The Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) maintain the Financial Audit Manual (FAM), which presents a methodology to perform financial statement audits of federal entities in accordance with professional standards. 

The FAM, last updated in 2008, incorporates:

• the AICPA’s Clarified Auditing Standards
• GAO’s 2011 Yellow Book, and
• OMB’s latest federal financial statement audit guidance.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the current updates to the FAM’s three volumes: (1) Audit Methodology, (2) Audit Tools, and (3) Checklists.
• Recognize the process by which the FAM was updated.
• Recall the standards and guidance changes that impacted the update to the FAM.
• Indicate the key changes to the FAM.

Identifying and testing internal controls is one of the more challenging areas of auditing major programs. This session will focus on common areas of challenge and provide guidance on enhancing audit strategies.

Learning Objectives:

-Identify common areas of challenge when testing internal control over major programs.
-Choose control objectives over compliance with identifying associated operating controls.

This session will cover single audit developments that occurred over the last year and also, look at the future of single audits. Auditors from firms and state audit organizations will be represented. 

Learning Objectives:

-Evaluate what is in the 2018 “skinny” Compliance Supplement and how to use it.
-Interpret the latest quality issues noted in single audit quality reviews.
-Examine best practices when dealing with a client’s Corrective Action Plan.
-Predict future single audit developments such as a new Data Collection Form, future quality studies, and the recent federal grants-oriented cross-agency priority goals.

Will provide an overview of the evolution of the Inspector General Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) reporting metrics. Topics include the move from compliance to effectiveness, use of a maturity model to evaluate the effectiveness of Federal information security programs, and alignment with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and other best practice frameworks.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine how maturity model based reviews enable auditors to conclude on effectiveness of information security programs.
• Compare the areas covered in Inspector General FISMA reviews and how these areas relate to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and other best practice frameworks.

This course will provide an executive overview of a variety of GASB Statements that have been issued. We'll cover the topics not addressed elsewhere in standalone sessions including tax abatements, split interest agreements, asset retirement obligations, the omnibus statement, debt extinguishment and debt disclosures. We'll also look at implementation issues that have been experienced that practitioners need to be aware of. This interactive session will include polling. We'll close the session with some thoughts on what to expect from the financial reporting model as well as revenue recognition projects.

After this session attendees will be able to:

-List recently issued GASB Statements.
-Describe the impact of recently issued GASB statements on the financial statements of governmental entities.

GASB Statement No. 75 is effective for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2017. This session will provide a discussion of implementation issues surrounding the accounting and auditing for other postemployment benefits (OPEB) that you need to be aware of in this year of implementation. 

We will discuss:

1. How the accounting for OPEB differs from pensions
2. The appropriate treatment for OPEB when it is administered through a trust, versus when it is not administered through a trust
3. The role of the actuary and related audit issues
4. Auditing considerations from the employer auditor's perspective

After this session attendees will be able to:

-Identify appropriate accounting treatment for OPEB. 
-Analyze the audit implications of OPEB and how it differs from pensions.

This session will provide a detail of the significant changes in the revised Yellow Book. Changes in independence, performance audits, peer reviews and financial audits completed under Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards will be discussed. 

After this session attendees will be able to:

1. Identify significant changes in Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS)
2. Select an approach to address new GAGAS independence requirements on GAGAS audits
3. Determine how performance audits have changed to incorporate internal control procedures

In this session GFOA's Technical Services Center Director will discuss reporting deficiencies that are commonly seen in CAFRs submitted to GFOA's Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program and make suggestions of how they may be identified and avoided by financial statement preparers and their auditors. 

After this session attendees will be able to:

1. Identify common reporting deficiencies.
2. Identify the underlying technical issues that give rise to deficiencies.