The Question:

The Evolution of Auditing and Electronic Confirmations. The AICPA has published a series of White Papers (in part sponsored by enterprises that offer electronic confirmation services) discussing the evolution of auditing. Confirmations are an important, some would say critical, part of the audit process. Your assignment is to read the White Papers. After you have read about confirmations you will then identify where confirmations would be used in the audit of your company. For each audit issue you address, describe a misstatement that could occur and how the confirmation process could best be used to address this audit issue.

References:

Auditing standards (AU and/or AU-C – a term used prior to January, 2014 to denote the so-called clarified standards effective January 1, 2014) must be cited in each paper. PCAOB, SEC, COSO, International Auditing Standards and other industry groups or regulatory agencies are also important items to cite. The GAAP and GAAS Guides available within the Accounting Research Manager are also valuable sources. Other acceptable references are the Journal of Accountancy, CPA Journal and other practitioner or academic journals most of which are accessed through esearch or at the journal’s website. Proper citation form must be used for articles (author, journal, article title, date, page). Citation of a standard should include the name of the standard, publisher of the standards and page or paragraph number. A url is not a proper citation. Each writing assignment must include a minimum of three separate sources, one of which must be a professional standard and one of which must be a professional or academic journal.