Materiality in Auditing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Materiality in Auditing - Essay Example As per IASB, the term ‘materiality’ refers to the information that are is important if their its exclusion or inaccurate presentation could shape the economic decision of the users of the financial statement of a business. The Materiality rests upon the magnitude of the evaluated element or error in some scenario of the auditor’s omission or inaccurate presentation. The Materiality depicts the significance of an exclusion or of an incorrect presentation of an accountancy data or information which will impact the decision of a user of such accountancy information. As per ISA (UK&I) 320 , materiality in planning and carrying over out an audit means that the auditor employs the notion of materiality in planning and carrying over out the audit to identify material misstatements. Moreover, at the final  end of the auditing, the auditor will decide whether the unrectified misstatements recognised are either in aggregate or individually material to the financial statements or not. Thus, in deciding the materiality, auditor has to exercise his judgment. An omission or misstatement can be evaluated to be material or immaterial by virtue of their its nature or size or a mixture of both (FRC 2013:7). The auditor is anticipated to design and carry out an audit that offers a reasonable promise that materials’ misstatements will be exposed. Both materiality and audit risk are interconnected in that audit risk is explained in terms of materiality. If there is a material misstatement present in the financial statement even after the audit has been executed , in such case auditor will be held responsile for not highlighting the materiality (Rittenberg, Johnstone & Gramming 2011:135). The notion of materiality offers flexibility to financial reporting, and this can result in abuse. Corporations may record â€Å"small† errors

Smoking ban laws in public places Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Smoking ban laws in public places - Essay Example Thus, a ban on smoking would fail (Proctor). However, if smoke-free laws are enforced, premature deaths can be reduced because many people would refrain from the habit. Indeed, intensive smoking that is associated with severe health consequences can be avoided if strict smoking laws are enforced (ACS CAN 5). Smoke-free laws are also appropriate because they reduce the number of smokers in a country. This can happen in two ways. First, smokers will have limited places where they can smoke freely. Since comprehensive smoking laws prohibit smoking in public places, many smokers will be forced to quit the habit. As a result, there will be a decrease in the number of active smokers in within a country. Second, young people who would otherwise become smokers will not have the opportunity to do so. Normally, when young people start smoking, they do so in places where there are no family members. Public places provide an ideal environment for starting the smoking habit (Guilfoyle). Opponents of smoke-free laws argue that tough smoking rules would encourage smoking in hazardous environments, potentially endangering the lives of smokers (Proctor). However, with smoke-free laws, prospective smokers will not have anywhere to start the habit (Guilfoyle). In addition, smoke-free laws are appropriate because they decrease health costs. Health costs are incurred by smokers and nonsmokers. Smokers are at a higher risk of developing smoking-related illnesses. Smoking can also worsen other chronic conditions such as asthma. Nonsmokers can develop health complications such as chest pain, stroke, and asthma from secondhand smoking. They can also increase their chances of contracting lung cancer. Opponents of smoke-free laws argue that although there may be a decrease in health costs, there will still be severe economic consequences. For instance, several multi-billion dollar cigarette industries would close down

Jonathan Wild †Henry Fielding Essay Example for Free

Jonathan Wild – Henry Fielding Essay The History of the life of Jonathan Wild is the philosophical disposition of a criminal in a right sense belonging to the group of â€Å"Thief Takers†, he emerged as one of the â€Å"Greatest man† in the world of Crime. With the irony as a tool and a satirical disposition, English novelist Henry Fieldings bought the real Jonathan Wild into his words who was great but goodness was not his vocation and caliber. Jonathan Wild belonged to the genre of Thieve Takers of London. Thieve takers were the ordinary men and women who were rewarded by the police man if they successfully capture highwaymen or law breakers and hand over them to the police or prosecute them themselves. Majority of them were men and they find this work very lucrative. The rates of each Highwaymen, coiners and burglars were worth ? 40 and additional ? 100 was rewarded to them if the crime was committed within the range of five miles of Charing Cross. Jonathan Wild was the most popular and clever of all thief takers at his contemporary period. In the beginning of the eighteenth century he had caught and put before the magistrate many criminals of London. Besides, he would also help in recovering the stolen goods and would demand hefty sum from them. His disposition towards crime created before him an image of a respected citizen in front of not only the authorities but also of whole of London. This attitude in him narrator defined as â€Å"Greatness†, but what nobody knew behind his Greatness lies a most clever and hard-core criminal and a thief. Here the complexity in the nature of protagonist comes in as confined within his nature was a hidden â€Å"bad man†. The recovery of the stolen goods was the part of his great plan. He build up his own empire, with several gangs who had their bases in several districts of London. These gangs had the only business of robbing and pick pocketing. He had also set up specialized gangs for looting churches, gangs over prostitutes, gangs who used to collect protection money from but he never came forward to head the gang but only give them direction. Anyone found neglecting his work or cheated him was immediately reported to police with solid evidences and witnesses who were themselves Wild’s man and in return Wild would get cash reward, therefore narrator abruptly described him as not â€Å"Good. † He was a great hypocrite and was so clever that he always go himself scotch free as no one could prove him guilty. He always would show his gratitude to those who would favor him and show his loyalty towards him and would go to any extent to punish those who would show disloyalty towards them. He would also give protection to those who would seek his to escape from law but also in several cases would himself hand these very people to the authorities not found worthy of him or if get tired. He would never handle the stolen goods himself but had large warehouses where the goods can be altered or repaired and would himself pass the information about the travelers to highwayman. Authorities had complete knowledge about all his illegal activities but were not able to lay their hands on him because of lack of proof. But as there is an end of every bad man, Wild end had also come near and he was finally arrested and given death sentence. Fielding showed Wilde as a courageous soul. At Newgate prison he asked prison clergyman about the â€Å"Theological consequences† of suicide, as he attempted to kill himself by drinking laudanum. Fielding crafted Wild as a bold character with preposterous energy and unswerving disposition. As said by Claude Rawson â€Å"We must not however omit one circumstance, as it serves to show the most admirable conservation of character in our hero to his last moment, which was, that whilst the ordinary was busy in his ejaculations, Wilde in the midst of the Shower of Stones, which played upon him, applied his hands to the Parsons pocketr, and emptied it of his bottle screw, which he carried out in the world with his hand. â€Å"(Rawson, pg 75). Jonathan Wilde was bold, and had a very strong attitude that he remained with it until the death which narrator aptly termed â€Å"Conservation of Character. †, and truly he was. Works Cited Julien Rawson Claude, The Cambridge Companion to Henry Fielding, Cambridge University Press, 2007. Fielding, Julien Rawson Claude, Bree Linda, Jonathan Wild, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Virgin Blue Holdings Limited SWOT Analysis

Virgin Blue Holdings Limited SWOT Analysis About the company Virgin Blue Holdings Limited, an Australia-based company, is involved in the airline industry. The companys segments include long and short hauls. The company owns a fleet comprising of 68 Boeing 737-700 800 series along with Embraer E-170 and E-190 aircrafts. Virgin Blue Airlines functions approx 2100 flights per week to 24 national cities and centers and 8 international places including ports in Figi, New Zealand, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Cook Island and Samoa. Virgin Blue had been established in the year 2000 as wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Group. In 2002 Virgin, along with Partrick invested in the airline field. In the year 2008, Virgin Blue Holdings Limited came into existence and floated on the exchange for selling the holdings of Virgin Group. Virgin Blue Holdings main operation is in the airline business in Australia, while it operates in air transportation and schedule sector also. SWOT Analysis Of Virgin Blue Holding Limited (S)trengths: Motivated management: The management of the Virgin Blue Holding Limited is highly motivated and continuously involved in value improvement process. A motivated team ensures giving its best to earn super profits. Innovation: The corporate level strategy of this company is innovation. This helps the company in preparing the niche segment for itself. Also helps the company in having a upper hand over competitor. Young staff: Strength of Virgin Holding Limited lies in their staff which is comprised of young people. This will increase their work efficiency and productivity, and thus lead to superior profit making. (W)eaknesses: Capital Intensive Business Lines: Virgin Blue Holdings business is highly a capital intensive business thus requiring managing of heavy investment and maintenance cost. The point to reach breakeven too is thus, longer than otherwise. Low return on investment: The airline industry is highly volatile and cyclical in nature and usually have low return on investment. (O)pportunities: Niche market: Instead of targeting the masses to fly economy and certain business class crowd, the company targets the student and this segment has high growth opportunities. Less competitive market: Another opportunity for the company is that this market is less competitive market and has high growth scope, and thus it would enable them to get the movers advantage and becoming market leader thereby earning super profit. Richard Branson: Richard Branson passion for aircraft also helps in expansion of business. (T)hreats: Existing player: Existing competitor can act as a threat for Virgin Blue and impact their market share. Also there is a threat from the entry of new player. Air flight safety: Another concern for airline industry is safety. This is the most common sector for terrorist attack and any such event can damage their business and brand to a greater extent. Key audit risks: Mainly the audit risks are of three types: Inherent Risks Control Risks Detection Risks The following are the key Audit risks- Revenue Recognition: (Detection Risk) Identifying important ratios such as Accounts receivables/Sales or Inventory/Cost of Goods Sold is important are these are predictive of negative events. Account affected: Profitability Ratios. Expense Recognition: (Detection Risk) Deferred long-term expense and exaggerated depreciation often distorts balance sheet. Checking of these ratios such as Selling GA Expenses to Operating Expenses YoY basis and also comparing them with industry standards. Account affected: Profitability Ratios. Asset-Liability Valuation: (Detection Risk) Liquidity, Asset Turnover, Net Income/Equity, Leverage, Goodwill, etc may be comparable with peer group and previous years. Account affected: Asset Turnover Ratios and Liquidity Ratios. Directors holding position of Officers: (Control Risk) As directors have fiduciary responsibilities towards the shareholders, they should not have positions that are subjected to conflict of interest. Account affected: Dividend payments and other policies related to shareholders. The CEO and Chairman are separate: (Control Risk) The roles of the CEO and Chairman are performed by separate people as the chairman would then be able to represent the shareholders interest better. Account affected: Dividend payments and other policies related to shareholders. Stepping down of Virgins long term CEO Brett Godfrey: Earlier in 2010 virgin long term CEO Brett Godfrey stepped down and was replaced by John Brochette. Due to change in CEO, the auditors need to properly emphasize or assess the following points: Change in corporate governance: Stepping down of the existing CEO can lead to corporate governance issues in organization. If the new CEO is not as effective, then it leads to bureaucracy and account manipulation issues in an organization. The auditor needs to evaluate this area carefully. Accountability of board of director: The auditor should make sure that same practices of accountability and displace is maintained in organization. There should not be any misappropriation or misuse of funds available. Analysis of share holding pattern change: The auditor needs to analyze if there is any change in the shareholding pattern due to stepping down of the CEO. This will help in evaluating the existing funding structure of the company and help in evaluating welfare of shareholder by maximization shareholders wealth. The auditor should properly investigate where the funds are being divested. Current Financial Information of Virgin Blue Holding Limited: Net profit after income tax for 6 month period, ended 31/12/2009 was $62.5 million and that reflects $163.9 million more compared to the corresponding 6 month term ended 31/12/2008. The net profit of the period is made up of: In these 6 months to 31/12/2009, the underlying OPs profit before tax went up by 34% and got profit of $80.1million. Basic EPS for the 6 months period ended 31/12/2009 had a profit of 3.3cents/share. Business segments Virgin Group has 2 segments, described below that are Groups business segment. The business segment offers different services and products, and managed separately as they need different types of aircraft. For each business segment, the internal management reports are reviewed on monthly by the board. The summary describes operations in each segment: Short haul Operations using short haul fleet by Boeing 737 aircraft Embraer 190 and 170 aircraft. This includes Australian, New Zealand, Trans-Tasman and Pacific Island flying. Long haul Operations that use Boeing 777 fleet. This predominantly comprises of Trans-Pacific flying. Partnerships of Virgin Blue Holdings Limited: Etihad signed a partnership with Virgin Blue Holdings Limited: All Virgin Holding services will now be available also to the Etihad customers, by opening up of 44 destinations in Asia, Australia, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and Los Angles.ÂÂ   The code share agreement will come to effect right from October. As result of this deal, Virgin Australia is to become as first Australian carrier operator to operate at the Middle East since 1991. Together with V Australia and Eithad Virgin Blue will be able to fly twenty seven flights in between Abu Dhabi Australia which will include the services between Abu Dhabi-Sydney, Melbourne Brisbane. Etihad management said that Australia is a very important market place for us we are happy that after this collaboration we will be able to serve our purpose better. We currently fly about 450,000 people a year to Australasia, we think this deal will add about 100,000 to that figure. With this collaboration we will be in a position to serve the USA Europe trips better from Australia, that will give us a distinct advantage over the other competitors, improves the sustainability comfort of travel. The agreement would joing the Blue Group and Etihad frequent flier programs, thus allowing the customers to earn burn miles in all of these airlines that are involved in deal. Partnership of Virgin Blue V Australia with Virgin America for Frequent Fly: Virgin Blue with its long-haul airline, V Australia has partnered with Virgin America to give benefits to loyalty customers to get some points when they take flight on sister airlines. This simply means that people travelling through any of these 3 flights will earn some credit that will be deducted under frequent travelling program. This partnership has applied from April, 2010. This exchange agreement will enable Virgin Blue or V Australias Velocity customer to earn Velocity points vice-versa through any of the 3 flights. Virgin Blue is presenting this as benefits to its guests a act of Customer relationship management. Virgin Blue team says that their motto is that people from whole USA other parts of the world plan their tours with our developing airline family. Virgin blue is famous for its customer service, product innovation, great design high level of facilities. Virgin Blue has got Best National Airline for 3rd consecutive year at the Australian National Travel Industry Awards.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Essay -- essays research papers

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Some time ago, I decided to read Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, by Jules Verne. I figured that because it was so well known it must be an extremely interesting book. In addition, it was science fiction, the one area that I was always interested. My assumption was only partially correct, for I only was to a degree interested in the piece of writing. When Jules Verne was writing this book, he must have been reading some incredibly dull science book the day before, for that was what the book was written as. The style of writing was utterly against my tastes, and though the plot was moderately interesting, the style of writing really ruined it. Often, the author will trail off describing some marine animal for pages at a time. Two entire chapters were almost entirely this! However, the setting and characters of the story seemed to be well thought out. Nevertheless, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea was an extremely tedious volume. When the story w as introduced, Jules Verne described M. Aronnax, the main character, whose love for marine biology was more important than anything else to him did. This immediately led to the international crisis about a bizarre aquatic creature, which immediately dragged M. Aronnax into the action. Due to his expertise on the matter, the public expected Pierre to be the one to solve this mystery. M. Aronnax, under all this pressure, concluded that the animal was to be called the Narwhale. At first, the mat...

The Japanese Economy :: essays research papers fc

The Japanese Economy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The prewar economy of Japan was a Socialist economy and the country was ruled by an emperor up to WW2 and after WW2 it started to lean towards a mixed market economy until what it is today although its government is Socialist it is leaning towards a mixed market economy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Japanese economy is a mixed economy that leans towards market, it is like this because almost all business are run by private corporations or people and that is the market in the economy. And the reason that they are thriving and are so competitive is because of the trade tariffs and quotas that the government has in place. These regulations include heavy taxes on some products and denial on some others for example: the way Japan will only let certain foreign cars in to Japan and even then they are so heavily taxed that the average Japanese person can ¹t pay that much and will have to buy a Japanese made car and at the same time in other countries they are selling their cars for less than anyone else in that country and that is what they do with most of their products and is how they get a trade surplus year after year.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Manufacturing is the most important economic activity in Japan it accounts for about 28% of it ¹s GDP. The Japanese people import more than half of the products that they manufacture from other countries in their crudest form and manufacture them into transportation equipment, iron, steel, chemicals, petroleum and coal products and textiles. Most of these products are produced by large corporations with many employees and the happier the employees are the more it will be done.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An aspect of a market economy that Japan has is the way the companies treat their workers. The way the Japanese treat their workers is so different form the way we treat our workers here. The Japanese are so much more respectful towards their employer( the exact opposite from other countries especially those with a centralised economy) and often work for one employer until retirement. Some of the special treatment that the workers receive is housing; some of the companies namely Honda have a special housing unite for their workers and their families and a company cemetery for all the workers and their families. Because of this the employees work habits are much more productive and a larger profit can be turned and they can get a jump on the competition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In centralised economies very few lucturies are returned to the people and in market economies most of them are, in Japan there are to kinds of people

The Status of Africa :: Politics Economics Geography African Essays

On October 7 1999, Arizona Daily Wildcat published a remarkable article by Lora Mackel, a history Junior in the University of Arizona. In the article, Mackel expressed her views about the current state of the African continent as follows: We have all seen the images before: Children with bloated bellies, rebels with assault weaponry, shanty towns that spread as far as the camera can pan. These images reflect our own modern conceptions of Africa, for it seems that these wretched conditions and the continent itself are permanently linked. (4) Mackel’s article reminded this writer of a little anecdote told by a fellow countryman of mine named Kagiso, who is from northern Botswana and is currently studying in Alabama. Apparently, one of his American classmates innocently asked him how he had escaped from the civil war going on in Africa. According to Kagiso, this particular classmate of his has this notion that Africa is just one big country. Although it was easy for my countryman, Kagiso, to dismiss his classmate’s question as emanating from an individual on the lower side of the I.Q. scale, the point is that it connects to Mackel’s views and summarizes the perceptions of some Americans about Africa. Their perception is that the whole African continent is a basket case. On the other hand, there are some Americans who – unlike some of their countryman – may not dismiss Africa entirely out of hand. Such Americans may hold the view that Africa is a serious cause for concern. Once in a while , a sympathetic soul who holds the latter view more strongly may arise. Unfortunately, most of the time, such people feel so sorry for Africa that they end up being apologists for the African continent, never mind the fact that the continent is home to 61 countries with varying economic successes (â€Å"Atlas† 122). The generalized descriptions of Africa by writers such as Mackel fail dismally to present a true image of the continent. Africa’s critics may single out the political instability prevalent in some African countries as a cause for their dismissal of Africa. These critics may use Rwanda to plead their case. In 1994, approximately 250,000 Rwandans crossed into neighboring Tanzania as refugees. This was after their village leaders forced them out just because they belonged to a different ethnic group (Shawcross 4). It is easy for Africa’s critics to gloat over these reports. However, one need not be reminded that political strife is not uncommon in this day and age.