1. Evaluate the factors of significance within the structure of an IT business with manufacturing and determine what factors influence the decision to create real-time data or batch processes. Explain your answer.
2. Recommend the implementation of controls necessary to reduce erroneous journals that could lead to financial losses for companies. If management establishes adequate controls and significant losses still occur, explain to what extent management should be held accountable under SOX.
3. Create an argument whether an auditor concerned with appropriate segregation of duties would use a data flow diagram or system flowchart. Defend your position.
4. From the e-Activity, assess the approach used to determine which companies are slated to begin using IFRS, indicating level of agreement with the approach. Discuss the emerging issues between U.S. Generally Acceptable Accounting Principles and International Financial Reporting Standards that must be considered in designing effective auditor tools and techniques to test controls.
5. Imagine that an auditor is reviewing a file containing 25 fields of data, only five of which are relevant to the auditor's objective. Evaluate how ACL can be used to find irregularities or patterns in transactions that could indicate control weaknesses, indicating the effectiveness of the tool.
6. Identify the three types of update anomalies that could occur with database tables that have not been normalized. Explain how a university or your company can minimize each type of anomaly when updating database tables. Justify your answer.
7. Explain how an embedded audit module works and why auditors may choose not to use it. Determine the approach an auditor should consider instead. Explain your answer.
8. Discuss why auditors should be familiar with the principle of data normalization and if auditors should be required to specialize in IT. Justify your answer.