With a major in Information Systems & Control

This course covers the preparation, review and analysis of financial statements for profit entities and includes the following:

• General-purpose financial reporting and ratios and performance metrics applicable to for-profit entities prepared under the FASB Accounting Standards Codification.
• Disclosures specific to public companies including earnings per share prepared under the FASB Accounting Standards Codification and the interim, annual and periodic filing requirements for U.S. registrants in accordance with the rules of the U.S. SEC.
• Financial statements prepared under special purpose frameworks as described in AU-C Section 800 of the Codification of Statements on Auditing Standards.

This course covers planning and risk assessment and design of procedures responsive to identified risks. The course includes the following:

• Engagement strategy and engagement planning.
• Internal and external factors related to understanding an entity and its environment including basic economic concepts such as supply and demand and business cycles.
• Understanding an entity’s control environment and business processes including an understanding of the COSO Internal Control – Integrated Framework, entity-level controls and the design of internal controls, IT environment and related IT general controls. The IT environment consists of an entity’s IT infrastructure, applications, processes to manage access to the IT environment and program change control, including personnel responsible for those processes.
• SOC 1® reports as they affect the audit of user-entity financial statements.
• Materiality including performance materiality or tolerable misstatement.
• Assessing and responding to risks of material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
• Planning for and using the work of others including management’s specialists and auditor’s specialists.
• Specific areas of engagement risk including compliance with laws and regulations, accounting estimates, related parties and requirements for single audits in accordance with the Uniform Guidance for Single Audits.

To the extent applicable, the audits of financial statements of employee benefit plans subject to ERISA are eligible for testing in each group and topic in this Area.

This course covers the financial accounting and reporting requirements in the FASB Accounting Standards Codification that are applicable to select balance sheet accounts for both for-profit and not-for-profit entities. The course content includes the following:

• Cash and cash equivalents.
• Trade receivables.
• Inventory.
• Property, plant and equipment.
• Investments, including financial assets at fair value, financial assets at amortized cost and equity method investments.
• Intangible assets, with a focus on finite-lived intangible assets.
• Payables and accrued liabilities.
• Long-term debt, including notes and bonds payable and debt covenant calculations.
• Equity transactions, specifically focusing on equity issuance, stock dividends, stock splits and treasury stock.

This course also covers the financial accounting and reporting requirements in the FASB Accounting Standards Codification that are applicable to select transactions for both for-profit and not-for-profit entities, including the following:

• Accounting changes and error corrections.
• Contingencies and commitments.
• Revenue recognition, specifically focusing on recalling and applying the five-step model and accounting for contributions received by not-for-profit entities.
• Accounting for income taxes.
• Fair value measurement concepts and classification within the fair value hierarchy.
• Leases, specifically focusing on recalling and applying lessee accounting requirements.
• Subsequent events.

This course covers the preparation, review and analysis of financial statements for not-for-profit entities and foundational concepts related to the accounting requirements for state and local governments, including the following:

• General-purpose financial reporting and ratios and performance metrics applicable to not-for-profit entities prepared under the FASB Accounting Standards Codification.
• State and local government concepts including measurement focus, basis of accounting and determining the appropriate funds to record activities in accordance with the GASB Codification of Governmental Accounting and Financial Reporting Standards.

This course covers ethics, professional responsibilities and general principles of auditing, including the following:

• Ethics and independence including understanding and applying the AICPA Code of Conduct and the ethical and independence requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), PCAOB, GAO and Department of Labor (DOL).
• Professional skepticism including the critical assessment of evidence and the need to apply knowledge and experience to make informed decisions.
• Nature, scope and terms of engagements including engagement preconditions.
• Requirements for engagement documentation and communication with management or those charged with governance.
• Understanding of audit and assurance quality on an engagement and responsibilities within a firm.

To the extent applicable, the audits of financial statements of employee benefit plans subject to ERISA are eligible for testing in each group and topic in this Area.

This course covers performing procedures and obtaining evidence. It includes the following:

• Use of data and information including requesting, preparing and transforming data, reliability of data and information and data analytics.
• Sufficient appropriate evidence including sources of evidence and concluding on whether evidence obtained achieves the engagement’s planned objectives.
• Sampling techniques including appropriate populations, sample size, stratification and extrapolation of results.
• Performing procedures to obtain evidence including tests of controls, tests of details, analytical procedures and external confirmations.
• Specific matters that require special audit consideration such as accounting estimates, investments in securities, inventory, litigation, claims and assessments, going-concern and testing transactions related to federal awards during a single audit.
• Misstatements and internal control deficiencies including preparing a summary of misstatements and determining their effect on the financial statements and the nature, timing and extent of procedures.
• Written representations requested from management.
• Subsequent events including identification of subsequent events and the impact to an entity’s financial statements and disclosures. To the extent applicable, the audits of financial statements of employee benefit plans subject to ERISA are eligible for testing in each group and topic in this Area.

This course also covers engagement reporting and includes the following:

• Reporting on auditing and attestation engagements including factors to consider when forming an opinion, types of opinions and the appropriate form and content of a report.
• Considerations for performing preparation engagements.
• Considerations for reporting on compilation and review engagements, including the appropriate form and content of a report.
• Considerations for reporting on compliance aspects as part of an audit engagement or an attestation engagement related to compliance with a specific requirement or rule.
• Other reporting considerations when performing engagements, including consistency, other information, review of interim financial information, supplementary information, special-purpose frameworks and additional reporting requirements under GAO Government Auditing Standards.

This course covers U.S. ethics and professional responsibilities related to tax practice through the following topics:

• Ethics and Responsibilities in Tax Practice — Requirements based on Treasury Department Circular 230 and the rules and regulations for tax return preparers.
• Licensing and Disciplinary Systems — Requirements of state boards of accountancy to obtain and maintain the CPA license.
• Federal Tax Procedures – Understanding federal tax processes and procedures, including audits and appeals, appropriate disclosures, substantiation, penalties and authoritative hierarchy.
• Legal Duties and Responsibilities – Understanding legal issues that affect the CPA and their practice. Area III of the REG section blueprint covers federal tax compliance related to routine and recurring property transactions for individuals and entities.

The course also covers federal tax compliance related to routine and recurring property transactions for individuals and entities. Included is the following:

• Basis of an asset purchased for use in a trade or business, and the related depreciation of the asset.
• Basis of an asset converted from personal to business use, and the related depreciation of the asset.
• Basis of assets held by individuals.
• Basis of intangible assets.
• Cost recovery (depreciation and amortization) of assets held for use in a trade or business.

The course also covers federal tax compliance related to routine and recurring transactions and issues for individuals. The course includes the following:

• Inclusion and exclusion of amounts for purposes of calculating gross income, adjusted gross income and taxable income.
• Reporting of income from pass-through entities, including the proper handling of items on an individual’s tax return.
• Loss limitations, filing statuses available to a taxpayer, the role of tax credits and safe harbor requirements for estimated taxes.

And finally the course covers federal tax compliance related to routine and recurring transactions and issues for entities, including the following:

• Required adjustments to book income to determine taxable income.
• Computation of taxable income for C corporations, including state and local tax issues, and allowable tax credits.
• Determination of ordinary business income (loss) and separately stated items for S corporations and partnerships, and the impact of current year transactions on the owner’s basis in the entity.
• Classification options for limited liability companies, eligibility and election of S corporation status and types of tax-exempt organizations.

This course covers several business law concepts focused on the legal implications of business transactions and issues as they relate to accounting, auditing and financial reporting. Included is the following:

• Government regulation of business, specifically employment taxes, worker classification laws, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
• Areas of agency, contracts, debtor-creditor relationships and business structure. – The Uniform Commercial Code under the topics of contracts and debtor-creditor relationships. – Legal aspects of business entity selection, formation, operation and termination.

This course is focused on information systems and data management in a modern context, recognizing that much of it is cloud-based and undergoing rapid innovation. It includes the following:

• IT architecture components and the use of cloud-based models for IT infrastructure, platforms and services.
• Enterprise and accounting information systems, the business processes they enable and controls over processing integrity.
• System availability and IT change management.
• Data collection, storage, structured query language (SQL) queries and integration of data from different data sources.
• Business process models.

While certain representative tasks in Area I relate to testing controls in a SOC 2® engagement context, they are representative of similar procedures that may be performed in other IT audit and advisory contexts.

This course covers security, confidentiality and privacy and includes the following:

• Select portions of specified regulations, standards and frameworks related to information security and privacy that are considered by management in designing and implementing information systems and related controls.
• Types of threats and attacks (including cyber) to which an entity may be subject.
• Controls the entity uses to prevent, detect and respond to those threats and attacks.
• Controls the entity uses to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of information.
• Testing an entity’s controls over security, confidentiality and privacy.
• An entity’s incident response plan.

Group A covers foundational knowledge of certain regulations, standards and frameworks related to security, confidentiality and privacy at a Remembering and Understanding level. Those regulations, standards and frameworks underpin the higher-order skill testing in Group B – Security, Group C – Confidentiality and Privacy and Group D – Incident Response. While certain representative tasks in Area II relate to testing controls in a SOC 2® engagement context, they are representative of similar procedures that may be performed in other IT audit and advisory contexts.

Furthermore the course covers considerations for SOC engagements. The focuse is on aspects that are unique considerations in SOC engagements distinct from other types of attestation engagements. It  includes the following:

• Form, content and management assertions in SOC 1®, SOC 2® and SOC 3® reports and the intended users of those reports.
• Aspects of engagement planning and reporting for SOC 1® and SOC 2® engagements.
• Procedures related to complementary user entity controls and complementary subservice organization controls.
• Procedures related to the system description criteria for SOC 1® and SOC 2® engagements.
• Trust services criteria for SOC 2® engagements.