Audits

Alleged arson illustrates the fraud triangle

Leave a Comment / Audits, Fraud /
Analyze fraud in terms of opportunity, motivation, and rationalization. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A current trial alleging arson and insurance fraud provides CPAs an educational read on the fraud triangle.

Consider these articles if you want more background or to see my sources:

A fellow woke to fire in his home, packed a few belongings, called 911, tossed a couple suitcases out the window he broke with his cane, then climbed out the window to save his life.

That’s what he told fire officials and his insurance company.

The fully involved fire, which from a photo looks to have destroyed the home, caused around $400,000 of damages.

Technology can rat you out

His pacemaker told a different story.

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Alleged arson illustrates the fraud triangleRead More »

Alleged arson illustrates the fraud triangle Read More »

Staying ahead of change in the CPA profession

Leave a Comment / Accounting, Audits, Pondering /
We need to be ready for what’s around the curve. We will be there really soon whether we want to or not. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In the short-term, looks like a shortage is emerging for experience accountants. In the longer term, the massive change surrounding us means we need to keep learning and adapting.

As CPAs, we need to keep learning new skills and focus on things computers can’t do.

 

1/30/17 – Bill Sheridan at Business Learning Institute of MACPA – Want to beat the machines? Learn to do what they can’t do – Here is a way to think about automation that you might be able to wrap your brain around – How will you adapt then 30% of the work you do is automated, done faster, quicker, cheaper, and more accurately than you can do? Not 99% of what you do, not 10%, but 30%?

I can’t get my arms around audit or tax or consulting completely going away. I just can’t picture that. However, I can imagine 30% or 40% of my work as an auditor becoming completely automated. Actually, I sort of like that idea.

Computers don’t do well at applying professional judgment, courage, empathy, flexibility, and reacting to body language.

Point of article is learn to do those things better.

1/31/17 – Bill Sheridan at Business Learning Institute of MACPA – Change is a choice. So are relevance … and your future – Each of us has a choice. We can keep doing what we are doing. Or we can decide to change and grow and learn new things.

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Staying ahead of change in the CPA professionRead More »

Staying ahead of change in the CPA profession Read More »

Updates for CPAs: going concern and location of debt issue costs

Leave a Comment / Accounting, Audits, Compilations & reviews /
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub before they merged into Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub before they merged into Adobe Stock.

The accelerating pace of change doesn’t slow down merely because I have multiple audits in progress plus more that just started. Here are a few articles to help keep all of us up to date on two newly effective standards:

Going concern

For a long time the professional requirements for addressing going concern issues have been located in the audit literature. Yeah, the accounting requirement was in the audit standards.  There has been an effort for several years to this guidance out of the SASs and into GAAP. Two articles show the substantial progress:

11/8/16 – Charles Hall at CPA-Scribo – It’s Time to Apply FASB’s New Going Concern Standard –  ASU 2014-15 creates a requirement in GAAP for management to assess whether there are conditions or events which raise substantial doubt about ability to continue as going concern.

This is effective for financial statements ending on or after December 15, 2016. Translation: 12/31/16 financial statements. That would be the ones you’re auditing or reviewing or compiling at the moment.

If you haven’t tuned into this new requirement, check out Mr. Hall’s article before you download the ASU for study. Hint: the new requirements on management will seem remarkably familiar.

In case you hadn’t thought about it, having a GAAP-based going concern requirement placed on management means that there is now a specific need to address going concern in a review or comp.

2/22/17 – Accounting Today – AICPA changes going concern audit standard – Now that the going concern requirements are in GAAP, the ASB has modified the rules in the audit literature.

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Updates for CPAs: going concern and location of debt issue costsRead More »

Updates for CPAs: going concern and location of debt issue costs Read More »

More on the ‘tipping point’ for Big 4 firms

Leave a Comment / Audits, Pondering /
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

If you casually pay attention to what is going on in the land of Big 4, a world far, far away from most of us in the accounting world, you might have interest in two recent articles from Jim Peterson, pondering the survivability of the huge firms. I will summarize what I think are a few highlights.

2/13 – Jim Peterson at Re:Balance – If the Big Four Went “Ex-advisory” – Deja Vu? Or Worse? – Regulators don’t like the huge consulting practices in the Big 4 and the partners in the Big 4 consulting arms don’t like the constraints on their growth, opportunities, and compensation from being tied to the audit & tax practices.

Article speculates on the impact if the consulting work were to be spun off, as happened back in 1998 through 2001.

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More on the ‘tipping point’ for Big 4 firmsRead More »

More on the ‘tipping point’ for Big 4 firms Read More »

Common findings on audits during peer review

Leave a Comment / Audits, Peer Review /
Image is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting three of their products.
Image is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting their products.

The AICPA’s annual Audit Risk Alert General Accounting and Auditing Developments—2016/17 provides a useful summary of common peer review findings on audits.

What I like about this particular list is that it is short enough to actually provide focus. Frequently such lists have the filter set so broadly that the list covers practically all the findings that have surfaced during all peer reviews. Sometimes I’m left with the feeling that a list of findings reads like a list of every single step you need to perform during an audit.

Here is the short list provided in the risk alert, along with my explanation:

Incorrect dating of audit report – The auditor’s report needs to be dated no earlier than when sufficient appropriate audit evidence has been obtained to support the opinion. This means …

Common findings on audits during peer reviewRead More »

Common findings on audits during peer review Read More »

A few highlights from 2017 Audit Risk Alert

Leave a Comment / Accounting, Audits /
Image is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting three of their products.
Image is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting their product.

The AICPA’s annual audit risk alert had been out a little while. There is a lot of good stuff covered that all auditors really ought to check out. I heartily recommend reading the annual update before you get very far into your 12/31 audits.  The document is Audit Risk Alert General Accounting and Auditing Developments—2016/17.

I will mention just a few highlights.

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A few highlights from 2017 Audit Risk AlertRead More »

A few highlights from 2017 Audit Risk Alert Read More »

2017 Risk Alerts available

Leave a Comment / Accounting, Audits, Compilations & reviews /
Image is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting three of their products.
Image of Audit Risk Alert is from AICPA. Used under Fair Use since, after all, I am promoting three of their products.

The 2017 audit season is about to begin. Planning is well underway for all those 12/31 clients.

To help you get ready, the annual updates to AICPA risk alerts are available. Consider:

I read the risk alerts every year. They are great for reminding me of what I already knew and even better for pointing out what tidbits I had missed.

You might want to check them out in the lull before the rush of field work hits.

2017 Risk Alerts available Read More »

More disciplinary action from California Board of Accountancy over peer review messes.

2 Comments / Audits, Compilations & reviews /
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The Fall 2016 Update newsletter from the California Board of Accountancy shows CBA continues to be deadly serious about CPAs avoiding the peer review program.

I previously went into detail on disciplinary actions in one newsletter:  If you have been blowing off Peer Review, you really ought to get with the program. This time I will just give an overview.

Revocations of license

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More disciplinary action from California Board of Accountancy over peer review messes.Read More »

More disciplinary action from California Board of Accountancy over peer review messes. Read More »

In relation to the revenue Wells Fargo generates, the fees from fake accounts were trivial

2 Comments / Audits, Other stuff /
October 2016 photo at Wells Fargo's museum in San Diego by James Ulvog.
October 2016 photo at Wells Fargo’s museum in San Diego by James Ulvog.

Let’s take a look at the income generated by Wells Fargo from the dummy accounts their staff opened in relation to the revenue the bank generates. Let’s even consider the fine in relation to income over the four years the schemes were running. I have not spared criticism of the bank previously. But let’s look at this mess from another perspective.

Here’s the bottom line – Finding the fake account fiasco means finding this:

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

When hidden in this:

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image of 16 one hundred dollar bills courtesy of Adobe Stock.

That’s one penny of false revenue for every one thousand six hundred dollars of legitimate revenue.

To start the discussion, consider Michael Rapoport’s article at the Wall Street Journal on November 1: Wells Fargo: Where Was the Auditor – Several of the Senators sent KPMG a letter last week suggesting the audit should have caught the fake account fiasco.

Article explains that audits aren’t designed (and aren’t capable of) finding frauds that don’t have a material impact on the financial statements.

Article makes the very important point that an audit designed to catch frauds as small as the fake account mess would have a cost so high as to make the audit completely unaffordable.

So let’s take a look at materiality in relation to the massive size of Wells Fargo.

Amounts for materiality discussion

Let’s look at some numbers for perspective.

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In relation to the revenue Wells Fargo generates, the fees from fake accounts were trivialRead More »

In relation to the revenue Wells Fargo generates, the fees from fake accounts were trivial Read More »

“Be Prepared – A Comprehensive Peer Review Update”

1 Comment / Audits, Compilations & reviews, Peer Review /
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The following article provides a superb update on recent developments in the peer review program. The article is graciously provided by the California Society of CPAs and the information described here applies in all jurisdictions across the U.S.

Because the entire article is quoted verbatim without any additional comments from me, none of the article will be placed in quotation marks.

Originally published by CalCPA (www.calcpa.org) in the October issue of California CPA magazine.

Used with written permission of the California Society of CPAs. 

 

Be Prepared – A Comprehensive Peer Review Update

By Linda McCrone

 

Peer review is a successful program that helps firms improve their quality control systems and elevate the quality of accounting and auditing engagements. The AICPA contributed the software program that tracks peer reviews and the staff that manages the program. AICPA member volunteers contribute their time to oversee the program, keep the peer review program forms current and make certain that the peer review standards remain relevant. But like any successful program, peer review must continue to evolve to keep up with events.

 

Background

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“Be Prepared – A Comprehensive Peer Review Update”Read More »

“Be Prepared – A Comprehensive Peer Review Update” Read More »

Pondering on the Wells Fargo fiasco and more news

Leave a Comment / Audits, Other stuff, Pondering /
Original finish on mud wagon used by subcontractor to Wells Fargo on San Diego-Julian run in 1870s. Wagon is housed at the Seeley Stable Museum in Old Town San Diego Historic Park. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.
Original finish is visible on mud wagon used by subcontractor to Wells Fargo on the San Diego-Julian run in 1870s. Lighter and cheaper than the Concord wagon, this was useful in desert and mountain areas. Wagon is housed at the Seeley Stable Museum in Old Town San Diego Historic Park. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.

Here’s a few articles that were interesting to me in the last two days about the Wells Fargo fiasco, previously discussed here, here and here.

  • First, a digression into the ethics and audit issues of systemic faking of accounts and coding diesel engines to cheat.
  • Next, pondering whether there will be any clawback of the $124M bonuses from the senior executive who managed the retail banking area.
  • Finally, two articles describing the DoJ opening a preliminary investigation.

9/14 – Prof. Mike Shaub at Bottom Line Ethics – Plausible deniability and the insulation of upper management – Prof Shaub ponders two fiascos in the news for the deeper ethical issues. Both the Volkswagon diesel engine scheme and the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco reflect poorly not only on the companies and their culture, but the state of ethics in business and our society.

We, collectively, need to grapple with those issues.

The article raises unsettling issues for auditors. Let’s ponder for a moment…How can we detect corporate cultures and entity tone-at-the-top environments which allow building a cheating code into the core operation of a company’s software? How can we detect an environment that incentivizes staff to cheat customers or risk losing their jobs for not hitting sales targets? Those are sobering questions.

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Pondering on the Wells Fargo fiasco and more newsRead More »

Pondering on the Wells Fargo fiasco and more news Read More »

Yet another look at the big in the Big 4 – 2016 edition

3 Comments / Audits /
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

I am constantly amazed at how massively big the Big 4 firms are in terms of revenue. Inside Public Accounting published their list of the 100 biggest accounting firms for 2016. This is quite current, since many firms have a May or June 2016 fiscal year-end.

Here’s the income number for the 10 largest firms, in millions of dollars, along with comparable data from a year ago: …

Yet another look at the big in the Big 4 – 2016 editionRead More »

Yet another look at the big in the Big 4 – 2016 edition Read More »

Lots more information on the case settled by PwC

Leave a Comment / Audits, Pondering /
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

I stumbled across the website of the law firm that handled the lawsuit against PwC over their audit of Colonial Bank. The case has been settled for an undisclosed amount.

The firm has a section of their website that covers litigation news and settlements. The website is here, the news section is here.

Rare glimpse inside major audit

To put this into context, this is the biggest case against a CPA firm to actually get into court in a very long time. If I’m understanding the case correctly (a massive assumption!) after briefly browsing the articles, there were 12 days of testimony spread over either 3 or 4 weeks of in-court proceedings.

Phrased another way, this case provides lots of sworn testimony on the details of a major audit disaster. It is rare for outsiders to see the inner workings of an audit that did not go well.

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Lots more information on the case settled by PwCRead More »

Lots more information on the case settled by PwC Read More »

One of three major cases against PwC is settled.

Leave a Comment / Audits, Pondering /
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Of the three lawsuits against PwC that are large enough to potentially be life threatening, one was settled by PwC after several weeks of the trial. I previously discussed Litigation cases that could possibly take down a Big 4 firm.

On 8/26, the Wall Street Journal reports PricewaterhouseCoopers Settles $5.5 Billion Crisis Era Lawsuit.

Francine McKenna has repeatedly pointed out on Twitter that this is the first major case in a long time against an accounting firm which actually got into court. There are a few weeks of testimony which will likely be a good source for researchers and journalists wanting to understand how audits of large companies can go sour.

Amount of settlement is confidential. This settlement still leaves a $1B suit by the FDIC over the failed bank that was audited by PwC.

Let me give a thumbnail picture of this suit. My simplification will obviously show my confusion. Yeah, my bias will probably be visible too.

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One of three major cases against PwC is settled.Read More »

One of three major cases against PwC is settled. Read More »

Good reads for accountants: Twelve minute CPE courses. Big data AI taking over audit work?

2 Comments / Accounting, Audits, Pondering /
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In the near term, your CPE options will include twelve-minute courses.

In the long-term, ponder how much of your audit work could be replaced by artificial intelligence. I can grasp the idea of automating a large portion of detail testing. I can’t see the possibility of replacing the entire audit function. Stretch your brain with two articles from Jim Peterson.

8/11 – Journal of Accountancy – CPE standards update accommodates new forms of learning – It will be a while before you see this in a CPE class, but the AICPA and NASBA changed the CPE rules to allow for nano-learning and blended learning.

Nano-learning is a short course, say 12 minutes that will allow CPE credit in 0.2 hour increments. Picture a 24 or 36 minute course on how to conduct an inventory observation. Or a 12 minute class on how to prepare the planning materiality worksheet.

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Good reads for accountants: Twelve minute CPE courses. Big data AI taking over audit work?Read More »

Good reads for accountants: Twelve minute CPE courses. Big data AI taking over audit work? Read More »