Governmental Accounting and Auditing Update Conference 2019

As senior editor and correspondent on NPR’s Washington Desk, Ron Elving covers the stories, the issues, and the people driving Washington decision-making. In his engaging style, Ron will discuss where things stand on the Hill, in the Executive Branch and in the broader body politic.

This session will focus on evaluating errors in single audits, including what should be a written finding in the audit and how to write effective findings.

• Indicate changes introduced by recently issued pronouncements, including implementation issues.
• Apply professional judgment regarding errors in single audit testing.
• Formulate and write effective single audit findings.

This session will provide an overview of what is happening in the single audit arena. You will learn about the:

• 2019 OMB Compliance Supplement;
  
• latest Uniform Guidance and single audit developments,
  
• news from the Governmental Audit Quality Center; and
  
• the single audit landscape looking forward
  
• 2019 OMB Compliance Supplement;
  
• Latest Uniform Guidance and single audit developments,
  
• News from the Governmental Audit Quality Center; and
  
• The single audit landscape looking forward.

Learning Objectives:

• Evaluate the 2019 Compliance Supplement
• Interpret the latest single audit developments for your clients
• Predict expected future single audit activities

The Federal Audit Executive Council (FAEC) is one of several working groups under the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE). FAEC’s role is to coordinate on issues that affect the Federal audit community. Chair, Dr. Brett Baker, leads the FAEC in addressing some recent matters of common interest:

• OIG community cross-cutting projects to address government-wide risks
  
• DATA Act
  
• Audit policy
  
• Financial statements
  
• Information technology
  
• Data analytics and improper payments.

Learning Objectives:

• Session participants will learn more about: Risk areas that the federal audit community is closely monitoring.
• DATA Act audits and coordination efforts with policy makers.
• Audit community efforts to address changes to Government Auditing Standards.

This session is intended to provide attendees with key insights, tips, and best practices on the latest updates to the Data Collection Form (DCF) and related instructions issued by the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC). Participants will learn important information on the following:

• Changes and updates to the DCF.
  
• Best practices for auditees and auditors relating to completing, reviewing and submitting the DCF.
  
• How an auditor can use the FAC database for monitoring single audit quality.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify changes and updates to the DCF.
• Choose from various tips and best practices for completion and submission of the DCF to avoid common errors.
• Apply information from the session to your questions about the new form and have them answered.

Delivering the audit results to the governing body can pose many challenges depending on the size and knowledge base of the audience. Whether you are communicating to a large city or regional council or a small governing board, this session will provide an experienced perspective on how to deliver audit results succinctly and leave a positive impression on the Governing Body.

• Determine the best way to deliver an impactful audit presentation to the governing body to ensure they understand the objectives and results of the audit.
• Apply several examples of how best to deliver information to educate the governing body.
• Recognize the climate of the entity to deliver difficult information and navigate through committee and board questions in a highly charged environment.
• Determine the appropriate resources/tools and information to provide to those charged with governance when confronted with different factors and varying situations.

The Department of Defense achieved a critical milestone in November 2018: undergoing its first full financial statement audit and meeting a key congressional mandate. DOD did not expect to receive an opinion on its financial statements. The DOD Comptroller has remarked that implementing all the process and system changes necessary to pass the audit will take time and recognizes the issuance of notices of findings and recommendations (NFR) as a major outcome of the audit. The department’s success in improving its financial management and audit readiness will be measured by progress in remediating deficiencies noted in the NFRs.

• Recall DOD’s current efforts and plans for: remediating audit findings, prioritizing corrective actions, and other approaches to providing reliable data for decision making.
• Indicate DOD's plans to prepare auditable financial statements and for addressing the NFRs.
• Estimate how the remediation activity will impact future audits.
• Estimate the length of time before the remediation impacts DOD’s financial management operation and DOD’s mission.

How risk assessments are performed in the audit of financial statements has been challenged recently. As you prepare for the upcoming audit season or your next peer review, know that how your audit team performs risk assessments will be scrutinized. This session will provide a refresher on the audit risk assessment standards with some specific thoughts on application for state and local governments.

• Recall concept and auditing standards on risk assessment.
  
• Apply the risk assessment standards to the audit of state and local governments.

This session will take a deep dive into GASB 84, Fiduciary Activities, walking through various transactions and analyzing how GASB 84 might apply, keeping in mind not only the standard itself but also the related implementation guide. The session will also outline reporting considerations as well as potential audit-related considerations to consider with the adoption of this new standard.

• Identify fiduciary activities.
• Analyze potential changes to the reporting entity.
• Determine appropriate reporting.

Update on independence and ethics for government audits.

• Identify new independence standards for government audits.
• Apply new independence standards to their government audits.

You continue to hear about cybersecurity and risk management when it comes to your audits. Yet, what are the next steps once you’ve inquired about a client’s risk management plan? Better yet, what are the next steps when you find out there is no plan? This session will provide insight into how and why CPAs and accounting professionals should be involved in these inquiries and processes. Cybersecurity risk management best practices, frameworks, and how to tie these into strategic initiatives will be discussed.

• Recognize the importance of an auditor’s role in evaluating a client’s cybersecurity risk management system and process.
• Select proper audit procedures that fall under an auditor’s responsibility to test cybersecurity.
• Recall cybersecurity frameworks and how these should be used in strategic planning.

There's a lot of talk right now about the pace of change, technological advancements, and all sorts of buzzwords like AI, RPA, neural networks. Most of us accountants, though, tend to either ignore the inevitable or go all in certain innovations we don't fully understand. In this session, we'll discuss some common pains, pleasures and pitfalls in actually implementing some of these technologies to make sure that any initiatives you undertake have the best chance possible of succeeding.

• List several common problems organizations face when trying to implement a new technology or run a pilot program.
• Distinguish between push and pull innovation.
• Create a process for determining the technologies and advancements that will most likely have a significant impact on your organization.

New 2018 Yellow Book Independence Standards

• Identify new Yellow Book standards to apply to government audits
• Apply new Yellow Book standards to government audits

In the 2013 revision of the Internal Control Framework, COSO singled out General Controls over IT as a point of emphasis. This session will share resources available to governments and their auditors to aid them in focusing on these controls and methods for ensuring that an organization has strong General Controls over IT.

• Select the types of general controls that should exist within a government's IT department.
• Identify resources and techniques for strengthening a government's general control over IT.

Present the President's Management Agenda related to the grant management, administration and audit.

• Recall the 3 Gears of the President's Management Agenda (PMA)
• Recall the 14 Cross Agency Priorities (CAP) goals
• Identify the objectives and status of CAP Goal 8 - Results Oriented Accountability for Grants