Planned Outage!
Please make note that KnowledgeLeader will be down Friday, November 27th at 12:00 PM PST until Sunday, November 29th at 8:30 AM PST. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Newsletter and Related Poll
Included in the inaugural edition of Board Perspectives: Risk Oversight are questions board members should ask of executive management regarding the organization’s risk management processes. In this newsletter as well as future editions, we intend to explore the right questions without suggesting standard “cookie cutter” answers. Sample questions in this edition include: Is there a robust process in place for identifying, prioritizing, sourcing, managing and monitoring the enterprise’s critical risks in a changing operating environment? Do we understand the risks inherent in the corporate strategy? Is there a sufficient understanding of the significant assumptions underlying the strategy and is a process in place to monitor for changes in the environment that could alter those assumptions?
This week’s poll question asks: "Does your organization have a robust process in place for identifying, prioritizing, sourcing, managing and monitoring the enterprise’s critical risks in a changing operating environment?"
Previous Poll Results
See the results from last week's poll, "Does your organization primarily use spreadsheets to complete the account reconciliations?"
Hot Issue
Because internal audit is more visible and accountable than ever, it is important to strive for world-class levels of performance. The CAE and audit committee play an essential role in this effort. No internal audit department can achieve a world-class level of performance without top-level support. In this article, Joel Kramer from the MIS Training Institute describes the chief attributes of world-class internal audit departments.
Article
Recent economic changes have led many retailers to implement a store compliance process to monitor and identify issues and resulting remediation properly. Whether the goal is to reduce shrink or to ensure adherence with regulations, a rigorous store-level compliance process is essential for protecting and substantiating company assets. This article evaluates two options available to help protect and substantiate these assets: traditional store audits and store self-assessments.
Compliance Week Article
As public scrutiny over executive pay continues to grow, compensation committees must elevate their performance from basic oversight to a more strategic decision-making role. In this article, Compliance Week Columnist José Tabuena, discusses why internal auditors are in the best position to support those efforts, and what they can do to help.
Taylor & Francis Article
In recent years, Information Technology Governance, Risk and Compliance (IT-GRC) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) are acronyms that are gaining more acceptance and popularity within the IT industry. This article compares the concepts of IT-GRC and ITIL, and suggests ways to create harmony between their defined purposes.
Policy
This policy establishes the standards and procedures for maintaining proper system access security at a company. It addresses user access rights, responsibilities of process owners, changes and deletions of employees, and the annual review of access and segregation of duties.
Questionnaire
The purpose of this questionnaire is to document the revenue recognition review completed by the finance department. It evaluates whether persuasive evidence exists to support revenue recognition, the delivery method scheduled, and that established collection procedures exist.
Featured Links
The world's two most influential accounting rulemaking organizations sat down for a joint meeting last week to figure out how to resolve consistant differences in their standards. What's interesting, says experts, is that while the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board are working to craft identical accounting principles, differences in the rules governing the implementation of those principles remain. Source: CFO.com
Outsourcing is not always as easy as it sounds. Follow these simple outsourcing guidelines to help you evaluate the initial decision from different perspectives. Private and public service sector organizations face an ongoing challenge to determine whether functions should be performed internally or externally. While much is written about how to make this decision from an organizational strategic perspective, there are few guidelines for the project manager to use during the initiation and planning phases. Source: executivebrief.com
Featured KLplus Course
This course will give you a fundamental understanding of the inventory control methodologies to use when working with or auditing clients in the manufacturing or retail industries. The completed course is worth 1.5 CPE credits and by the end of the course, the learner will be able to:
- State key definitions used to describe inventory movement transactions
- Document a typical inventory flow process
- Describe some of the fundamental inventory control procedures
- Supply a summary explanation of the manufacturing process and related accounting
To view the full list of CPE courses available on KnowledgeLeader, please visit the KLplus page, or to request an upgrade to KLplus, visit the My Account page.
Did You Know?
There are over 260 checklists & questionnaires available on KnowledgeLeader. They cover a wide range of risk management, technology, and internal audit topics.
CCH Tax and Accounting - Accounting Research Manager Updates
- Variable Interest Entities -- FASB Discusses Deferral of Statement 167 for Certain Investment Entities and Other Matters
- Accounting Standards -- FASB and IASB Reaffirm Commitment to Memorandum of Understanding
- EITF Materials -- FASB Issues Additional Materials for November 19, 2009 EITF Meeting
- Executive Compensation -- SEC Deputy Director Addresses Executive Compensation Disclosures
- International Financial Reporting -- IASB Issues Agenda for November 17-20, 2009 Meeting
- Compilations and Reviews -- 2009-2010 Edition of Publication Added
- Commercial Entities -- 2010 Edition of Knowledge-Based Audits Published
- Quality Control Standards -- Proposed AICPA Standard Discussed
- Postemployment Benefits -- GASB 45 Discussed
- GASB Standards -- Implementation Guide and Other Matters Discussed
From the Archive
This corporate compliance program documents professional standards of conduct and describes the confidential reporting system, policies for monitoring and auditing, procedures upon the discovery of misconduct and responsibility for compliance efforts. It also includes the code of business conduct and ethics with a certification page for employees to sign agreeing to compliance with the statement of policy. It is one of our many pieces of content focused on compliance.
Top 5 Pages on KnowledgeLeader
The following links will take you to the five most popular pages from the week of November 2, 2009.