In order to keep their jobs, auditors must moderate the information in their audit reports. This creates a self-interest threat to independence.
Auditor independence
Why Do We Need Auditing Standards?
Why do we need auditing standards? Because we need someone at work that we can trust to tell us the truth. If you need to know the truth about something important with your health, do you ask your uncle the plumber, for his opinion? “Hey Unc, I’ve been having this weird pain in my chest […]
How auditor independence can slip away
Auditor independence is as precious and essential to the credibility of an auditor as it is elusive. Independence can easily slip away without you even noticing it. And then one day, when you need to lean on it – when you really need it – it isn’t there. Only then do you realize you have […]
Common audit challenges
I am a sharer, a disseminator, and a bug-like genetic slave to my professional function as a teacher and an author. Think of me as a little bee, flitting from flower to flower, spreading delicate yellow pollen… Wait! If you have ever met me in person, that image won’t work. No one has ever called […]
Scope limitations render an auditor useless
In the past few weeks, I have encountered three separate audit teams (one at the city level, one at the county level, and one at the federal level) who are struggling to overcome scope limitations. This is a very frustrating experience for the auditor and results in a significant waste of taxpayer funds. What are […]
What is the job of an auditor?
Maybe the dog will listen to you describe auditor independence, audit subject matter, audit criteria and audit deliverables. Auditors, I suggest you keep your job title on the down-low when meeting someone new at a party. Why? Because just as soon as you reveal you are an auditor, your new acquaintance will get very quiet. […]
Ethical guidelines for auditors
The GAO’s ethical guidelines for auditors remind us who we are and why we do what we do. And this is a very good thing, because it is easy to get balled up in the details of our day-to-day work and, forgetting the bigger picture of who we are and what we do, take the […]
The 2018 Yellow Book is OUT!
The GAO issued the 2018 version of Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards Tuesday. Find the online version here: https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/693136.pdf. Find an audio summary of the changes to the standards here: https://www.gao.gov/multimedia/podcast/692926 I suggest you scan chapter 4 and specifically section 4.16 to make sure you are compliant with the CPE requirements. Also notice that the GAO has […]
Yellow Book Ethics
Enjoy this excerpt from the self-study text: The Yellow Book Interpreted which qualifies for 15 hours of CPE. The GAO has a few things to say about a government auditor’s ethical responsibilities and, thus, added a large section on ethics to the 2007 revision of the Yellow Book. The same ethical principles appear in the 2017 […]
Yellowbook-CPE.com is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: