ECAR Questionaire #2: Financial Reporting

Questionaire #2: Financial Reporting

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Introduction

The purpose of the questionnaire here is to obtain opinions and findings of the staff of an organization whether internal control of financial reporting works.

Internal control is an organization's procedures and arrangements design to keep performance or a state of affairs within what is expected, allowed or accepted. These procedures and arrangement include Control environment, Controls, Accounting systems, and Determination of Risks. They are explained later.

Financial reporting is an important process to stakeholders, especially to owners and debtors. They can't protect their interests without financial statements made timely in accordance with laws and regulations. That information can prove valuable to other stakeholders, too, e.g. employees, authorities, and local citizens.

The survey is made by the Internal audit department at request of the director general. Respondent information is kept secret in all phases of the survey, including analysis of results. Results of the survey will be reported to director general by [date] and they will be used only for the statement mentioned above.

Below you see claims. Please, state to what degree you agree or disagree them. Select the point on the scale ["Strongly agree" .. "Neither agree nor disagree" .. "Strongly disagree"] that corresponds your opinion. If you don't want to express an opinion, select "Prefer not to response". You are also asked a couple of questions to which you reply by writing. To submit your reply do click the "Submit" button in the end of the questionnaire.

You are expected to reply by [date]. If you need more information, please, contact [person, telephone number, email address].

Claims and Questions

Section 1

All working takes place always in an environment, where certain values, beliefs, commitment to organization's objectives, and accountability prevail. They effect among other things organization's performance, compliance with regulations, and reporting to stakeholders within and outside the organizaton. At my work place..

A01)

.. the board of directors [or other such body or person] has made it clear that the financial statements of our organization shall provide stakeholders with true and fair view.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A02)

.. those in my organization preparing financial information willingly provide shareholders, business partners and other stakeholders information necessary in protecting their [financial] interests.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A03)

.. there is at least one incorruptible truthful employee in the financial reporting of my organization.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A04)

.. the financial reporting process's management has motivation, courage and will to learn and resolve important financial reporting problems.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A05)

.. the organization is determined to use sanctions and to remove temptations to unethical behavior in order to prevent and stop wrong or untruthful financial reporting.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A06)

.. there is no susceptibility of management's fraud in financial reporting.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A07)

.. staff has willingness to report about breaches of rules in financial reporting and it has a possibility do it safely (e.g. anonymously).

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A08)

.. it is the board [or other such body or person] and the top management that contribute to the correctness of financial statements more than the independent auditor(s).

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

A09)

What is the biggest problem in the behavioral circumstances in our financial reporting, and why?

Section 2

Controls protect process from deviating from the course towards objectives. Permanent controls are carried out on continuous basis during normal run of a process. Examples of such controls are reconciliations, verifications, and separating duties [1]. Ad hoc controls are carried out incidentially in emerging situations, e.g. an extra review of work when strong doubts about its quality arise. At my work place..

B01)

.. there are controls in place ensuring identification and understanding of financial reporting obligations and needs and priorization of those needs.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B02)

.. there are controls in place ensuring that transaction entries of book-keeping are put in line with financial reporting assertions [1].

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B03)

.. there are controls in place ensuring that transaction entries of book-keeping and balances of assets and debts are put in line with GAAPs.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B04)

.. there are controls in place ensuring that financial statements figures will be a correct output of book-keeping.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B05)

.. there are controls in place ensuring complience of the organization's inner instructions when producing financial statements.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B06)

.. there are controls in place ensuring that financial reporting appendixes [and/or notes] complement true and fair view of the financial statements.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B07)

.. there are controls in place ensuring that contents and backgrounds of financial statements are explained and all information required by regulations is presented.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B08)

.. there are controls in place ensuring that financial reporting is published to target audiances timely and information required by regulations is presented to those entitled to it

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

B09)

What controls in our financial reporting process do you rely least? Why?

Section 3

Accounting systems provide information about "what is" or " "what happened" compared to what "what should be" or "what should have happened". Such information helps to understand whether we will achieve objectives, and where is room for improvement. At my work place ..

C01)

.. we have system/arrangements ensuring that we know what reporting needs are due to be satisfied and what obligations are due to be fulfilled.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C02)

.. book-keeping entries are systematically compared with events underlying them in terms of financial reporting assertions and GAAPs.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C03)

.. there are reliable sources of information with which balances of assets and debts are compared.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C04)

.. financial statement items (balances) are systematically compared with respective account balances of book-keeping.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C05)

.. those in charge of making financial statements receive systematically relevant data and accounting instructions for their job.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C06)

.. consistency of annual report is systematically compared with financial statements and its annexes.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C07)

.. checklist(s) or other arrangements exist for ensuring that contents of annual report comply with respective items of regulations.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C08)

.. timetable(s) or other arrangements exist for ensuring that contents and dates of financial statements' publishments comply with respective plans and items of regulations.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

C09)

What worries you most in the accounting systems that are used in the financial reporting process?

Section 4

Processes are usually planned so that they work reasonably well in afore seen cases of disturbance. A risk, however, exists that plans are not followed, or that totally new risks arise. Managers and other staff observe these risks all the time, react to them, and reasonable assurance about achievement of objectives remains.

One key thing is managers's awareness of problems. At my work place..

D01)

.. financial reporting management knows to what degree the financial reporting employees behave themselves in accordance with organization's rules, policies and objectives, and how they have succeeded in their work.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

D02)

.. financial reporting management knows to what degree financial reporting employees understand importance and ratio of each finacial reporting key control and how well they perform controls.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

D03)

.. financial reporting management knows to what degree controls in the financial reporting process address identified significant risks.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

D04)

.. financial reporting management knows to what degree the information it gets is appropriate for finding out control problems, reasons for anomalies [2], and neglects by accountable persons [3].

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

D05)

.. financial reporting management knows to what degree controls of the accounting systems have been examined by competents auditors.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

Another key thing is management's ability to act appropriately when faced with problems and things that they do not understand. At my work place..

D06)

.. those in charge of financial management know their internal control responsibilities, realize limitations of internal control system and in their own thinking, and they are not afraid to ask if they do not understand something.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

D07)

.. those in charge of financial management make correct risk analyses when risks in the financial reporting process are identified.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

D08)

.. those in charge of financial management pay attention to anomalies in the financial reporting and make checks on their own initiative when problems in financial reporting emerge.

Strongly agree	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree	Strongly disagree
Prefer not to response

D09)

What is the biggest problem in determination of risks witin the financial reporting process.

Background information

E01)

My organizational unit is.. [alternatives]

E02)

My job�s organizational status is.. [alternatives].

E03)

I have been emloyed by my organization for how many years..

0-1

2-4

[1] [ www.pcaobus.org:] Assertions: (1) Existence or occurrence: assets or liabilities exist at a given date and recorded transactions occurred during the period. (2) completeness: all transactions and accounts that should be presented in the financial statements are so included. (3) Rights and obligations: assets are the rights of the entity and liabilities are the obligations of the entity at a given date. (4) Valuation or allocation: asset, liability, equity, revenue, and expense components are included in the financial statements at appropriate amounts. (5) Presentation and disclosure: particular components of the financial statements are properly classified, described, and disclosed.
[2] [wikipedia 9.11.2008:] In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences
[3] Organizations collect and archieve this kind of data for control purposes, e.g. with the help of log systems, control cameras and other such automated recording systems.