Accountancy Auditing - A Very Lucrative Career

Accountancy auditing is just another lucrative career in the field of accounting. Businesses depend deeply on auditing and it is an essential key to the success of any business. Auditors are responsible for examining, analyzing, and verifying business finances.

Accounting auditors are in high demand according to the BLC (The Bureau of Labor Claims). Therefore, the auditing career field will continue to be in high demand for many years to come. People who are interested in working as an accountancy auditor should consider starting out with a company before going to the government.

What is an auditor?

Auditors are also considered accountants. The difference is that they mainly work with examining and corroborating financial statements. Auditors make sure that the numbers always adds up and examines statements closely. However, auditors are human and errors can occur. Finding out where inaccuracies or errors exist is the main job of the auditor. Avoiding future errors will also fall in the lap of the accountancy auditor.

Branches of Accounting

My friend, who had graduated from a school in Phoenix as an accountant, was trying to decide which field of accounting to pursue for his Master's degree. If you are interested in becoming an accountant or simply learning more about the occupation, here is some information you might find useful.

Generally speaking, accountants and auditors help businesses and firms run efficiently, maintain accurate records, and pay their taxes properly. Within accounting, there are four main fields of specialization: management accounting, internal auditing, public accounting, and government accounting. Management accountants, typically part of an executive team for product development or strategic planning, record and interpret the financial information of their company.

They set budgets, evaluate performance, prepare reports, do cost and asset management, and help the company reach sound business decisions. Internal auditors are similar in that they ensure the accuracy of their company's records and internal controls but are more focused on reviewing company operations to verify that they comply with company and government policies.

Accounting principle- Accrual Basis

 Figures generated / kept in accordance to accounting principle is prepared on accrual basis. For instance, accountant record the provision for warranty ( based on estimate) even though there's no actual cash/ economic outflow yet.

In finance, cash basis figures are more relatively more valuable , as compared to accrual basis ( advocated by accounting principle), in order to value a business.

What do you think ? You prefer a an accrual method or cash method in valuing a business?

Auditing Creditors- Creditor Turnover Analysis

 In audit, it's essential to form an expectation of the Company's results before we really drill into the details. We compare the actual Company's results to our expectation, and investigate the variances accordingly. This is the analytical procedures adopted by most of the audit Company. Besides, we also compare the result / financial position with prior period.

Creditors' turnover anlaysis is one of the auditing procedure we performed. What are we expecting from the audit client, in general. We expect the creditors turnover (days) to increase, as compared to prior period.

To illustrate, majority of our audit clients are affected by the economy turmoil. They are squeezing suppliers' credit ( by delyaing the repayment), in order to maintain the Company's working capital, as our audit client's working capital are most likely affected by the delay of repayment from customers.

We have formed an expectation, and we will compare the actual result with our expectation. Any unusual movements need to be identified.

Auditing: Annual Budget vs Actual Results

 Company prepare budget and use budget as a performance benchmark and monitoring tools. For instance, senior management can question sales department if their actual yeat-to-date entertainment has exceeded the budget before the end of the year. Budget is , usually, prepared and approved at the beginning of the year or before that.

Budget has incorporated management's forecast, estimation and outlook of the business in the coming times.

Is management's budget useful to auditor?

The answer is yes. Budget, which represents management's expectation, should be compared against the actual results. Significant variances should be investigated. Apparently, management would have to explain the variances. It's important for auditor to find out the reason of the variances to identify potential changes in business operation, significant developments during the year.

Understanding how management view the business (by looking at the budget) is a crucial stage in audit planning, it enhance our knowledge and understanding on the business, the industry and the overall economy as a whole.

Disposing capital-intensive business

What's happening in the corporate world now?

Capital-intensive require heavy investment of resources, including, but not limimted to: cash, human resource,management's effort, etc. As part of the restructuring exercise to scale down, there are evidence that a lot of corporate are disposing off capital-intensive business.

How would disposing capital-intensive business benefit the corporate?

- immediate liquidity ( i.e. proceeds from disposal)
- better working capital management
- allow management to evaluate other business opportunities
- lesser resources are required, which allow the business to scale down
- higher return on asset ("ROA") ratio

However, it's always not easy to dispose off a capital-intensive business unit/ busines during this business environment, unless a substantial discount is given to the potential buyers.

Accounting treatment for tax penalty

One of our Accounting & Audiitng blog reader inquired us the following:

" How should penalty on late repayment for tax been accounted for?"

Should it be a tax expense? Should it be other expenses?

To clarify: penalty imposed by inland revenue authority on late repayment for tax should not be accounted for as tax expense; it should be accounted for as administrative expense/ other expense.