Passed

TLG has passed the exam in one shoot. wow. yes indeed he learned after office hour almost everyday. need struggle to pass the exam. this year syariah accounting is included in the exam. phew! seems like it’s getting harder every year. when will be IFRS be part of the exam material?

tuna sandwich

mayo+white onion+tuna flakes + white balsamic vinegar+ spread it!! add some greenies if u like.

Fraud: Do we have to search it?

As an external auditor, do we have to or oblige to find any misstatement caused by fraud or any fraud attempt that may exist in the company we audit?

According to Indonesian Auditing Standard (SPAP), auditor must aware any risk of material misstatement due to fraud. The word “material” saves us. It shows that we don’t have to search for fraud at any amount, and limit to material amount only. One of the procedures we have to do is having a discussion at planning stage with management relating to any fraud risk that might have occurred, and document it.

Change in Audit Methodology

My audit trainer said that audit is no longer sexy, a.k.a too complicated and no longer interesting. *Well, I’m wondering since when audit become sexy?* Meaning, currently there are too many procedures have to be done that requires many time; resulted in high time charges, end up in high billing. Thus, the client will refer second tier audit firm as its auditor. The trainer said big 4 will lose their clients if they don’t change audit methodology into a simple one; risk-based audit by tailoring into company’s risk & nature, instead of following the pre-existing audit templates.
The trainer suggest to change methodology to get closer to ISA standard, whereas professional judgment is highly required, especially in top management level in audit firm.
The training was very short, I got the big picture, but I haven’t go through detail. She only explained the theory, but I got the AS2 material to be tried @home.
You know, holiday is my favorite time to study, after it’s been a long time leaving my books covered by dust.

Ryuichi Sakamoto

I just found his master piece on a piano cd collection.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is the most beautiful one. Very outstanding, wonderfull… Actually the song is repetitive, but he plays it beautifully and wonderfull… as if we were brought into a japanese world. peaceful thought.  as if we were having  a candle light dinner with someone we love. as if we were in a field of sakura trees, watching their blossom.

click to play the video.

Missing Supporting Document

Just read the CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) Magazine.

Missing sup doc is a red flag. When we take sampling and found that some transactions are not supported with documents, we cannot forget it and drive on (FIDO). We have to question why the sup doc is not available.

Common reasons answered why the sup doc is not there:

• It was approved by director’/owner directly.
• It was director/owner’s personal expense.
• It was kept by accounting personnel who have resigned.
• It was moved by someone else whom we don’t know.
• The filing is messy and scattered. Maybe it is kept somewhere else.
• We forget where we put it.

The substitution of sampling with other transactions with similar account  but have sup. doc should be questioned with professional skeptiscm.

RI Quote

“Revenue recognition is the most important part in audit. Our assumption is that client’s revenue recognition is wrong. So we have to find valid  evidence or any fact to provide reasonable assurance that the revenue recognition is not wrong.”

Roy Iman – Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Curhat ke Mamah Dedeh – Book Review

Curhat ke Mamah Dedeh

Buku ini berisi tanya jawab antara Mamah Dedeh (penceramah agama Islam ternama) dengan para penanya atas berbagai persoalan kehidupan, terutama persoalan rumah tangga.  Mulai dari masalah suami yang “hobi” berselingkuh, poligami, istri yang suka dugem, bahkan hingga persoalan fiqih sehari-hari. Semua dijawab oleh Mamah Dedeh berdasarkan Alqur’an dan Hadits dengan bahasa yang mudah dipahami, lugas, blak-blakan tanpa menyinggung perasaan.

Yang paling saya suka dari buku ini adalah nama penanya tidak dimunculkan sehingga aibnya tertutupi. Mamah Dedeh menganjurkan kita lebih banyak berpikir ke depan dan tidak mengambil keputusan untuk jangka pendek. Dari jawaban-jawaban yang beliau berikan, beliau senantiasa menganjurkan agar kita mengandalkan Allah dalam segala urusan. Maksudnya, sebelum mengambil keputusan kita harus lihat dulu apakah Allah ridha atau tidak. Jika Allah tidak ridha atas keputusan yang akan kita ambil, maka janganlah mengambil keputusan itu. Segala sesuatu yang menggelisahkan hati itu adalah dosa dan menjaukan diri dari ridha Allah. Segala sesuatu yang merusak diri sendiri adalah dosa dan bikin jauh dari ridha Allah. Carilah keridhaan Allah, niscaya hati tentram senantiasa. Jika inginkan keluarga sakinah (tentram), dan diberkahi Allah, maka sandarkan Allah dalam segala urusan. Mulakan segalanya dengan bismillah.

Professional Judgment

You’ve heard this words many times in accounting ethic standard books. But sometimes you have no idea what it is or how to use it. Well… professional judgment is how you make decision derrived from your professional education, training, and experience. Some says it equals to sixth sense. For me, it’s how you get the big picture. It’s logical. Nothing dealt with sixth sense. When you’re facing with anomalies, the non-sense thing may looks logical. But when you see it from the 360 degrees view, you’ll know that it’s a red flag.

However, not  everyone knows how to use the professional judgment. Maybe sometimes our professional judgment has reminded us about the red flag but we tend to ignore it due to other distracting thoughts. That will make us not aware of what we’re facing with.

To maximize your professional judgment, you have to stay focused. Have a clear mind, don’t let personal feelings or personal biased distract you. Stay healthy, do some sport, eat nutritious food, grab some good books, avoid unnecessary activities. Don’t let yourself get sick. You have to stay healthy to get a clear mind.  Get some training, and jump to the river. I mean, you have to practice yourself using your professional judgment in every phase of engagement. If you never use it, you’ll never sharpen it.

Remember: stay focused, clear mind, maintain yourself healthy, get some knowledge, and See the BIG picture.

Reasons Why Auditor Cannot Detect Financial Statement Fraud

1. Scope Limitation, this include prohibition in doing corroborative inquiry, limitation  of access to required data
2. Auditor lack of professional skeptism
3. Auditor may choose the wrong sample
4. Auditor is having lack of accounting knowledge
5. Auditor is having lack of experience
6. Lack of audit trail
7. The evidence is seemed to be true (falsified evidence)

if u need further explanation, please email me alfri_n at yahoo.com