Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Limburg, Maastricht. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

M.Com. (Accounting) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Comm. / The main purpose or primary objective of this study is to develop an audit approach model by analysing the changes in management practices since the start of the development of the basic modern audit approach. These changes in management practice will challenge the basic assumptions in the present audit approach. Finally, the changed basic assumptions will form the building blocks of the new audit approach model. The secondary purpose is to place the principles of control as it is expected of management, into perspective against those prevalent 30 years ago. study the external audit product in terms of input and deliverables. open the debate between business and external auditors on the "control expectancy gap".

M.Com. (Computer Auditing) / In this chapter the actual topic will be presented. The reason for this study will be motivated with reference to current audit developments. This chapter will also highlight the constraints of the study. This is necessary to clearly identify the application of this essay in practice. The reader of this essay should be able to identify the relevance and possible applications of this study after having read chapter 1. In the past few years substantial attention has been given to auditing aspects of system software. The way system software operates and interacts, and the impact on the auditability of computer based systems were issues discussed in the EDP auditing environment. Auditors are now concentrating on using technology to assist in the performance of their audit procedures. The reasons for this are multiple, but for the purposes of this document only the major reasons will be highlighted.

M.Com. (Computer Auditing) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. (Computer Auditing) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Com. (Accounting) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Please read the abstract (Summary) in the section, 00front of this document / Dissertation (M Bibl (Library and Information Science))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Information Science / MBibl / unrestricted

Corporate scandals such as Enron, WorldCom and Parmalat, have focused recent governance efforts in the domain of financial reporting due to fraudulent and/or erroneous accounting practices. In addition, the ineffectiveness of the current system of controls has been highlighted, including that some directors have been weak and ineffective monitors of managers. This board of director ‘weakness’ has called for additional mechanisms for monitoring and controlling of management, focusing on financial reporting. This problem intensifies in that today companies function in real-time, and decisions are based on available realtime financial information. However, the assurances provided by traditional auditing take place months after the transactions have occurred and therefore, a trust problem arises because information is not verified in real-time. Consequently, the errors and fraud concealed within the financial information is not discovered until months later. To address this trust problem a conceptual causal model is proposed in this study based on the principles of systems theory. The emergent property of the causal model is increased trust and control. This study establishes that mutual assurances assist in building trust and that information security assists in safeguarding trust. Subsequently, in order to have a positive relationship between the company directors and various stakeholders, uncertainty needs to be contained, and the level of trust needs to surpass the perceived risks. The study concludes that assurances need to be provided in real-time to restore stakeholder confidence and trust in the domain of financial reporting. In order to provide assurances in real-time, continuous auditing is required to verify the integrity of financial information when it becomes available, and not months later. A continuous auditing process has its foundations grounded in information technology and attends to the challenges in real-time by addressing the standardisation of data to enable effective analysis, the validation of the accuracy of the data and the reliability of the system.

The strict and narrow scope of the general deduction formula may result in taxpayers being denied deductions for business expenditure, which are clearly and legitimately incurred in the course of operating their businesses, which in turn will result in an increase in tax costs, an important component of business costs. Although audit fees often fail the deductibility test, in general they are regarded by taxpayers as automatically deductible despite the fact that such fees were not incurred in the production of income. The deductibility of audit fees reached the High Court recently for the first time in the MTN case. It was argued by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) in this case that audit fees should never been allowed as a deduction because the role of an auditor does not relate to the production of income and that an auditor’s duty is restricted to verification of financial information ex post facto for the benefit of investors, creditors and other users of the financial information. The Court held that statutory audit fees should be deductible relying on the basis of the time spent during the audit in verifying deductible and non-deductible income. It is concluded by the author that law which creates uncertainty needs to be updated in keeping with the Government’s intention of creating a business environment in order to promote commerce and entrepreneurship. It is therefore proposed that all audit fees relating to statutory audits should be declared as a specific statutory deduction to ensure legal certainty.