Saturday, February 29, 2020

Advanced Auditing Case 2.3

The client’s assertions that accounts receivable confirmation can effectively address are existence, rights, and valuation. b) When performing year-end sales cutoff tests, auditors hope to accomplish the objective of obtaining evidence from third parties to evaluate the client’s assertions of sales recorded for the period under audit. The client’s assertions that sales cutoff tests can effectively address are completeness and presentation. 2. Coopers Lybrand made several significant errors of judgment in its effort to confirm the Wow Wee receivable at the end of 1995. These errors of judgment include ignoring or overlooking red flags including: the 69% change in the percentage of factored accounts receivable from 1994 to 1995, the $2. 4 million in sales to Wow Wee booked in the final day of fiscal 1995, the fact that Wow Wee is a manufacturing company, the fact that Wow Wee was left out of the top 25 customers list when it was among the top 5 based on recorded sales, and the clearly falsified bill of lading. Coopers Lybrand failed to make the appropriate modifications to their planned audit procedures to examine these irregularities. Coopers Lybrand also failed to follow up on the confirmation of the Wow Wee receivable that they accepted from Goldberg. These errors of judgment involve extreme negligence on the part of the auditors. I would classify these errors as reckless as there is no evidence to support that Coopers Lybrand were involved in the fraud. I think that the auditors did not suspect that fraud would occur at Happiness Express in 1995 as they had previously audited Happiness Express in 1994 and rightfully issued an unqualified opinion. I think that the auditors believed that these were simple mistakes that did not need to be further examined. The company’s revenue grew so significantly from 1994 to 1995 and because of this, I think that is was easy for the auditors to believe that the employees were simply overwhelmed by the company’s alarming growth and made mistakes as a result. . Yes Coopers Lybrand should have confirmed the receivable from West Coast Liquidators at the end of fiscal 1995 because it represented 13%, a clearly material amount, of the total accounts receivable. They also should have included one or more of the sales to West Coast Liquidators in their year-end sales cutoff tests for 1995 as many of these transactions were booked in the final month of the fiscal year. Sales transactions occurring close to the end of the fiscal year are much more likely to be suspicious in nature or fraudulent than transactions occurring earlier in the year. 4. The alternative procedures that can be applied to a large receivable of an audit client when a confirmation cannot be obtained include examination of subsequent cash receipts, the matching of such receipts with the actual items paid for, and examination of shipping, or other client documentation. The evidence provided by these methods may differ from the evidence provided by confirmation of a receivable depending on the client’s documentation of the transaction. Typically, in a company with proper internal controls and documentation, alternative procedures should be able to effectively address the same assertions that the confirmation of a receivable address. At very least, alternative procedures provide evidence for the existence assertion. 5. According to AU Section 317. 7, auditors should be aware of the possibility that illegal acts, such as insider trading, may have occurred however, an audit made in accordance with GAAS provides no assurance that illegal acts will be detected or that any contingent liabilities that may result will be disclosed. In the event that an auditor discovers evidence concerning the existence of possible illegal acts that could have a material indirect effect on the financial statements, they should apply audit procedures directed to ascer tain whether an illegal act has occurred. Advanced Auditing Case 2.3 The client’s assertions that accounts receivable confirmation can effectively address are existence, rights, and valuation. b) When performing year-end sales cutoff tests, auditors hope to accomplish the objective of obtaining evidence from third parties to evaluate the client’s assertions of sales recorded for the period under audit. The client’s assertions that sales cutoff tests can effectively address are completeness and presentation. 2. Coopers Lybrand made several significant errors of judgment in its effort to confirm the Wow Wee receivable at the end of 1995. These errors of judgment include ignoring or overlooking red flags including: the 69% change in the percentage of factored accounts receivable from 1994 to 1995, the $2. 4 million in sales to Wow Wee booked in the final day of fiscal 1995, the fact that Wow Wee is a manufacturing company, the fact that Wow Wee was left out of the top 25 customers list when it was among the top 5 based on recorded sales, and the clearly falsified bill of lading. Coopers Lybrand failed to make the appropriate modifications to their planned audit procedures to examine these irregularities. Coopers Lybrand also failed to follow up on the confirmation of the Wow Wee receivable that they accepted from Goldberg. These errors of judgment involve extreme negligence on the part of the auditors. I would classify these errors as reckless as there is no evidence to support that Coopers Lybrand were involved in the fraud. I think that the auditors did not suspect that fraud would occur at Happiness Express in 1995 as they had previously audited Happiness Express in 1994 and rightfully issued an unqualified opinion. I think that the auditors believed that these were simple mistakes that did not need to be further examined. The company’s revenue grew so significantly from 1994 to 1995 and because of this, I think that is was easy for the auditors to believe that the employees were simply overwhelmed by the company’s alarming growth and made mistakes as a result. . Yes Coopers Lybrand should have confirmed the receivable from West Coast Liquidators at the end of fiscal 1995 because it represented 13%, a clearly material amount, of the total accounts receivable. They also should have included one or more of the sales to West Coast Liquidators in their year-end sales cutoff tests for 1995 as many of these transactions were booked in the final month of the fiscal year. Sales transactions occurring close to the end of the fiscal year are much more likely to be suspicious in nature or fraudulent than transactions occurring earlier in the year. 4. The alternative procedures that can be applied to a large receivable of an audit client when a confirmation cannot be obtained include examination of subsequent cash receipts, the matching of such receipts with the actual items paid for, and examination of shipping, or other client documentation. The evidence provided by these methods may differ from the evidence provided by confirmation of a receivable depending on the client’s documentation of the transaction. Typically, in a company with proper internal controls and documentation, alternative procedures should be able to effectively address the same assertions that the confirmation of a receivable address. At very least, alternative procedures provide evidence for the existence assertion. 5. According to AU Section 317. 7, auditors should be aware of the possibility that illegal acts, such as insider trading, may have occurred however, an audit made in accordance with GAAS provides no assurance that illegal acts will be detected or that any contingent liabilities that may result will be disclosed. In the event that an auditor discovers evidence concerning the existence of possible illegal acts that could have a material indirect effect on the financial statements, they should apply audit procedures directed to ascer tain whether an illegal act has occurred.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

American Psycho Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American Psycho - Movie Review Example In this essay, Messier analyzes the paradigm related to the term, eloquently propounded by Robert Stam as â€Å"intertextual dialogism†. The relation between the literary texts and its cinematic adaptations in the recent years as claimed by Vartan has suffered from a lack of narration between the literary text and its cinematic adaptation. Vartan claims that it would be a very logo centric approach and straightforward inference if the cinematic adaptations of the literary texts are coined as â€Å"unfaithful to and/or of lesser value† in relation to their mother text from which the cinematic production has evolved without taking into consideration the huge realm of socio-cultural context upon which they evolve and get dispersed. In order to establish this content of the essay, Vartan meticulously chose one of the best cinemas of the recent times, which is an adaptation of a text. American Psycho is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis published in the year 1991. In the year 200 0, director Marry Harron prepared a film out of the Ellis’ text which Vartan and the critics following the same school of thoughts considered for a close reading. They considered both the works from a very close contour resulting into the establishment of the discourse that would give a shape to the interpretations, receptions and dispersions of both the works under a critical and ideological light. Vartan begins the paper by providing a short overview of the text, â€Å"American Psycho† by Ellis and then introduces the amount of controversy inherent within the content of the text before the essay intends to discuss the myriad ways by which the visual poetics of the novel operate as a cut-throat and dissecting critique by figuring the transition of the aesthetics related with the sexual violence which Vartan views as a potent trend in the contemporary consumer culture. Next, the essay takes a turn and launches the comparison of the text by Ellis with that of its cinema tic adaptation of Harron and intends to discuss the shortcomings inherent in the novel which shocks the audiences. Contrarily, according to Vartan, the film by Harron provides a social commentary keeping the plot of the film at a safe distance which actually facilitated it to became more soothing (Messier, â€Å"Visual Poetics, Intertextuality, and the Transfiguration of Ideology: An "Eye" for an "I" in Mary Harron's Cinematic Adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's "American Psycho"). Vartan in order to establish the propositions suggested by him at the very outset of the essay divides the essay into four sub-sections with intriguing titles like, ‘ Shock and Scandal: American Psycho as Postmodern Pastiche’, ‘ From Pastiche to Parody, or, an â€Å"I† for an â€Å"Eye†, ‘ Transfigurations: Excess, Affect, and the Gaze’ and ‘The Politics of Adaptation: Poetics, Intertextuality, and Ideology’. These sections individually throw elabo rate light on the propositions inherent within the essay required to establish the point of Vartan effectively. The section, ‘ Shock and Scandal: American Psycho as Postmodern Pastiche’ discusses the amount of problem the film, ‘American Psycho’ was about to face long before its date of release owing to the fact that it was a cinematic adaptation of a text which was already condemned as, â€Å" sadistic, pornographic , misogynistic and loathsome†. The negative reception according to Vartan did create an inquisitive pursuit and rage to view the film as it was thought to capture a few of its turbulent sexually violent passages, but Vartan asserts that maintenance of the distance from the stark

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Influence of Religion at Literature and Art review

Influence of Religion at and Art - Literature review Example This paper will begin with the statement that the twentieth century was the most discrepant period in the history of mankind. On the one hand that was the epoch of scientific, technical and intellectual progress and great hitches in all spheres of human activity. On the other, the 20th century was the age of deep spiritual crisis. Every person in the world revised old established ideas about good and evil. Thomas Mann called it the age of endless wars and revolutions (Jasper, 1992, p. 54). It assumed collisions not only between countries and classes but also in human minds and souls. The radical experience of the World War I and World War II was described by American writers who came to fight young, full of hopes and returned from the war with destroyed dreams and believes without finding the new ones. Such writers created their own literature - the literature of "Lost Generation". In their works Ernest Hemingway, William Folkner and others depicted disregarded surroundings, estrange ment and deep pessimism caused by cruel reality. Ernest Hemingway wrote " when men fight for the freedom of their country against a foreign invasion, and when these men are your friends, some few friends and some of long standing, you know how they were attached and how they fought, you learn, watching them live and fight and die, you learn that there are worse things than war. Cowardice is worse, treachery is worse, and simple selfishness is worse" (Brian, 1988, p. 73). People, who got the scar of the war did not believe in God any more. The crisis of the twentieth century was one of the social phenomena that had to be acknowledged before it was dealt with. The way out of the crisis was hard and long because the main reason of it was the changing of the attitude towards the Christian dogmas. Outstanding German philosopher Fridrich Nitse wrote: "Concept of God still was the strongest objection against existing We disclaim God. We deny the responsibility in God and due to this we'll save the world for the first time" (Pelican, 1991, p. 83). Another philosopher Thomas Mann said that Christianity was one of the bases on which our civilization lied. In such turbulent times every person who was spiritually free and not only swimming with the stream of the age had an urgent necessity to reappraise his values, to realize them again and stand up for them. The 20th century strictly criticised Christian morality. Nevertheless that criticism touched only the superficial ideas but the deep Christian dogmas that were found once stayed virginal (Jasper, 1992, p. 69). For the last two thousand years you could hardly find a literary work where the theme of religion, faith or God was omitted. These themes were omnipresent. Their variations - Christian images, symbols, allusions, associations, philosophical reflections on God were found in works of different writers, different genres and styles. American literature of the 20th century was not an exception. Till the time Kurt Vo nnegut's usage of Christian motives were not thoroughly examined. The critics had an opinion that Christianity and Vonnegut were almost incompatible. They supposed the writer's attitude towards Christianity was not serious but even negative. Only the last researches of his works showed the role and meaning of Christianity in author's world outlook. Religion played an important role in Vonnegut's artistic world and the Bible was the main element of the author's thinking. Vonnegut emphasised the positive beginning of Christianity, its appeal to universal love. Nevertheless Vonnegut thought that the Christian religion couldn't prevent shocking crimes of the 20th century. J. Lundguist wrote a book dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut and his works. In it he analysed Vonnegut's manner of writing and pointed out "the cosmic irony" as the main feature of writer's method. He also touched the theme of Christian religion especially while analysing the Vonnegut's novel "Slaughter-House Five" (1969). Lun dguist compared the main hero of the novel with Jesus Christ.