Have you been asked to perform an information systems audit and don't know where to start? Examine a company's hardware, software, and data organization and processing methods to ensure quality control and security with this easy, practical guide to auditing computer systems–the tools necessary to implement an effective IS audit. In nontechnical language and following the format of an IS audit program, you'll gain insight into new types of security certifications (e.g., TruSecure, CAP SysTrust, CPA WebTrust) as well as the importance of physical security controls, adequate insurance, and digital surveillance systems. Order your copy today!
Practical, proven tools for conducting successful operational reviews An operational review evaluates management's conformity with plans and resource allocations, organizational structure, operating procedures, processes, and controls. In today's volatile marketplace, organizations must do everything possible to ensure their operations are running most economically and effectively to maximize desired results. In such a competitive environment, operational reviews have become increasingly important. The Operational Review Workbook not only gives readers a better understanding of the concepts behind operational reviews but also enables them to conduct reviews with more confidence and authority. A companion to Rob Reider's Operational Review: Maximum Results at Efficient Costs, Third Edition, the Workbook explains the benefits of a review and offers step-by-step guidance through its various stages. In addition to the author's incisive analysis, this practical guide: * Includes case studies, checklists, forms, and exercises * Reinforces the fundamental principles necessary to perform an operational review * Presents in a step-by-step manner how an operational review should be performed * Shows how to judge a review's results and make recommendations to management * Demonstrates how to use tools and techniques such as financial statement analysis, verification of data accuracy, determination of compliance with laws and regulations, development and understanding of ratio change and trend analysis, use of systems and layout flowcharts, effective interviewing techniques, and preparation and use of survey forms, questionnaires, and checklists * Integrates operational review concepts with other analytical processes such as benchmarking strategies and activity-based costing principles The Operational Review Workbook delivers all the tools needed to successfully conduct an operational review of the organization, department, or activity. CEOs, operations management and staff, internal and external consultants and auditors, CFOs and controllers, and other organizational stakeholders will find Reider's incomparable guide an invaluable addition to their professional libraries.
High profile cases of financial statement fraud have been dominating the news recently, causing people to question the accuracy of the financial information made available by companies. This book covers the roles and responsibilities associated with preventing and detecting financial statement fraud, including current developments and professional activities intended to reduce the occurrences of fraudulent financial reporting. It discusses the failures involved in the Enron collapse and includes a Forward by Joseph T. Wells from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. This books provides an invaluable context for understanding financial statement fraud.
Drawing on 20 years of experience as Comptroller and Auditor General, and head of the United Kingdom National Audit Office, Public Sector Auditing: Is it Value for Money? is Sir John Bourn’s own account of the role and influence value for money auditing has in holding governments to account and in helping public bodies improve the ways in which they deliver services. Key features include: In-depth case studies from UK, US, Canada, China, India and Australia; Detailed analysis of complex areas of public expenditure such as health, education, privatisation, regulation, defence and IT; Examples of how auditing can promote positive outcomes rather than negative post mortems. This book is relevant for people working in both the public and private sectors, and should be essential reading for the staff of public sector audit institutions around the world, as well as commercial accountancy firms and students of accountancy, politics, economics and public management.
A fraud investigation is aimed at examining evidence to determine if a fraud occurred, how it happened, who was involved, and how much money was lost. Investigations occur in cases ranging from embezzlement, to falsification of financial statements, to suspicious insurance claims. Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide provides all the tools to conduct a fraud investigation, detailing when and how to investigate. This guide takes the professional from the point of opening an investigation, selecting a team, gathering data, and through the entire investigation process. Business executives, auditors, and security professionals will benefit from this book, and companies will find this a useful tool for fighting fraud within their own organizations.
Electronic Health Records: An Audit and Internal Control Guide describes the infrastructure of electronic health records and the impact that the government's new criteria will have on the private and public marketplace. Understand what to look for in a health care record management system and find tips and helpful guidance for implementation. If you are trying to facilitate an audit of a health record management system, you can apply the example described in the model, which will serve as a timely model and invaluable resource.
How you handle global tax issues can make or break a deal. Gain a better understanding of these issues with guidance from PricewaterhouseCoopers' Mergers and Acquisitions: A Global Tax Guide When a business engages in a multinational merger or acquisition, dealing with a diverse set of transaction-related tax rules is one of the major challenges to successful implementation. PricewaterhouseCoopers' Mergers and Acquisitions: A Global Tax Guide helps you navigate the complexities unique to these international deals. This invaluable guide focuses on the global tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions to provide you with the information you need to move the deal forward-under a variety of circumstances and in numerous markets. Presenting individual chapters for each of thirty-one countries, this essential handbook provides quick access to the tax information you need, and, as much as possible, reduces the effort required to compare the rules that apply in one jurisdiction with the rules that apply in others. Each country-specific chapter includes an overview of the general approaches to mergers and acquisitions taxation issues as well as detailed information about how the tax authorities in each country apply the rules to various aspects of a transaction. PricewaterhouseCoopers' Mergers and Acquisitions: A Global Tax Guide offers tax planners a foundation of information that they need when involved in international mergers and acquisitions. It also covers many of the finer points of the broader tax issues that arise during planning and negotiation. Many will find this valuable reference to be an indispensable desktop tool in their effort to gain a deeper understanding of the global tax environment.
The successfully proven alternative system for relevant business reporting through performance management Performance-Based Reporting shows businesses how traditional accounting fails to provide meaningful measures for performance and presents radically innovative and thoroughly tested methods for performance-oriented management, assessment, and reporting. Twenty-five years in the making, this helpful book also presents The Baseline Approach to management, assessment, and reporting-composed of eighty-percent accounting-free methods. Performance-Based Reporting presents the culmination of intense experiments involving more than 1,500 businesses and over 4,000 executives. It definitively proves the need for new tools for realistic business planning and management in an unpredictable world. These tools already exist, and this helpful guide walks readers through the process of implementing them to help firms improve their ability to predict the direction they should take in the future.
120 best practices to improve the total process of the payroll department Payroll Best Practices examines, in great detail, best practices for the payroll function, and how to install them to provide readers with an in-depth knowledge of how this critical functional area can be improved. Here, controllers, payroll managers, and CFOs will discover the exact work plans needed to implement each best practice in their organizations, and lays out pitfalls likely to be encountered and avoided along the way. This how-to resource for payroll improvements includes: * Techniques for reducing the workload and error rate of the payroll staff * Methods for switching from an in-house to an outsourced payroll solution * Ways to create or outsource a Web-based timekeeping system * Approaches to switching to an employee-driven payroll deduction system * Graphics indicating the cost and implementation duration for each best practice * Policies and procedures that support the best practices * A simplified best practices implementation plan * An appendix that summarizes the large number of best practices presented * A glossary of key payroll-related terminology * And much more