| Internal Control and Auditing Information On the Internet previous page April 2004 Section 1. Introduction. This article identifies 34 websites with internal controls and auditing information of possible interest and use to management accountants. These sites should serve as a good starting-point information resource site, when the management accountant needs to better acquaint him- or herself with principles and concepts on such topics as good internal control principles, auditing techniques and practices, and terminology. Such principles, concepts, techniques, and practices are important to management accountants, as they conduct their tasks and duties. Internal controls are an important foundation on which an organization’s accounting and operating performances rest. The realm of internal controls makes up an important part of the management accountant’s responsibility. It is the audit, whether from within (internal) or from without (external). which evaluates how well this responsibility has been met. Therefore, it seems intuitive, that for management accountants, internal controls and auditing are inseparably linked. It is from this perspective that these two topics, internal controls and auditing, are considered together, here in this article, in presenting websites that may have important information for the management accountant. Section 2 identifies websites with substantive internal control-related information and Section 3 identifies websites with substantive auditing-related information. Section 4 concludes with identifying other Management Accounting Information Center front-page topics that might lead to websites of interest in controling an organization’s accounting procedures. Section 2. Internal Controls. A search for websites containing internal control information was conducted using keywords and the Google search engine. Thirteen sites, found during this search, are identified in this section. These thirteen sites are categorized into four areas, which seems to best represent the majority content of the information presented at the site. These four categories are: a. “Official” internal control requirements b. Internal control guidance c. Specific practices in internal control, and d. Results from internal control lapses. a. “Official” Internal Control Requirements. A Department of Justice’s site, at www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa.html, has the complete Foreign Corrupt Practices Act accessible from it. This act puts into law a requirement that companies have sufficient internal accounting controls to allow the company’s management a degree of assurance about the transactions and assets of the company. Clicking on www.aicpa.org/sarbanes/index.asp takes you to an American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) site from which you can download AICPA guidance on internal control issues related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This link, www.sec.gov/rules/final/33-8238.htm, takes you to a site, maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has a SEC report that gives the responsibilities that a company's management has for internal control. b. Internal Control Guidance. This site, www.coso.org, was created as part of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO)/Treadway Commission, which was formed to be a non-profit organization dedicated to improving business ethics, effective internal controls, and corporate governance. The COSO site presents reports and other information on internal controls and fraudulent financial reporting. Reports can be accessed from the site. A case history related to the Boeing Co. is accessible. This link, www.financialexecutives.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?site=_fei&webcode=fnr_coso, takes you to a site, maintained by Financial Executives International, which has links to COSO-related articles and studies. Many of the articles deal with internal control. Click on COSO on right. This link, www.frc.org.uk/corporate/internalcontrol.cfm, takes you to a site, maintained by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, from which you can access the Turnbull Report. The Turnbull Report provides guidance, intended for the directors of British companies, on internal control. This link, www.internalcontrolsdesign.co.uk/index.html, takes you to a site, maintained by the British auditor Matthew Leitch, which has several articles written by him dealing with designing internal control systems. Links are also provided to various British accounting and other sites that provide guidance and other information related to internal control. c. Specific Practices in Internal Control. This link, www.skocpa.com/document_retention_recommendation.htm, takes you to a site, maintained by the accounting group Sterck, Kulik, and O’Neill, which provides a list of documents that should be retained by companies, and the retention periods for the documents. This link, www.arma.org, takes you to a site, maintained by the Association of Information Management Professionals, which is a useful resource for finding information on many aspects of records management, such as the identity of various records important to different industrial sectors. Clicking on www.willyancey.com/electronic_evidence.htm takes you to a site, maintained by Will Yancey, which has several links to websites with record retention policy information. Sites deal with such topics as electronic records, auto dealership records, and record retention in local and state governments. A sample record retention policy is accessible. d. Results From Internal Control Lapses. This link, www.aicpa.org/antifraud/homepage.htm, takes you to a site, maintained by the AICPA, which gives access to information related to preventing company fraud and detecting it. Articles and case studies are provided. Examples of bad accounting practices are provided. click here to go to next and final page |