...How Does the Sarbanes Oxley Act Relate to Internal Controls? Strayer University December 3, 2010 In order to have a full understanding of what Internal Controls are and how they relate to The Sarbanes Oxley Act, I decided to do a little research on Internal Controls, first. (Horngren, Harrison, and Oliver, 2009, pp. 380-384), defines Internal Controls as an organizational plan and all the related measures adopted by an entity to safeguard assets, encourage employees to follow company policy, promote operational efficiency, and ensure accurate and reliable accounting records. A business can achieve its internal control objectives by applying five components. Monitoring of controls, this can done by internal auditors or external auditors. Information system allows the organization to keep track of assets and measure profits and losses. Control procedures are designed to ensure that the business’s goals are achieved. Risk assessment is an assessment that help the company identify its amount of risk. All companies need internal control procedures. Companies should employ employees that are competent, reliable, and ethical. A business with good internal controls should never overlook important duties. All employees should have certain responsibilities and understand those responsibilities. There should also be separation of duties, this will limit fraud and promote accuracy of the accounting records. No one person should be responsible for every aspect...
Words: 705 - Pages: 3
...TASK 1 – FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS AND CONTROLS Requirements for Task 1: A. Prepare a summary report in which you do the following: 1. Evaluate the company’s operational strengths and weaknesses based on the following: In order to evaluate company’s operational strength and weaknesses accurately it is important to have access to more than one year worth of data. The company, of course, will not be evaluated on the basis of couple of ratios, it is very important to analyze all the available information to put pieces of puzzle together to see the overall impression of the company and its attractiveness to creditors, investors and stockholders. To be able to compare company’s performance we will be evaluating three years period from year to year, for which Horizontal technique will be used; and comparing it with results of company’s biggest competitor. Vertical Analysis technique will be used as a standard way for comparison. Then to see how company does in comparison to the competition, we will use Ratio Analysis in which biggest competitor’s numbers will be reviewed. It is important to have several different analyses to see the entire picture and later to be able to understand where company is and what actions shall be chosen for the improvement of financial situation. a. Review the horizontal analysis, analyze the results, and discuss operational areas of concern. First we will use Horizontal Analysis, which is a study of percentage changes in comparative financial statements...
Words: 8408 - Pages: 34
...internal control a. What is internal control? Internal control is a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, designated to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following three categories: * Reliability of financial reporting * Effectiveness and efficiencies of operations * Compliance with applicable laws and regulations Internal control is design to achieve management objectives in three categories. In financial reporting category, the management objectives are related to producing reliable financial reports and safeguarding assets. In the operations category, same examples of management objectives are maintaining a good business reputation, ensuring a positive return an investment, increasing market share, promoting new products innovation, and using assets effectively and efficiently. In the compliance category, the board of management objective is compliance with the regulation and law that affect the entity. The definition of internal control identifies several important concepts. Internal control provides reasonable assurance, not absolute assurance, that management objectives will be achieved. Because people operate the controls, breakdowns can occur. Internal control can help prevent and detect many errors, but it cannot guarantee that will never happen. Several limitation of internal control system prevents management from obtaining complete assurance that controls are...
Words: 859 - Pages: 4
...Week 5 Reflection Team A ACC/291 February 29, 2013 Steven Marantz Weekly Reflection We covered very interesting topics in week three and four. The students were asked to discuss topics which they felt comfortable with, the topic they may have struggled with, and how the weekly topics related to the application of their field. The students of team A have some similar pertaining to the weekly reading assignment and some that are different. Some of the topics we discussed were how to apply ratio, vertical, and horizontal analyses to financial statement; and also, how to distinguish common stock and preferred stock and, how Corporations issue stocks in accordance with their Articles of Incorporation. Team A agreed that these topics were more clearly and easy to understand. We all were comfortable and ready to use these concepts in the real world. The topics we all struggled with are how to calculate the liquidity, profitability, and the solvency ratios on the balance sheet and income statement. We also learned that accounting could best be described as a type of mechanism or language put in place in order to provide information with regards to the financial position of an organization or business. This type of information is critical to investors as it provides them with important and detailed information that could turn out to be the determining factor as to their decisions to invest or not...
Words: 401 - Pages: 2
...3-51. Koss management might have placed so much trust in Sachdeva without oversight and monitoring for a variety of reasons: possibly the cost of establishing, implementing and maintaining internal controls seemed prohibitive to the company. Sachdeva could also have had one of those faces that seem like she should be trustworthy, so they didn’t feel the need to monitor her activities. Grant Thornton should have seen the large variances in the cost of goods sold account and done some vouching of those particular expenses. Perhaps they also should have confirmed with the various suppliers the amounts they were charging Koss for the headphone component parts. In any case, they did not have enough professional skepticism about Sachdeva. Sachdeva’s lifestyle should have raised suspicion due to the fact that she spent more on individual shopping trips than she made for the entire year. Auditors and the board should be familiar with the fraud triangle, and recognized both opportunity and rationalization. Petty jealousy may have played a part in her coworkers ignoring or explaining away all of Sachdeva’s high-end purchases. It also mentions that they thought she used family money or her husband’s money to pay for her purchases, but perhaps they didn’t actually get to know her background, or research how much money pediatricians make. As noted above, everyone in this case could have really asked themselves how much pediatricians make, or simply could have asked Sachdeva about her family...
Words: 440 - Pages: 2
...The Internal control management strategies Prepared for: LJB Company Prepared by: Chibuzor E. Edeh Devry University ACCT 540: Financial Accounting TABLE OF CONTENT Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Internal control regulations for public companies -----------------------------------------------------------3-4 LJB’S good internal control measures -------------------------------------------------------------------------4 Recommendations for Indelible ink --------------------------------------------------------------------------4 LJB’S poor internal control measures ------------------------------------------------------------------------5-6 Recommendations for improvement --------------------------------------------------------------------------5-6 Summary --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 References ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 INTRODUCTION Internal control consists of all the related methods and measures adopted within an organization to safeguard its assets, enhance the reliability of its accounting records, increase efficiency of operations, and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. Internal control is very important because it discourages employees from fraudulent activities...
Words: 1752 - Pages: 8
...You have been with Zaird & Associates for approximately three months and are completing your work on the BizCaz audit. BizCaz produces pullover knit shirts to address the business casual market for both men and women. Although your experience has been limited, an unexpected staff resignation has resulted in your working directly with the engagement's in-charge senior on inventory. This has been a learning experience for you, because you have helped perform various tests of controls which may be summarized as indicating that internal control over inventory (including the perpetual records) seems strong. It is your impression that those tests resulted in a decrease in substantive procedures, thereby allowing a particularly efficient audit. At the beginning of the audit, Jan Wheeler, the in-charge senior, told you that the management team of BizCaz has always been helpful and friendly. Throughout the audit you have found the situation to be as good as described. In fact, BizCaz allows each auditor to purchase up to three shirts at a particularly attractive price of $12 per shirt, the cost for which employees may purchase shirts. The shirts have a market value of $50, although the direct labor and material costs of each shirt are only $10. Near the conclusion of the audit, after you and the other three staff members paid the controller and told him your sizes, he walked to the warehouse, removed 12 shirts from the appropriate piles, and brought them out. That evening you gave...
Words: 320 - Pages: 2
...environment, the control procedures take basically two stages: 1. Manual Procedure – i.e. the clerical work done up to the translation of data into machine-sensible form. This stage, being manual, is subjected to usual internal control conditions and the Cost Auditor will have little difficulty in appraising them by means of ‘compliance test’ and ‘substantive’ test’. 2. Computer Procedures – i.e. the computer processing work. Auditing in this area is actually a complex activity, for which the Cost Auditor as a prudent person should develop himself for adequate EDP knowledge. Before the actually starts to conduct his audit in EDP environment he should envisage to maintain an ‘Audit Control File’, as his valuable kit. The Computer Audit control File may be built up containing full details of the system including: i) Copies of all source documents and the details of the checks that have been done to ensure their accuracy. ii) Details of physical control over source documents and any control tools on numbers, quantities, values including the names of the personnel keeping these controls. iii) Full description of how the source documents are to be converted into input media, and the check-cum-control device. iv) A detailed account of the manual internal controls contained in the system, e.g. separation of programmers from operators, control of assets from record keeping, etc. v)...
Words: 709 - Pages: 3
...Justification for an Internal Control System Companies must mitigate risk to achieve maximum profitability. Mitigating the risk can be accomplished by implementing controls. While insurance and portfolio approaches are important control strategies, they are only single components of an overall risk management plan. Implementing an internal control system will assist management in monitoring and deterring risk. Current Controls The current approaches of insurance and portfolio are valid controls. One way to mitigate risk is to transfer some of the risk to a third party. The third party willingly accepts the risk for a fee or premium. This approach is called insurance. However, this approach is limited and considered reactive as it does nothing to deter harm to company assets. In addition, there are only certain risks that insurance companies are willing to take on and others that simply cannot be insured (McCarthy & Flynn, 2004). With the portfolio approach, all departments are treated as one unit so that interrelated risks can be identified and put “in the context of all the other risks and the company’s business strategy” (McCarthy & Flynn, 2004, pg. 255). However, it does little to deter risk. Internal Control System An internal control system is an ongoing process that ensures compliance with laws and regulations, reliable financial reporting and efficient and effective operations of an organization. According to Ratcliffe and Landes (2009), “an effective system...
Words: 522 - Pages: 3
...ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEM Ascertaining Internal Control System Methods of ascertaining the control systems are summarized as follows: * Examining previous audit work, * Client’s own documentation of the system, * Interviews with client’s staff, * Tracing transactions, * Examining client’s documents, * Observation of procedures. a. Examining previous audit work: The audit work should provide a record of the previous audit and how the system operates. Any change in the audit work should be documented for updating. b. Clients own documentation of the system: Some organizations have their on Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). These Standard Operating Procedures provides source of information and to the existing control systems. It is therefore important to check whether the system as described in the (SOP) is what actually practiced. c. Interview with staff: During various stages of the audit, the auditor will need to some members of the staff of the client and find out how they carry out the assigned duties. These questions will reveal existing control and give indication of potential problems. d. Tracing transactions: Walk through checks allow auditors to identify any examples of actual procedures that vary from intended procedures. It also helps the understanding of the entire process as well as identification of risks. e. Examining client’s documents: The auditor can also ascertain the...
Words: 1113 - Pages: 5
...Shoes, Inc. beginning December 31, 2008 and 2009 and the reports shared to the revenue, complete revenue, investors’ equity, and cash-flow for the period of two years that ended on December 31, 2008. ___ Auditing Firm has evaluated the manager’s statements of Apollo Shoes, Inc. that is placed with the attached Management’s Report in the part of the Internal Control-Over Financial Reporting. In this part, Apollo Shoes, Incorporated has retained effective internal control over financial reporting beginning December 31, 2008, the concern of a variety of standards, of the Internal Control Integrated Framework distributed by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Apollo Shoes’ organization has a responsibility to uphold accurate financial statements, keeping effective internal control over financial reporting, and evaluation of internal control over the financial reporting system. __ Auditing Firm is accountable for issuing a professional judgment that will exemplify a complete evaluation of the financial statements, organization’s evaluation, and efficiency and success of the organizations internal control over financial reporting according to the auditing decisions of __ Auditing Firm. ___ Auditing Firm has performed the audit in agreement with the rules and regulations normally accepted accounting principles put forth by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Government Accounting Standards Board. The rules and regulations of each...
Words: 918 - Pages: 4
...Act through a study of market reactions to legislative events related to the Act. I find that the cumulative abnormal return around all legislative events leading to the passage of the Act is significantly negative. The loss in total market value around the most significant rulemaking events amounts to $1.4 trillion. I then examine the private benefits and costs of major provisions of the Act by investigating the cross-sectional variation in market reactions to the rulemaking events. Regression results are consistent with the hypothesis that shareholders consider both the restriction of nonaudit services and the provisions to enhance corporate governance costly to business. The results also show that Section 404 of SOX, which mandates an internal control test, imposes significant costs on firms. 1. Introduction In response to the collapse of a number of high-profile firms since late 2001, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (the Act or SOX hereafter) in July 2002 to enhance corporate governance and thereby restore public confidence. The Act has introduced significant changes in both management’s reporting responsibilities and the scope and nature of the responsibilities...
Words: 28191 - Pages: 113
...CSR 394 Whistle blowing 286 clause 49 high light Utilitarian theory of Ethics http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v2n1/calculating.html in ethics, the theory that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined by its usefulness in bringing about the most happiness of all those affected by it. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, which advocates that those actions are right which bring about the most good overall. Jeremy Bentham identified good consequences with pleasure, which is measured in terms of intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent. John Stuart Mill argued that pleasures differ in quality as well as quantity and that the highest good involves the highest quality as well as quantity of pleasure. Herbert Spencer developed an evolutionary utilitarian ethics in which the principles of ethical living are based on the evolutionary changes of organic development. G. E. Moore, in hisPrincipia Ethica (1903), presented a version of utilitarianism in which he rejected the traditional equating of good with pleasure. Sarbanes Oxley Act-high light The legislation came into force in 2002 and introduced major changes to the regulation of financial practice and corporate governance. Named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley, who were its main architects, it also set a number of deadlines for compliance. An act passed by U.S. Congress in 2002 to protect investors from the possibility of fraudulent...
Words: 816 - Pages: 4
...CHAPTER 5 Internal Control Evaluation: Assessing Control Risk LEARNING OBJECTIVES | | | | | |Review |Exercises, Problems, | | |Checkpoints |and Simulations | | | | | |Distinguish between management’s and auditors’ responsibilities |1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | | |regarding a company’s internal control. | | | | | | | |Define and describe internal control. |6, 7, 8 | | | | | | |Define and describe the five basic components of internal control, |9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, |62, 66, 69, 70 | |and specify some of their characteristics. ...
Words: 9314 - Pages: 38
...Case Study 2 -Internal Control Due by Sunday of week 5, 11:59PM, Mountain Time LJB Company, a local distributor, has asked your accounting firm to evaluate their system of internal controls because they are planning to go public in the future. The President wants to be aware of any new regulations required of his company if they go public so he met with a colleague of yours at a local restaurant. The President of the company explained the current system of internal controls to your colleague. Your colleague has since been promoted to a tax position so she has passed on the information below so you can generate recommendations for the partner at your accounting firm to share with the President of LJB Company. Since LJB Company is a relatively lean organization, they have a lot of faith in their long-term employees. They have one accountant who serves as Treasurer and Controller which streamlines many of their processes. In this dual role, he purchases all of the supplies and pays for these purchases. He also receives the checks and completes the monthly bank reconciliation. The accountant is so busy that the company handles petty cash a bit differently. All employees have access to the petty cash in a desk drawer and are asked to only place a note if they use any of the cash. The accountant has recently started using pre-numbered invoices and wants to buy an indelible ink machine to print their checks. The President is waiting to hear from you if this is a necessary purchase...
Words: 913 - Pages: 4
