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DAY ONE
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DAY TWO
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| 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. |
Registration - Breakfast Pastries |
Breakfast Pastries |
| 8:00 a.m. - 9:20 a.m. |
Introduction This class is not just about responding to regulations and standards but refining your soft skills set. We’re going to get away from the checklists and standard audit procedures and enhance our skills of communicating with people in order to collect information valuable to our engagements.
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Applying Professional Skepticism During the Interview When do you have enough information and how do you know the level of honesty. Learn to size up the interviewees answers and redirect the interview when necessary. Whether the client is hiding something or does not want to admit not knowing the answer, either situation presents a chance for you to use top notch interview skills.
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| 9:20 a.m. - 9:35 a.m. |
Break |
Break |
| 9:35 a.m. - 10:55 a.m. |
Planning the Interview Interviewing is an art and here we talk about getting well prepared from selecting the right person on the audit team to perform a particular interview to how you adjust the interview for gender, position, cultural influences, value systems and other attributes.
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Developing Valuable Questions on the Fly
Interviews can be unpredictable because you’re dealing with people. You need to be able to spontaneously ask questions to explore issues that surface during an interview that you were formerly unaware of or did not see coming. Gain tips during this session to think quickly while maintaining control of the interview.
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| 10:55 a.m. - 11:10 a.m. |
Break |
Break |
| 11:10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. |
Fundamentals of Eliciting Information Here we focus on improving our ability to develop rapport with people of varying status, gender, and many other factors that will influence how quickly someone will feel comfortable talking with you. Then we turn the focus to you and your body language. Explore the importance of the messages you send with expressions and gestures and how to control them.
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Preparing for the Unexpected How will you handle an employee who makes fraud allegations during an audit interview? What if fraud is suspected after looking at documents and financials but before most of the interviews? During this session we focus on being able to change the direction of the interview or deal with serious issues of a legal or human resources nature.
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| 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. |
Group Lunch |
Lunch on Your Own |
| 1:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. |
Dealing with Difficult People We have all dealt with them. People who are confrontational, evasive, vague, uncooperative, defensive, or exhibit other behaviors that challenge us and our audit process need to be handled with special care. Learn how to break down the barriers others set up intentionally or unintentionally.
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Documenting and Reviewing the Interview
Now we discuss the post interview phase and transferring information into written form along with combining interview information with documentary evidence. Additionally, we’ll highlight typical problems when reviewing workpapers. How can you tell if other audit team members asked the right questions? You will learn how to suggest better follow up questions.
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| 2:50 p.m. - 3:05 p.m. |
Break |
Break |
| 3:05 p.m. - 4:25 p.m. |
Internal vs. External Auditors There are advantages and disadvantages of being inside the company compared to being an outsider. How does this affect the interview process, and how do you leverage the advantages for the most productivity in your information seeking interviews.
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Practical Problem We have explored seeking information during the audit process in order to build evidence that will support our audit finding and the regulations we operate under. Now the principles and techniques you’ve learned will come to life as you see how they can be applied to a specific challenge.
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