IT Auditing and Application Controls for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises

Risk is inevitable. As an auditor, you must help your clients not only manage their risk by performing audits and other assessments but also help them understand the nature and extent of risks that exist in the control environment. Information technology (IT) controls are a key aspect of that control environment. Written to help financial auditors provide better service to their clients in the context of application controls, IT Auditing and Application Controls for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises illustrates and explains many of the basic IT controls common to the types of reporting systems used by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Sharing their collective decades of experience practicing and teaching in the field, authors Jason Wood, William Brown, and Harry Howe provide you with the tools, guidance, and working knowledge to get started in IT auditing. The authors highlight conceptual and practical topics that are immediately relevant to understanding applications typically used by these businesses, such as MS Excel, QuickBooks, and FRx (Microsoft Dynamics) report writer. Organized to illustrate the increasing complexity of systems, the book begins with general principles and progresses through greater levels of functionality in subsequent modules. Featuring conceptual overviews of key IT auditing issues as well as concrete, hands-on tips and techniques, IT Auditing and Application Controls for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises examines: Special challenges facing SMEs The COSO process Application-level security General ledger and the IT audit The revenue, expenditure, inventory, and payroll cycles PCAOB warnings Integrating the IT audit into the financial audit Spreadsheet auditing tools Maintaining spreadsheets and desktop tools Analyzing and validating reports IT audit deficiencies IT Auditing and Application Controls for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises empowers you with the skills and knowledge to provide better, more accurate service to your clients.