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Steal These Tips! Audit Techniques for Accountants

Steal These Tips! Audit Techniques for Accountants. Amanda L. Perkins, CPA Senior Auditor University of Arizona. Senior Auditor in Internal Audit at the University of Arizona Previously with the Arizona Office of the Auditor General. Agenda. Audit Techniques Evaluating Procedures

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Steal These Tips! Audit Techniques for Accountants

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  1. Steal These Tips!Audit Techniques for Accountants Amanda L. Perkins, CPA Senior Auditor University of Arizona

  2. Senior Auditor in Internal Audit at the University of Arizona • Previously with the Arizona Office of the Auditor General

  3. Agenda • Audit Techniques • Evaluating Procedures • Using Data • Seeking Outside Sources • Recent Frauds • Fire District • High School • Children’s Hospital • What could have been done?

  4. Goals of the session • Understand 3 audit techniques and how they could be applied to non-audit duties. • Identify controls that may have prevented or detected 3 real frauds.

  5. Springfield, Illinois Recent fraud hub?

  6. Chatham Fire Protection District

  7. Southeast High School

  8. St. John’s Children’s Hospital

  9. Audit Techniques

  10. Evaluating Procedures • Explain to an outsider • Use real words • Training new employees • What happens before and after my piece of this process? • If I were going to steal……

  11. Evaluating Procedures • Is there someone we couldn’t do without? • Am I getting source documents or only data prepared by someone else based on source documents? • Might identify a more efficient way to do something or a stronger control that could be implemented

  12. Using Data • What data is available in what you already do? • How accessible is your data? • Maybe you get a report on paper that could come as a text or Excel file instead.

  13. Using Data • The simple “Sort” tool in Excel • Microsoft Access • Improving your Excel and Access skills: • Employer offerings • YouTube and online forums

  14. Using Data • What do I expect of this data and what is unexpected? • Common vendors • Coding errors in repeat payments • Overtime variances • Unusual system access profiles

  15. Using Data • Is there data I wish I had? • May identify another way to improve your procedures.

  16. Outside Sources • Oh, the magic of the Internet • Vendors • Arizona Corporation Commission • 990 filings from non-profits • Company websites • Maps of addresses • Peer websites • Is our policy similar to another organizations? • Compliance with state or federal regulations • Human resources procedures

  17. Could you have prevented or detected the fraud?

  18. Chatham Fire Protection District

  19. Chatham Fire District • Source documents vs. employee-prepared reports • Using Data • Common vendors • Object codes or other unexpected transactions • Evaluating procedures- may have relied too much on one person

  20. Southeast High School

  21. Southeast High School • Source documents • Evaluating procedures • Relying too much on one person • Student clubs not aware of good controls on their side • Peer websites • Were the existing background checks enough?

  22. St. John’s Children’s Hospital

  23. St. John’s Children’s Hospital • No court records yet • But we can guess what might have happened

  24. Questions?

  25. Thank you! • Amanda Perkins • alperkin@email.arizona.edu

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