36 2014 - E-Payments - Complying to Auditor's Standards

Instructor: Lynn Fountain
Description:
Travel and entertainment expenses are often a businessman's best friend but can be management or an auditors worst nightmare if not properly handle. From a corporate perspective expenditures overall T&E expenditures may often be a minimal percentage of earnings. However this process areas inherently provides prime opportunity for unauthorized or inappropriate and lavish expenditures by executives and personnel.
Auditors often don't like looking at T&E expenses although it's often easy to detect discrepancies. The reason auditors shy away from the evaluation is that management does not take the observations seriously unless the amounts are exorbitant. But in today's increasing world of transparency and increasing frauds, management must learn that attention and monitoring of travel and entertainment expenses is an important component of maintaining proper internal controls.
Although the topic of travel and entertainment abuse is not one that management likes to address, it is a very important indicator of the adequacy of a company’s control environment. Many companies have regular evaluation of executive expenditures for appropriateness. Yet, when something is identified, the evaluator may run into résistance in reporting the observations. In addition, with the proliferation of on-line expense reporting and authorization, new methods have surfaced that allow inappropriate expenses to be charged through and go unnoticed. Management must pro-actively enforce internal controls over their T&E process.
Why Should you Attend:
As an auditor or compliance professional, if you are reviewing entertainment expenses and find discrepancies, how often do you hear management say “What’s the big deal? Or….How bad could it be?” This is a prime indicator that there is a gap in understanding of the importance of simple internal controls and a sound control environment.
With today's advanced technology and digital media one would think that tracking simple T&E expenditures would be efficient. Yet with technological advancements comes new and innovative ways for individuals to side-step control procedures and “slip” the inadvertent expense through the system.
Objectives of the Presentation:
Why internal controls over T&E expenditures are a critical component of the control environment.
Areas of T&E abuse that often go unnoticed.
Identifying T&E red flags with data analytics.
The role of technology in the advancement of control gaps.
How to talk to management about identified findings
Who can Benefit:
CEO/CFO
Board Members
Internal Auditors
Compliance Professionals
Operational Professionals
Finance Professionals
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