Question

I need an accountant, auditor or CPA for an interview. Only three questions out of eight given.

1. What do you think about the growth of automation, business intelligence, and data analytics in the field of auditing?
2. What do you feel are the most effective ways to cut fraud in a company?
3. Have you ever personally found fraud as an auditor? How did you handle the situation?
4. What do you like most about your career as an auditor?
5. What is different about being an internal auditor versus an external auditor?
6. What professional certifications would you suggest an auditor earn?
7. What internal controls have you found to be the most effective?
8. What types of sampling and audit testing have you worked with in the past? What did you find to be the most effective?

Answer 1

What do you feel are the most effective ways to cut fraud in a company?

All types of companies both Small sized and big sized companies are prone to Fraud. fraud may arise due to theft, Misappropriation of assets and Financial statement fraud.

The effective ways To avoid Fraud in the companies are as follows:

1) The accountng duties have to be segregated among the emplyees adn is difficult for fraud as the the procss has to flow through all the employees.

2) While hiring the employees its is better to do the background checks to know if there are any financial cases against the employee before handling obver the casjh to the employee.

3)The company has to maintain proper internal controls such as no access of data to unauthorized users, multi employee authontication for payroll function and expenses reimbursements.

4) Regular internal auditings have to be made to know the accurate figures of accounting.

5)Reconcile the bank accounts with the book balances to find the abnormalities atleast once a month.

6) Give training for the employees to prevent fraud.

9) Make sure that the credit card information of the company is properly protected.

10) The Fraud preventive step have to be set and make sure it is propely followed according to the controls set.

What is different about being an internal auditor versus an external auditor?

The differences between the Internal Auditor and the External Auditor are as follows.

1) Internal Auditor is the employee of the company while the external auditor is the person outside the company.

2) Internal Auditors are hied by the company with the normal interview process while the external auditors are appointed through shareholders votings.

3) IThe Audit conducted by the INternal Auditor is called Internal Audit while the audit conducted by the external auditor is called External Audit.

4) Internal Audit Reports are used by the internal management while external audit reports are used by the stakeholder's of the compnay.

5) Internal Audits are conducted throuhout the year while the external audits are conducted once a year

6) For being an external auditor he should be a CPA, but for internal Auditor CPA is not required.

7) Interna Auditors examines the risks associated with the company internally, while theexternal auditor examines the financial statements.

8) External Auditors provides the audit reports in the specified format while the internal auditor is not required to do so.

What professional certifications would you suggest an auditor earn?

For being a professional Auditor there are various certifications as follows:

1) Certified Public Accountsnt (CPA) - This is the most popular seen certifiactio for being an auditor. For that one should be graduated in accounting  

2)Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) - This is teh certifiacte to become an internal auditing professional which also requires graduation in accounting.

3) Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) - To get this certification there should be a significant experience in fraud prevention and has to pass the CFE examnation and has to maintain high standards of profession.

4) Certified Information systems Auditor (CISA) - This is the type of auditing which requires specialisation in Information systems and should be an experienced professinal to get the certification.