Knowledge Center: Auditing And Assurance Services: An Integrated Approach (13th Edition) By Alvin A Arens, Randal J Elder, Mark S Beasley

Auditing and Assurance Services: An Integrated Approach (13th Edition)
By Alvin A Arens, Randal J Elder, Mark S Beasley

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Product Description

An integrated and current approach to auditing.

KEY TOPICS: The Auditing Profession; The Audit Process; Application of the Audit Process to the Sales and Collection Cycle; Application of the Audit Process to Other Cycles; Completing the Audit; Other Assurance and Nonassurance Services

MARKET: For individuals interested in the auditing, accounting, and consulting fields.

Product Details

Amazon Sales Rank: #23828 in Books
Published on: 2009-02-08
Original language: English
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
872 pages

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

New: Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and related SEC and PCAOB rulemakings integrated into every chapter.
New: Updated material for changes in the auditing profession resulting from recent corporate scandals:

Bankruptcy of Andersen, LLP
Shifting of auditing standards-setting to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)
Spin-off of consulting
Greater focus on internal controls

New: Chapter on Fraud (11) added to this edition. Expanded coverage of this topic includes new mid-chapter fraud vignettes in each chapter.
New: Increased coverage of Reporting on Internal Controls in Chapter 10, Internal Control and Control Risk.
New: 4-color insert of the Hillsburg Hardware Company "Annual Report." The insert provides financial statements and background information to support the Hillsburg Hardware Integrated Case that appears throughout the text.
New: Redesigned and integrated audit practice case (Pinnacle Manufacturing) that spans multiple chapters. Students apply concepts addressed in the audit planning and execution phase of the audit.
New: Expanded supplements package includes practice sets, case manuals, and auditing assignments using Excel.
www.prenhall.com/arens

About the Author

Al Arens is PricewaterhouseCoopers Auditing Professor of Accounting at Michigan State University. His primary teaching and research area is auditing and he teaches undergraduate auditing at least one term annually. Al is a past president of the American Accounting Association and a former member of the AICPA Auditing Standards Board. He practiced public accounting with both a local CPA firm and the predecessor firm to Ernst & Young. He has received many awards including the AAA Auditing Section Outstanding Educator award, the AICPA Outstanding Educator award, the national Beta Alpha Psi Professor of the Year award and many teaching and other awards at Michigan State.

Randy Elder is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Syracuse University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate auditing courses, and has received several teaching awards. His research focuses on audit quality and current audit firm practices. He has extensive public accounting experience with a large regional CPA firm, and is a Certified Fraud Examiner and member of the AICPA and Michigan Association of CPAs.

Mark S. Beasley is a Professor of Accounting at North Carolina State University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate auditing courses, and has received several teaching awards including membership in NC State's Academy of Outstanding Teachers. His research, which focuses primarily on financial statement fraud, audit quality, and corporate governance, received both the American Accounting Association's Competitive Manuscript Award and the Notable Contributions to the Auditing Literature Award. He has extensive professional audit experience with the predecessor firm to Ernst & Young and has extensive standards-setting experience working with the Auditing Standards Board as a Technical Manager in the Audit and Assurance Division of the AICPA. He served on the ASB's Fraud Standard Task Force responsible for developing SAS 99, and serves on the ASB's Antifraud Programs and Controls Task Force and the Advisory Council overseeing COSO's Enterprise Risk Management Framework project.

OBJECTIVE

Auditing and Assurance Services: An Integrated Approach is an introduction to auditing and other assurance services for students who have not had significant experience in providing such services. It is intended for either a one-quarter or one-semester course at the undergraduate or graduate level. This book is also appropriate for introductory professional development courses for CPA firms, internal auditors, and government auditors.

The primary emphasis in this text is on the auditor's decision-making process. We believe that the most fundamental concepts in auditing relate to determining the nature and amount of evidence the auditor should accumulate after considering the unique circumstances of each engagement. If a student of auditing understands the objectives to be accomplished in a given audit area, the circumstances of the engagement, and the decisions to be made, he or she should be able to determine the appropriate evidence to gather and how to evaluate the evidence obtained.

Thus, as the title of this book reflects, our purpose is to integrate the most important concepts of auditing and other assurance services as well as certain practical aspects in a logical manner to assist students in understanding audit decision making and evidence accumulation. For example, internal control is integrated into each of the chapters dealing with a particular functional area and is related to tests of controls and substantive tests of transactions; tests of controls and substantive tests of transactions are, in turn, related to the tests of details of financial statement balances for the area; and audit sampling is applied to the accumulation of audit evidence rather than treated as a separate topic. Technology, e-commerce, and fraud issues are integrated throughout the chapters.

MOST IMPORTANT CHANGES IN THE TENTH EDITION

Chapter 11 On Fraud Auditing and Expanded Fraud Coverage

A new chapter on fraud auditing provides expanded coverage of the auditor's responsibility for assessing the risk of fraud and detecting material misstatements due to fraud based on the fraud triangle in SAS 99. The chapter includes coverage of corporate governance and other factors that reduce fraud risk. Specific fraud risk areas and procedures to detect fraud are also discussed. Most other text chapters include new vignettes highlighting specific examples of fraud.

Coverage of Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Related PCAOB and SEC Rules

The requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and implementing rules adopted by the PCAOB and SEC are integrated throughout the text. The effects of the Act on the accounting profession are discussed in Chapter 2, and revised SEC independence requirements are described in Chapter 4 on professional ethics. Chapter 3 on audit reports includes an example of reporting on internal control required for public companies by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and evidence requirements for reporting on internal control are included in Chapter 10 on internal control. Additional requirements of the Act are incorporated throughout the text.

Hillsburg Hardware Annual Report

The annual report for the Hillsburg Hardware Company is included as a four-color insert to the text. Financial statements and other information included in the annual report are used in examples throughout the text to illustrate chapter concepts.

Pinnacle Manufacturing Integrated Case Example

The Pinnacle Manufacturing integrated case has been modified to represent a larger, multi-division company, and expanded from four to six parts. Each part of the case is included at the end of the chapter to which that part relates. The parts of the case are connected so that students will gain a better understanding of how the parts of the audit are interrelated and integrated by the audit process.

Internet Problems and Margin Links

All chapters include an Internet-based case/homework assignment that requires students to use the Internet to research relevant auditing issues. New and updated Internet-based margin links appear in every chapter, providing information on current events, companies, and professional standards.

ORGANIZATION

The text is divided into six parts.

Part 1, The Auditing Profession (Chapters 1-5). This book begins with the demand for auditing and a study of the demand for audit and other assurance services. Chapter 1 emphasizes new assurance services being offered by CPA firms such as WebTrust and CPA ElderCare Services. Chapter 2 covers the CPA profession including organization of CPA firms, the AICPA, PCAOB, and the SEC. In Chapter 3, there is a detailed discussion of audit reports. It emphasizes the conditions affecting the type of report the auditor must issue and the type of audit report applicable to each condition under varying levels of materiality. Chapter 4 explains ethical dilemmas, professional ethics, independence, and the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. Chapter 5 ends this part with an investigation of auditors' legal liability.

Part 2, The Audit Process (Chapters 6-13). The first two of these chapters deal with auditors' and managements' responsibilities, audit objectives, general concepts of evidence accumulation, and audit documentation. Chapter 8 deals with planning the engagement and using analytical procedures as an audit tool. Chapter 9 introduces materiality and risk and shows their effect on the audit. The study of internal control and assessment of control risk are discussed in Chapter 10, which emphasizes a proper methodology for obtaining an understanding of the five components of internal control. Chapter 11 is a new chapter on fraud auditing that describes the auditor's responsibility for assessing fraud risk and detecting fraud. The chapter also includes specific examples of fraud and discusses warning signs and procedures to detect fraud. Chapter 12 addresses the most important effects of information technology on internal controls in businesses, risks the auditor must consider, and audit evidence changes. Chapter 13 summarizes Chapters 6 through 12 and integrates them with the remainder of the text.

Part 3, Application of the Audit Process to the Sales and Collection Cycle (Chapters 14-17). These chapters apply the concepts from Part 2 to the audit of sales, cash receipts, and the related income statement and balance sheet accounts. The appropriate audit procedures for accounts in the sales and collection cycle are related to internal control and audit objectives for tests of controls, substantive tests of transactions, and tests of details of balances. Students learn to apply audit sampling to the audit of sales, cash receipts, and accounts receivable.

In response to an increased emphasis on nonstatistical sampling by practitioners, Chapters 15 and 17 emphasize nonstatistical sampling rather than statistical methods. Chapter 15 begins with a general discussion of audit sampling for tests of controls and substantive tests of transactions. Similarly, Chapter 17 begins with general sampling concepts for tests of details of balances. The next topic in each chapter is extensive coverage of nonstatistical sampling. The last part of each chapter covers statistical sampling techniques.

Part 4, Application of the Audit Process to Other Cycles (Chapters 18-23). Each of these chapters deals with a specific transaction cycle or part of a transaction cycle in much the same manner as Chapters 14 through 17 cover the sales and collection cycle. Each chapter in Part IV is meant to demonstrate the relationship of internal controls, tests of controls, and substantive tests of transactions for each broad category of transactions to the related balance sheet and income statement accounts. Cash in the bank is studied late in the text to demonstrate how the audit of cash balances is related to most other audit areas.

Part 5, Completing the Audit (Chapter 24). This part includes only one chapter, which deals with summarizing all audit tests, reviewing audit documentation, and all other aspects of completing an audit.

Part 6, Other Assurance and Nonassurance Services (Chapters 25 and 26). The last two chapters deal with various types of engagements and reports, other than the audit of financial statements using generally accepted accounting principles. Topics covered include WebTrust, SysTrust, other assurance services, review and compilation services, agreed-upon procedures engagements, attestation engagements, other audit engagements, internal financial auditing, governmental financial auditing, and operational auditing.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
Very good textbook
By RMurray847
No textbook is really worth 5 stars, in my estimation, because that is reserved for books that actually entertain me! Textbooks seldom do that. However, this auditing text is pretty darn good. Each chapter is packed with true case studies, which are all interesting. The actual text material is easy to understand and read. There are HOARDS of questions, simulations, etc. in the back of each chapter. And the online materials the come with it are good as well, including some basic videos. I came into my auditing class with little knowledge of that specific subject. I felt I left it some weeks later with a good understanding (good enough to pass the Auditing portion of my CPA exam on the first go around). So if you're assigned this text for YOUR auditing class, be happy. It's pretty good, and won't put you instantly to sleep...not many texts can say that!!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
A great book
By Dr. Ricardo Coelho
I have been an auditor for the last seven years and I can assure you that Prof. Arens book is excellent. Even if you have a working experience with audits you will find that this book is not the usual "text book"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Good textbook, could be slightly better
By California Dreamin
I've taught a graduate class based on the 12th and 13th (current) edition of this textbook several times. In general this is one of the better textbooks I use. It is 95% accurate and up to date, and it is 70% complete, and it's focus matches the purpose of the class. Changes I would like to see in the next edition include:

* Discuss the use of flashcards to pass the CPA exam, encourage flashcard study habits, and list suggested flashcards for this class.
* Expand coverage of general ethics concepts; how to determine the correct action when in an ethical "grey area".
* Add an accounting workpaper style guide.
* Add training on writing accounting memos for various purposes.
* Add coverage of the accounting close process, the players in this process, and on the negotiation of AJEs between auditors and management.
* Explain methods of accounting research used to resolve disputes between auditors and management.
* Describe the AU codified auditing standards and methods of research therein.
* Improve coverage of SOX opinion, OCBOA (tax basis) opinions, and IFRS audit opinions.
* Increase emphasis on cut-off testing and other tests for the completeness assertion.
* Discuss PCAOB AS5, and related SEC management guidelines.
* Increase coverage of specific entity level controls, audit committee independence and effectiveness, related matters and example checklists.
* Cover Excel techniques for auditors.
* Trim the last chapters on specific business cycles which contain excess material that is not particularly useful, nor relevant nor up to date.
* Edit the book more thoroughly; we found a few errors.
* Expand the table of contents.
* Improve or omit the software on the CD. The software I looked at is not particularly useful nor user friendly.