Auditing Considerations in an Uncertain Economy

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Periods of economic uncertainty lead to challenging conditions for companies due to potential deterioration of operating results, increased external scrutiny, and reduced access to capital. These conditions can result in the need to apply infrequently used accounting standards or can cause companies to adopt practices that may be inconsistent or incorrect.

During such times of economic uncertainty, an auditor should have a heightened awareness of a company's ability to continue as a going concern, should be able to recognize an impairment of the assets associated with a business line or report on discontinued operations, and should know how to evaluate the reasonableness of management’s stated future plans and estimates.

Through the use of interactive multimedia case studies, you will review the auditors’ obligations in assessing a company’s ability to continue as a going concern, sort through the various accounting standards to determine which ones apply to your client when business changes impair a company’s assets, and learn how to gather and evaluate evidential matter to assess the quality of the client’s estimation process and related key assumptions.

OBJECTIVES

• Evaluate whether there is substantial doubt about a client's ability to continue as a going concern
• Describe how the accounting standards associated with asset impairment, discontinued operations, and disposal activities relate to and interact with each other and apply selected provisions of the standards to specific client circumstances
• Apply techniques for auditing estimates and other subjective accounting information such as cash flow projections
• Identify accounting estimates for which a high risk of material misstatement

Prerequisite:  None

New On-Demand Format:
The complete content of the CD-ROM course is also available in the On-Demand format as the Auditing Considerations in an Uncertain Economy On-Demand Series. You can also choose from three individual On-Demand courses covering specific topics.

Click on the On-Demand tab above for details.

Minimum System Requirements for CD-ROMs
Windows 2000 or above, a minimum video display resolution of 800 by 600 pixels with a minimum color depth of 16-bit (thousands of colors); audio-enabled speakers or headset; 16x CD-ROM drive or faster; Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 or higher with security settings that allow Java script, shared objects and pop-ups; Macromedia® Flash Player™ version 8 or higher; Adobe® Acrobat® Reader.