Sample Research Paper on Auditing
1. Apart from Auditing, what other professional services are offered by public accounting firms? Describe the provision of one such service with which you are familiar.
Public accounting firms offer tax accounting, tax compliance and planning, budget forecasting, corporate accounting. Many small companies that cannot afford to keep their own accountants, outsource their financial record keeping in public accounting firms. Many companies as well as individuals hire public accounting firms to do their tax return and advise customers how to minimize their taxes in the future. The big public accounting firms usually also offer systems consulting and general management consulting or business consulting.
2. Explain briefly the auditors’ responsibility for detecting illegal acts by clients.
Auditors have access to company information that is unavailable to outsiders. Because of this, it is usually considered that auditors are in the best position to recognize possible business failures, fraud and illegal acts. As a results many people believe that auditors should provide immediate warnings to investors, creditors, and other third parties. Some public accountants view this expectation to be unrealistic and beyond the scope of an audit. Public accountants themselves often stress that an audit is intended to provide assurances about the fairness of a firms financial statements and not about its financial condition. To address this issue, the expectation-gap audit standards were developed. One of the new standards is Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 59, “The Auditor’s Consideration of an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern” which increased the auditor’s responsibility to assess and report on a company’s ability to continue as a going concern, and consequently to inform about illegal acts. Read more »
