: great audit mentors | is audit in crisis because of definitions? | stop sending the wrong message to audit teams | closing the audit expectations gap
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

right now, we’re not providing value, but i honestly believe it’s not too late. the future of audit is ours to create or a future that will happen to us, and not necessarily a future we would prefer.

it will take leadership to change the future of audits. we have to take ownership of the process.

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make audits matter: live cpe with alan anderson

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hot topic: blake oliver discusses “transforming audit for the future” with author alan anderson.

anderson joins host blake oliver at earmark webinars+.

making audit matter again: the future of assurance
feb. 28, 12 pm et, 9 am pt
learn more | register

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

the audit is at a crossroads. commoditization and compliance mentalities have diminished its value. now, auditors face an existential crisis.

how can assurance stay relevant?

join alan anderson, author of the newly published “transforming audit for the future,” and blake oliver as they tackle pressing questions on audit’s failure to innovate and chart a new direction focused on value-added assurance.

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can big data spot financial fraud?

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woman leaning toward desktop computer screen

google searches give auditors a glimpse of true sales.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

google trends is a free service at the world’s most widely used search engine. in an instant, users can see how often a keyword has been the target of a search.

more: will unclogging the accounting pro pipeline kill mobility? | accountants cozy up to clients with cas | cpas culling clients for better work-life balance | women-owned businesses upbeat but need help | accountants to the rescue as startups struggle | looking for recent grads? good luck
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when that keyword is a product, the searches tend to reveal something about sales.

and that should be of interest to auditors.
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