The GAO issued the 2018 version of Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards Tuesday. Find the online version here: https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/693136.pdf. Find an audio summary of the changes to the standards here: https://www.gao.gov/multimedia/podcast/692926 I suggest you scan chapter 4 and specifically section 4.16 to make sure you are compliant with the CPE requirements. Also notice that the GAO has […]
Enjoy this excerpt from the self-study text: The Yellow Book Interpreted which qualifies for 15 hours of CPE. The GAO has a few things to say about a government auditor’s ethical responsibilities and, thus, added a large section on ethics to the 2007 revision of the Yellow Book. The same ethical principles appear in the 2017 […]
Want to accomplish more, but there never seems to be enough hours in a day? You’re definitely not alone if you ever feel like you’re falling behind on projects important to you. Yes, it’s sometimes difficult to relinquish “control,” but you could possibly create time by delegating an “opportunity” for someone else to learn a new skill!
The first step is to document what you currently do with your time – both professionally and personally. Write down all the tasks you perform in a day. Then, for each one, ask yourself these questions to help determine whether you should delegate certain tasks to someone else:
Why? If you keep doing the same things over and over again, you will get the same results over and over! If you want the time to do new things and make progress in your career, hand tasks over to make room for the new.
How? Explain what you expect them to learn and lay out specifics about requirements, deadlines and why you want it done. Provide tools, resources and examples. Also, remove (or at least identify) any obstacles. Once it’s done, follow up and provide specific feedback, then let them try it again!
When? When you’re out of time (and aren’t we all?) and need to devote energy to more important tasks. When you have the confidence to ask peers to take on additional tasks. When you can allow others to do it their way!
One of the most requested courses I present for on-site teams is How to Manage an Audit Project. In this live and customized 16+ hour Yellow Book CPE class, you learn how to keep a handle on project quality, scope and resources while communicating clearly with stakeholders. I also cover how to develop your staff, delegate technical tasks to team members and enhance your skills as a servant leader. Email me for more information.
The recently-published 2024 Yellow Book changed its audit quality control standards. Previously, an annual monitoring report was a requirement. Now, there’s an annual evaluation report with a conclusion regarding the strength of the quality management system. Check out this contrast for more clarity on the standard’s new expectations.
You can find our FAQ here, or drop us an email at support@yellowbook-cpe.com or use the safe-and-secure contact form on our Contact page, and let us know what you’re looking for. We’ll work with you to bring you the CPE you need, when you need it!
“Leita is an Excellent communicator and teacher! She relays the information clearly and well, in relatable, real-life fashion, throwing in a dash of her wonderful humor and laughter. She keeps the attention of the attendees every time I’ve attended her courses. The time flies by in each of Leita’s classes.
I highly recommend Leita to anyone desiring to learn more about the topic at hand in easy-to-understand terms, descriptions, and applications…full of real world examples, applications, and helpful, applicable interactive activity.” – Customized Seminar participant
“Our office has used Leita’s training services for many years because she offers the most relevant, in-depth, and practical (real stories) training compared to other training resources and trainers we’ve used in the past. Leita also has a very special talent of making “auditing and audit standards” entertaining! That is not easy to do. As a result, we have highly recommended Leita to other California agencies as well.
“I want to say that Leita is the “Mary Poppins of all Auditors.” Leita is the BEST trainer I have ever had. She really helped me to retain knowledge of what is extremely difficult to sit through (Yellow Book), and her teaching style sparked numerous interests through out. Look forward to more training from Leita.” – Customized Seminar participant
While we auditors are busy designing our audits to catch fraud, we often bypass government corruption because it is so hard to prove. It’s easier for us to uncover the account clerk’s transfers into a personal account or prove that the executive assistant overcharged for travel expenses than it is for us to look at […]
An auditor program is a great place for a reviewer view – on one document – how an auditor’s working papers fit together. An audit program gives a succinct overview of what the auditor is doing to satisfy the audit objective.
Why doesn’t the GAO require an audit program? Well, they do mandate that you have an audit objective and that you document your methodologies. So the elements of an audit program do have to be in the audit documentation, they just don’t mandate that all of these elements show up in the same place on the same document.
I think this approach makes a lot of sense given that most audit shops use electronic working papers and can generate something that gives the reviewer an overview of the content of the audit documentation with a click of a button.
In a 2014 book, former Secretary of State Powell explained how he judges evidence and where he went wrong with his speech to the UN on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. These same principles apply to audit evidence.
GAO Yellow BookFeatured speaker, Douglas Hileman, shares how government entities play an important role in ESG reporting. Government promulgates regulations, develops policies, manages programs, and may have monitoring and enforcement authority over business partners and regulated entities. So much to know!
Chapter 5 of the 2024 Yellow Book specifies 6 engagement quality objectives. Audit teams use these objectives to assess quality risk and design responses to address those risks. Be careful… These objectives overlap quite a bit!
An auditor’s emotional bank account balance always starts with zero! Follow these easy guidelines as soon as possible to build up that emotional bank account with your auditee and watch your investment grow.
We have a problem in Texas. State statute requires that every county have a County Auditor. However, the County Auditor is not an ‘auditor’ at all. Instead, the County Auditor acts as a chief financial officer for the county.
Wrong! The audit function should report to the board of commissioners. Why? Because the County Auditor’s activities might be the subject of the audit function’s audit and the County Auditor could silence the auditors, thereby keeping the truth from the board of commissioners.
Fortunately, in many of the larger counties, the audit function does report directly to the board of commissioners. So, not every audit function in every county is suffering from a structural threat to their independence.
The GAO states that when auditors do not report to the governing body, but instead report to the auditee, they are suffering a structural threat to independence. Here is the formal definition in the 2021 Yellow Book:
3.30 g. Structural threat: The threat that an audit organization’s placement within a government entity, in combination with the structure of the government entity being audited, will affect the audit organization’s ability to perform work and report results objectively.
Now, how did this happen? I don’t really know since the law has been around for decades. I imagine whoever wrote the County Auditor role into Texas law didn’t really understand what auditors do and how auditors need to be shielded from negative repercussions when telling the truth about finances, compliance or operations.
As we auditors know, most people – including most county commissioners – don’t understand the power the county commissioners have with an audit function. It provides them with an objective and fact-based viewpoint of activities all over the county, including the goings on at the County Auditor’s office.
The GAO does its best to address each audit shop’s unique situation in the standards. If you believe you’re suffering a structural threat, please read sections 3.52 to 3.58 of the 2021 Yellow Book.
Ultimately, to prevent confusion and to keep the public from being mislead, the Texas legislature should revise the law so the title County Auditor is changed to something more accurate, like County Finance Officer.
More in the series on getting to know the fraud tree better. To get a better sense of where we are on the fraud tree and which branch we are talking about in this newsletter, please see the entire fraud tree at http://www.acfe.com/fraud-tree.aspx. Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the […]
Just because you’re unaware of the risk, doesn’t mean it isn’t there Just because you aren’t conscious of something dangerous, doesn’t mean it isn’t lurking. One of the most important themes of the GAO’s Green Book (and the 2013 COSO model it is sourced from) is consciousness. Instead of just playing along with the crowd […]
It seems like everyone is always crunched for time and “busy” these days. As auditors, we can save our readers a few moments of precious time. How you ask? By writing executive summaries, of course!
Your audience often includes high-level decision makers and one of their most fundamental needs is brevity. So, the executive summary should be as short as possible with one page or less as the ideal length.
