A reflective evaluation of the ISO9001 audit process:
What happened at key points of the process? 15
I was asked to undertake an internal ISO9001 (2000) quality management audit for Company X, as a result of negative feedback from their customer. I worked with two qualified ISO9001 auditors, and was responsible for leading the team. Using the sections of the ISO9001 standard, we initially reviewed our individual strengths (we did not know each other previously), and organised a timetable of visits within the organisation for each auditor that took account of our knowledge and skills. We asked staff to be available at the scheduled times for us to interview them, and arranged access to their documents and on-line data. We had two
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Instead of ‘are you doing what the document says?’, we were concerned with establishing whether the process helps to achieve Company X’s stated objectives. We wanted to evaluate whether there were ways to improve. This approach leads to a less confrontational audit, since you can genuinely focus on finding out what problems individuals face in doing their job well, and to help to remove those obstacles.
Experience as an auditor enabled me to find out necessary information, whether the interviewee was cooperative or not, but this problem reflected a reliance on more old style quality assessment in Company X, which, in my experience, frequently was seen as an attempt to blame individuals or point out they were doing something wrong. This naturally leads to some defensiveness and resistance to the audit process. Reflection confirms that the ISO standard is vital to provide clear guidance for the audit, but does not guarantee that an organisation will be performing
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3 Arrange for other auditors to have access to key documents, if time or security constraints
Evaluation and review should be an ongoing process of learning, embedding a process of continual improvement and development. The key to evaluating is knowing what we are measuring. We cannot monitor and evaluate the team’s progress towards agreed objectives without clear advance planning of what we want to do and how it will be achieve. Effective strategic and operational planning, incorporating clear measurable objectives, is therefore an important
ISO 9001 is a quality management standard that helps a company or an organisation to continually monitor quality across all operations. As an internationally recognised quality standard, it outlines ways to achieve, as well as
“Fifth, the company should audit the whole process frequently to ensure compli- ance with these procedures.”
Individual Article Review Lily Cobian LAW/421 March 31, 2014 Ramon E. Ortiz-Velez Individual Article Review Introduction My article review is based on Sarbanes-Oxley and audit failure, a critical examination why the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was established and why it is not a guarantee to prevent failure of audits. Sarbanes-Oxley Act talks about scandals of Enron which occurred in 2001 and even more appalling the company’s auditor, Arthur Anderson, found guilty of shredding company documents after finding out Enron Company was going to be audited. The exorbitant amounts of money auditors get paid to hide audit discrepancies was also beyond belief. The article went on to explain many companies hire relatives or friends to do their audits, resulting in fraud, money embezzlement, corruption and even the demise of companies. Resulting in the public losing faith in the accounting profession, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed in 2002 by congress was designed to restrict what company owners and auditors can and cannot do. From what I gathered in the article, ever since the implementation of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act there has been somewhat of an improvement but questions are still being asked as to why there are still issues that are not being targeted in hopes of preventing more audit failures. The article also talked about four common causes of audit failure: unintentional auditor mistakes, fraud, fatigue and auditor client relationships. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct clearly states an independent auditor because it produces a credible audit, however, when there is conflict of interest, the relation of a former employer, or a relative or even the fear of getting fire...
Objectivity also needs to be evaluated to make sure the internal audit is reliable. The internal audit needs to be free of conflicting responsibilities as well
With every business activity come opportunities for fraudulent behavior which leads to a greater demand for auditors with unscathed ethics. Nowadays, auditors are faced with a multitude of ethical issues, and it is even more problematic when the auditors fail to adhere to the standards of professional conducts as prescribed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The objective of this paper is to analyze the auditors’ compliance with the code of professional conduct in the way it relates to the effectiveness of their audits.
According to the article authored by Mark Rupert, what are the seven best practices in the roles and responsibilities of an internal audit function?
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott (EYP) integrates quality assurance planning and quality control reviews into a single, pervasive professional culture of Quality Management. Documented in detail in the EYP Quality Management Plan, our procedures recognize that for every project our clients have a unique blend of objec¬tives—and un¬derstanding those objectives is critical to successful project delivery. EYP’s inter¬nal QC proce¬dures, therefore, begin in the planning stage of each project. In summary: (a) We work with the client to ensure a common understanding of the project scope. (b) We review each as¬signment to identify the specific QC challenges it presents (e.g., challenges associated with identifying all salient architectural and structural aspects of historically significant buildings, so that we can develop energy efficiency solutions that are effective while not requiring disruptive alterations). Our goal is to plan for the appropriate levels of re¬view to prevent costly, time-consuming errors during project performance and to ensure that all services ad¬here to the client’s technical requirements and constraints. (c) We next develop a project-specific QC plan, that identifies specific procedures and protocols to meet the project’s QC requirements and assigns team members responsibilities for implementing them. (d) We assign EYP manag¬ers and staff with the appropriate blend of functional skills and substantive know¬ledge of the project.
Various definitions have been proposed for the audit expectation gap. Humphrey, Moizer and Turley (1992), suggest that the common element in the various definitions of the gap is that auditors are performing in a manner that is at variance with the beliefs and desires of others who are party to or interested in the audit.
The International Accounting Standards Board, (IASB), began life as the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) in the 1973. The IASC was created in June 1973 as a result of an agreement by the accountancy bodies of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland and the United States. These countries constituted the Board of IASC at that time.
Auditing has been the backbone of the complicated business world and has always changed with the times. As the business world grew strong, auditors’ roles grew more important. The auditors’ job became more difficult as the accounting principles changed. It also became easier with the use of internal controls, which introduced the need for testing, not a complete audit. Scandals and stock market crashes made auditors aware of deficiencies in auditing, and the auditing community was always quick to fix those deficiencies. Computers played an important role of changing the way audits were performed and also brought along some difficulties.
Threats to Auditor Independence: The Impact of Relationship and Economic Bonds. By: Ping Ye; Carson, Elizabeth; Simnett, Roger. Auditing, Feb2011, Vol. 30 Issue 1, p121-148, 28p, 1 Diagram, 6 Charts; DOI: 10.2308/aud.2011.30.1.121
There are several reasons organizations initiate performance evaluations, however the standard purpose for performance evaluations is to discuss performance expectations; not only from the employers perspective but to engage in a formal collaboration where the employee and the manager are both able to provide feedback in a formal discourse. There are many different processes an organization should follow when developing its performance evaluation tool; in addition essential characteristics that must accompany an effective performance appraisal process. I will discuss in detail the intent of a performance evaluation, the process an organization should follow in using its performance evaluation tool, along with the characteristics of an effective
Audit is a process to evaluate and review the accounts and financial statement objectively. We can divide it into internal auditors and external auditors. Internal auditors have a inner knowledge of business process. Auditor has access to the much confidential information and all levels of management. But they may lose their judgement and they are not acceptable by the shareholder. “The overall objective of the external auditors is to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to report on the financial statements in acco...
The major characters of the tradition audit are all information what is needed by auditors are on the paper and the manual calculators and without high communication technology. Auditors usually were limited by the place in the paper time. When a several people are working on the same auditing project for a client with offices in cities across the country, even worldwide, it takes a lots all time those auditors get the information which they need from the client, even there is risk paper information disappear for many reasons. on the another hand, mail paper information increase the auditing cost. The mistake caused by the manual calculators inevitably, no matter how fixed auditors concentrate on recalculate is, after all auditors are human. The global business become major in the modern business world, some example, several auditors who are in different locations are working a same auditing project, or auditors are in different city even country with the client, when there is issue among these auditors or between auditors and client, they only can communicate with each other by phone or be together and have meeting. Phone call can not make sure information been watched in the same time when the voice is talking about the issue, but having a meeting takes time and money make all people together, it increases auditing cost.