What is the purpose of an audit? A) To provide investment advice to shareholders B) To ensure that financial statements are accurate and comply with accounting standards C) To manage and control a company's financial resources D) To predict a company's future financial performance

Describe the users of audited financial statements and the decisions that they need to make based on reliable information.  Please use the illustration below to help you answer this question.

1. Indicate whether each of the following statements describes financial accounting or managerial accounting. The information is directed at external users who are making decisions pertaining to investing, extending credit, and other decisions?  The principal users are the organization’s managers? The key focus is on the entity as a whole? The rules and principles are very flexible? The information gathered is usually available after an independent audit has been completed?

How are financial accountants pressured when they need to make ethical decisions in their work? Is having technical mastery of GAAP enough to practise financial accounting?

Which of the following is NOT a major component of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?     Executive responsibility for accurate financial reporting.   Accounting regulation.    Mandating external financial audits for all companies.    Formation of an audit committee.

Compare and contrast horizontal and vertical analysis? Describe how to evaluate an entity’s liquidity using financial ratios? Describe how to evaluate an entity’s solvency using financial ratios? Describe managerial accounting, including its differences with financial accounting, its place in the organization, and its uses?

Examining the quality of accounting information is one of the key aspects of financial analysis.Required:a) Critically discuss procedures that can be used to assess the degree of accounting quality (define accounting quality as part of your answer).b) Discuss FIVE organisational circumstances that motivate manager to manipulate financial performance.

How can an auditor use the following topic in his future work?   Evaluate financial decision-making to ensure compliance with accounting standards, rules, and regulations. Apply Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to record financial information. Analyze financial statements to inform current business decision-making and draw conclusions about the financial health of a company. Recommend budget planning strategies based on the financial performance of a company.