Streamline your financial cycle with our Expenditure Cycle Audit Work Program, a resource designed to elevate your organization's financial management through enhanced auditing practices. This audit tool serves as a guide for evaluating and refining expenditure cycle processes, allowing organizations to identify risks, improve internal controls and achieve greater operational efficiency. By leveraging this tool, you can ensure that purchasing, receiving and payment procedures are not only effective but also compliant with best practices.  

Within this document, there are two sample expenditure cycle work programs. Sample 1 emphasizes traditional audit approaches, guiding users through key activities such as reviewing existing policies, interviewing relevant personnel and creating detailed process flowcharts to document procedures effectively. This sample covers essential areas, including accounts payable, cash disbursements and payroll processes, highlighting the importance of proper authorization and safeguarding of records. Sample 2 introduces automated testing tailored for IT auditors, integrating system-based testing with operational controls. It provides insights on conducting transaction analysis and data extraction while evaluating IT-related controls, offering a modern perspective on auditing that equips users with the necessary tools to enhance their expenditure cycle processes.

Audit work steps include:

• Ensure that recorded accounts payable balances are substantiated and evaluated.
• Verify that the HR files match the payroll journal’s reports and that any changes were documented with the proper approval signatures.
• Assess whether company procedures related to the information systems area under review are carried out in accordance with policy.
• Develop recommendations that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of key processes and/or management of key business risks.