I decided to share this sample of internal audit charter as part of my way of giving back to the society in this month of May – my month of birth. Feel free to adopt this free internal audit charter and use it in your audit engagement as desired. The content of this article can […]

To properly answer the question ‘what is an accounting standard?’ in such a way that managers from and those from non-financial background can understand it, we need to firstly refresh our mind on the importance of accounting. You can refer to the linked article above for full article on the importance of accounting. I will […]

In this article is attached an excel strategy map template designed by hybrid accountant for small business owners and modern business managers. I am basically writing this article just to share the template with readers of my accounting blog – so pardon the brevity of this article. Download the strategy map excel template here What […]

Business valuation is not all about the figures in the financial statements as many people erroneously think. My many years of experience in business analysis has taught me that it is some times more important to look out for qualities of a good company while at the same time applying proven business valuation techniques. In […]

Journal entries are the foundational building block that makes accounting what it is today – the language of business. Business managers are faced with tough decisions on a daily basis ranging from making long term capital investment to making recurring operational expenses. Without journal entries, getting the information to aid decision makers perform their jobs […]

Audit is all about giving opinion that is backed up by relevant adequate audit evidence. Sufficient audit evidence doesn’t just appear out of thin air; analytical procedure is one of the many veritable audit evidence gathering techniques that an auditor uses. Analytical procedure is a type of substantive procedure that auditors carry out during the […]

As a careered Internal Auditor and an IS/IT auditor, I can tell you with high level of assurance that many Fintech start-ups fail because of so many reasons but one of the main reasons for Fintech start-ups failure is the fact that they take their information security management responsibilities very lightly. Most people that are […]

An organization should have controls in place that operates with the sole aim of preventing, detecting and correcting accounting misstatements caused by either accounting fraud or errors. It is our job as internal auditors to test those controls in order for us to make recommendations for improvements. Business organizations make significant investments into setting up […]

This article is written to not only give assurance to students who are planning to study accountancy but to also provide some tips of what they must do to stand out from the crowd. I overheard two teenagers during the just concluded Easter holidays having conversation about what course to study at the university and […]

I have been getting a lot of requests from my readers and followers asking questions on how to audit an AIS (Accounting Information Systems). In my continuous bid to share knowledge from my many years of experience in accounting, finance, internal audit, systems development and IT/IS audit, I have decided to compile the various answers […]

Bank reconciliation using Microsoft Excel IF function and COUNTIF function formulas How to perform bank reconciliation using Microsoft excel IF function and COUNTIF function formulas in order to improve efficiency is the theme of this post. I have written an earlier piece on the fundamentals of bank reconciliation statement. However, a lot of forensic accountants […]

Statistics has over time shown that fraud has no clear winner. All we have is collateral loss – the only winner in fraudulent situation is Waste! Fraud prevention strategies is the best bet that businesses have to ensure that the business always wins. The mistake that a lot of business leaders make is to think […]

One unfortunate thing about being poor is that it deprives an individual of so many privileges that seems to be exclusively reserved for the rich elites in the society. This is one of those posts where I simply express my displeasure to what the society has somehow seen to be normal. For some strange reason, […]

The fact that accountancy is the universal language of money means that politics cannot thrive without having people who fluently speak the language of money play a key part in the political economy. Accountants no matter how hard they try to keep away from being associated with politics can’t seem to run fast enough to […]

Unlike the job description for accountants that are fairly standardized, every company is free to set whatever they like and call it Internal auditor job description so long as it meets the company’s unique business need. However, there are internal audit roles and functions that must be included in the modern day business environment. In […]

Financial health check is a task that must be performed by every individual on a more regular basis if one truly desires to attain financial independence. Today in this piece, I will be focusing on tips for healthy finance that will not only help you be in good short term financial status but will also […]

This article on Accountants Vs Auditors is written specifically with young people who are at the point of making a choice in the world of noble accountancy profession in mind. Just a little background checks to make sure that I am qualified to write an article in this field as some serious career decisions might […]

I have spent reasonable part of my working career being a professional auditor (both internal and external). And this has made a lot of people ask me the following questions; ‘who is an auditor?’ and ‘how can I become an auditor?’. So, in this post, I will provide practical explanation to the question ‘who is […]

Today, I will be talking about the differences between mission statements, corporate objectives and business strategy. This article is part of the series on ‘what is strategy formulation’ where I also talked about how to build a profitable business model. You will agree with me that I couldn’t have possibly discussed all there is to […]

It is not enough for a fintech entrepreneur to have coding skills and brilliant ideas in order to succeed in business. Some form of business lessons needs to be picked up along the way. Uses of budget to fintech start-ups is not fully grasped by techie minded entrepreneurs as evidenced by a comment made by […]

In this post about what is strategy formulation, I will explain what a strategy formulation is in a simple language and also describe how to design a profitable business model. A lot has been written about strategic management and strategic planning. So, I will not be delving into those areas in this post. My focus […]