By Lauren Cunningham (University of Tennessee), Joleen Kremin (Portland State University), and Amanda Warren (University of Tennessee)
Summary: This project gives student groups the opportunity to research and analyze publicly available information in the context of audit planning and risk assessment for a publicly traded company. Students simulate an audit team environment and deliver a summary audit-planning memo, risk assessment analytical procedures, and a video presentation in which each audit team presents its findings to the “audit partner.” This project accomplishes several important learning objectives, including (1) familiarizing students with the SEC’s EDGAR database and other public sources of company data; (2) fostering students’ research and critical-thinking skills; and (3) improving students’ understanding of the risk assessment process. This project uses free, publicly available information to achieve these objectives, and the project can be easily modified for subsequent classes by requiring students to utilize the most recent year’s filings when completing the project. The project is appropriate for undergraduate or graduate auditing students.
The original case file is available here:
https://doi.org/10.2308/ciia-52472.
The original teaching notes are available here (AAA faculty members only):
https://meridian.allenpress.com/ciatn/issue/13/2 .
We recently revised the case instructions in our UT classroom to shorten the project for students and to allow them to practice the application of risk assessment. The revised instructions and grading rubric are available here: