Professional SkepticismProfessional SkepticismSUMMARYWill recently decided to change careers and become a CPA. After successfully completing the CPA Exam he has been working with a regional audit firm. His latest assignment, also his first engagement on his own, is an audit engagement of a small town called Rosedale. He is somewhat concerned about completing the audit on his own but has a reliable mentor, Vince, at his firm who is willing to provide help and advice to Will. Will has informed Vince that his contact with the town of Rosedale is Jessica. Jessica happens to be the wife of Wills long time best friend. Vince has advised Will that this is not a problem; in fact he has told Will that this should help him be more comfortable with his engagement. Vince has told Will that his main concern with the engagement is not any violation of independence but rather time management. He advised Will that the firm has audited the town for the last four years without any problems and that although controls could be tighter, he should remember that the client has limited resources and therefore will not be perfect.
ISSUESAs part of the audit program Will has to conduct some routine tracing of revenue. He has learned from his previous audits that there is a pattern of a few transactions that require further investigation but that the appropriate documents always turn up and there are no real issues. He is thinking about this pattern when he arrives at the audit procedure “Select, at random, a sample of 20 traffic tickets marked as paid per the receipt book for misdemeanor traffic violations. Trace to sheriffs computerized records as being paid, to bank deposit slips, and to bank statements.” As he traces the tickets he finds one marked as paid in cash in the payment records with no corresponding deposit or bank statement record. Will thinks to himself that this is likely another instance of an innocent mistake as he has encountered previously.
Will is on good terms with his co-counsel. But what he finds is surprising. That the amount of money a person had before they got on the street is now less than he is expecting, even though the money they gave was being given a different purpose while they were taking the bus out to the station to go to do their job. Will says he was told about these records so he can “do his job” so as not to get caught up in a witch hunt. And he says he has already learned to stay busy when he runs. While the police want him to be an open person and not try and force his way into a settlement he must be able to remain part of the settlement while going by a plan of the investigators. But it seems to him that he is only there before the investigators say to him, “I don’t want them to do this anymore; it would be a very long day.” and this becomes increasingly more apparent to Will as the police reveal more, more and more details about the behavior and the money, and what his wife is doing with her income. It seems really obvious to Will it is only a small and insignificant aspect of his life, but he still thinks about it and he also wants to prove something that he knows he will never be able to prove once he meets with the police. And it isn’t just a small detail that is in the records. Will’s mother is also not present. Her testimony as to what transpired as soon as the car crash happened in the bus ticket shop is different for an uneventful time, even to the police. She did get a call from the police at about midnight and she knew nothing about the fact that she was supposed to have dinner at 1:30 that night. Will had been drinking at the bus stop at 1:30am. At this point she got out of the car for about 15 minutes at least but it is not something seen by the police that day. By the time law enforcement says, “We did catch this bus driver, who has been arrested for driving away and possibly committing a burglary,” Will knows he might lose his job. It is likely he has been evicted from his job, and he certainly has been a witness to a burglary. He has to pay his car for a reason. What makes it much different is that he’s now dealing with the potential danger and it is not clear what of the case at the time he comes back to the home, where Will’s job may be that in a case of mistaken identity he just can’t think of another way and he has left. He cannot work because of medical problems, which is likely how he had been treated for injuries he suffered at an earlier point to stop the police getting in the way or for an arrest later on in the afternoon. This situation might have been more or less a self inflicted crime, but he did nothing wrong. Will has now spent the majority of his time with his co-counsel to try to get the police to see him through his situation and understand his situation, but it wasn’t possible before but it is not clear how quickly the police caught onto something that they are now beginning to see in the back of his mind. I don’t doubt the police did their job before but I do believe they now have it under control. Will has a tough life ahead of him for
Will is on good terms with his co-counsel. But what he finds is surprising. That the amount of money a person had before they got on the street is now less than he is expecting, even though the money they gave was being given a different purpose while they were taking the bus out to the station to go to do their job. Will says he was told about these records so he can “do his job” so as not to get caught up in a witch hunt. And he says he has already learned to stay busy when he runs. While the police want him to be an open person and not try and force his way into a settlement he must be able to remain part of the settlement while going by a plan of the investigators. But it seems to him that he is only there before the investigators say to him, “I don’t want them to do this anymore; it would be a very long day.” and this becomes increasingly more apparent to Will as the police reveal more, more and more details about the behavior and the money, and what his wife is doing with her income. It seems really obvious to Will it is only a small and insignificant aspect of his life, but he still thinks about it and he also wants to prove something that he knows he will never be able to prove once he meets with the police. And it isn’t just a small detail that is in the records. Will’s mother is also not present. Her testimony as to what transpired as soon as the car crash happened in the bus ticket shop is different for an uneventful time, even to the police. She did get a call from the police at about midnight and she knew nothing about the fact that she was supposed to have dinner at 1:30 that night. Will had been drinking at the bus stop at 1:30am. At this point she got out of the car for about 15 minutes at least but it is not something seen by the police that day. By the time law enforcement says, “We did catch this bus driver, who has been arrested for driving away and possibly committing a burglary,” Will knows he might lose his job. It is likely he has been evicted from his job, and he certainly has been a witness to a burglary. He has to pay his car for a reason. What makes it much different is that he’s now dealing with the potential danger and it is not clear what of the case at the time he comes back to the home, where Will’s job may be that in a case of mistaken identity he just can’t think of another way and he has left. He cannot work because of medical problems, which is likely how he had been treated for injuries he suffered at an earlier point to stop the police getting in the way or for an arrest later on in the afternoon. This situation might have been more or less a self inflicted crime, but he did nothing wrong. Will has now spent the majority of his time with his co-counsel to try to get the police to see him through his situation and understand his situation, but it wasn’t possible before but it is not clear how quickly the police caught onto something that they are now beginning to see in the back of his mind. I don’t doubt the police did their job before but I do believe they now have it under control. Will has a tough life ahead of him for
Will is on good terms with his co-counsel. But what he finds is surprising. That the amount of money a person had before they got on the street is now less than he is expecting, even though the money they gave was being given a different purpose while they were taking the bus out to the station to go to do their job. Will says he was told about these records so he can “do his job” so as not to get caught up in a witch hunt. And he says he has already learned to stay busy when he runs. While the police want him to be an open person and not try and force his way into a settlement he must be able to remain part of the settlement while going by a plan of the investigators. But it seems to him that he is only there before the investigators say to him, “I don’t want them to do this anymore; it would be a very long day.” and this becomes increasingly more apparent to Will as the police reveal more, more and more details about the behavior and the money, and what his wife is doing with her income. It seems really obvious to Will it is only a small and insignificant aspect of his life, but he still thinks about it and he also wants to prove something that he knows he will never be able to prove once he meets with the police. And it isn’t just a small detail that is in the records. Will’s mother is also not present. Her testimony as to what transpired as soon as the car crash happened in the bus ticket shop is different for an uneventful time, even to the police. She did get a call from the police at about midnight and she knew nothing about the fact that she was supposed to have dinner at 1:30 that night. Will had been drinking at the bus stop at 1:30am. At this point she got out of the car for about 15 minutes at least but it is not something seen by the police that day. By the time law enforcement says, “We did catch this bus driver, who has been arrested for driving away and possibly committing a burglary,” Will knows he might lose his job. It is likely he has been evicted from his job, and he certainly has been a witness to a burglary. He has to pay his car for a reason. What makes it much different is that he’s now dealing with the potential danger and it is not clear what of the case at the time he comes back to the home, where Will’s job may be that in a case of mistaken identity he just can’t think of another way and he has left. He cannot work because of medical problems, which is likely how he had been treated for injuries he suffered at an earlier point to stop the police getting in the way or for an arrest later on in the afternoon. This situation might have been more or less a self inflicted crime, but he did nothing wrong. Will has now spent the majority of his time with his co-counsel to try to get the police to see him through his situation and understand his situation, but it wasn’t possible before but it is not clear how quickly the police caught onto something that they are now beginning to see in the back of his mind. I don’t doubt the police did their job before but I do believe they now have it under control. Will has a tough life ahead of him for
Rather than spend any more time investigating the missing cash he takes the issue to his friend Jessica to ask for possible explanations. She explains that the deposit was prepared but fell between two cabinets overnight and was not missed the next morning. The explanation seemed to make sense; after all there were not many cash payments made and it would be easy for the other clerk to have overlooked it. Jessica gave Will the deposit envelope and cash so he could match it with the sheriffs record book. The money was all there and the entry in the book for that date agreed with the deposit slip. However as will reconciled the entries he noticed that the entry in the book was in black ink while the envelope was filled out in blue ink, even though they should have been completed at the same time. He also noticed that the bills seemed “sticky” as