Master of Science in Business Administration

Dear Students

welcome to our External Audit course!

I will be posting here some practical information and material to get ready for start of the course.

In addition, you can find below a more comprehensive description of what we will be doing during the course, how we do it and related learning outcomes. Please do not hesitate to share it with other students in case they are interested to know what is the course about.

You can always reach out to me on the University email address for any questions /clarition that you would need.

Regards

Prof. Meriggio

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The course covers the main topics in the external audit of financial statements, with the aim of providing students with an opportunity to gain knowledge of the theory and practice of financial statement auditing. Starting from the fundamentals of the purpose of external audit and its international governance and regulations, students can then analyze real life cases and scenarios taken from actual audit processes of commercial companies.
Auditing is one form of assurance service, which are those that improve the context or quality of information for a variety of decision-makers (e.g., providing assurance that the client’s financial statements are materially in conformance with GAAP). Students will be given an opportunity to gain knowledge of the judgments commonly made by auditors, including judgments about the evaluation of client-related risks, the accumulation and evaluation of audit evidence, and the issuance of an appropriate audit report. 
This course is of benefit to (i) students planning to become financial analysts, financial managers, or tax professionals will find this course beneficial because understanding the role of external auditors in the financial reporting process is key to understanding how management compiles financial statements that regulators and creditors will accept; (ii) students wishing to become external auditors - it provides insight on professional standards, and the application of those standards to the audits of client financial statements; (iii) students wishing to conduct internal or governmental audits because the judgment processes involved in external auditing are similar in those professional contexts.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: 
The course is built around the concept of critical thinking. Students will be constantly encouraged to (i) analyze the audit scenario, (ii) build their own risk assessment and audit procedures applicable to the scenario, and (iii) reach a conclusion that can be defended vis à vis the challenge of an independent third party.
The aim of the course is to understand and apply basic audit procedures to financial statements. Memorizing the content of the course is not a learning objective! Like audit professionals, students will have unrestricted access to course material, literature and official publication.
Students must recognize that auditing is not like previous accounting courses where they reach a defined textbook answer. There are no debits or credits! This course will help students to develop and internalize a model for making audit judgments. 
The ISA (International Standards on Auditing) provides guidance, not rules. Thus, students will need to apply them by engaging in critical thinking when designing their financial statements audit strategy.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
Students will be asked to apply their knowledge to a real case scenario, starting from the fundamental question which constitutes the foundation of any audit procedure: WHAT CAN GO WRONG?
From thoughts around ethical dilemmas to fraud discussions, from designing procedures to audit specific financial statements lines to a full audit simulation, students will immerse themselves into the challenges of a young audit professional during the first audit experience.

MAKING JUDGEMENTS: 
Using professional judgement and being able to explain and justify choices is a key part of being an auditor. Students will be relentlessly asked to work on their assumptions, to justify their decisions, to think out of the box and consider the “what if” factor as additional element to challenge and strengthen their views and choices.
Students will work on finding, analyzing and embedding “contradictory evidence” into their analysis and conclusions.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
Students will have the opportunity to learn and practice the (i) professional language needed in the external audit context and (ii) apply the communication framework used by auditors in the context of preparing working papers, communicating with those charged with governance and preparing the audit report.
Students will be invited to present the result of their exercises and audit simulation to the class, paying particular attention to the structure of their presentation and to the accuracy of the language used.

LEARNING SKILLS:
Students should have developed learning skills which allow them to be independent and to translate theoretical knowledge into practical cases. Students will have access to a substantial amount of resources, publications, websites, articles to give them the opportunity to deep dive into topics which are of interest to them. They are also encouraged to invest some time to read technical articles and consult additional resources independently, to strengthen their theoretical knowledge and to be more comfortable during the discussions and practical exercises carried out in the classroom.