Inventory, Warehousing, and Payroll accounts and cycles Auditing inventory, warehousing, and payroll accounts and cycles is the process of making certain that the financial records are accurate with the physical inventory. The audits can be performed by auditors or a third party. Different procedures can be performed to detect fraudulent activities in a company. Some of the auditing procedures that are performed in a company for observations or to collect evidence are cut off analysis, finished goods cost analysis, freight cost analysis, and ABC analysis. Auditing inventory, payroll, and warehousing is usually performed quarterly or monthly for more accurate information. As an employer, you are required to comply with wage and hour and employment tax laws that occur on a federal, state and local level. Conducting periodic audits at least once or twice per year helps you maintain compliance and strengthen your companys financial controls. The audit enables you to verify that payroll records are correct and to spot and fix issues that could have led to an external audit. Inventory Apples inventory consist of their main products such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and their computers with the iMac and Macbooks. Their 2019 Inventory was at $4.1 compare in 2018 at 3.9 billion which shows a 5% increase. Their inventory method is using the first-in and first out method for FIFO. The steps for the test controls is to review the transactions of each of the inventory. Since the company has retail stores. They can account on the physical hand count of the products that Apple has on hand and reflect on the amount they have sold. This also includes hand count at their warehouse that they have on hand as well. Also, reflecting on the cost of the sold and the inventory they have on hand. The preventive measured to avoid inventory loss is to ensure the company has an asset protection team. Such as the auditors looking for the company has a separate of powers and having items locked and secure at all times. Also, auditors need to be aware if certain employees have access such as a special card or key to gain access to a specific location Warehousing Apples inventory is similar to that of any large retail company. With regards to auditing procedures of its warehouses the engagement team will examine the signed documents of all incoming and outgoing products that move through different warehouses. Maintaining a document to this effect will help auditors to do substantive test of control. Due to Apples high volume on inventory, warehouses and distribution centers there is a high chance for theft from internal parties. In order to prevent the possibility of theft Apple has established clear boundaries for receiving and distributing goods. This lowers the chances of items being fraudulently distributed. Payroll accounts and cycles The reason for the testing of controls and substantive test of transactions in payroll and the personnel cycles is to limit potential fraud. The test of controls ensure that the employees are being paid for the work that was performed, wages are only paid to those employees that are valid, to ensure that overtime paid out was required by the business, makes sure wages were paid at the correct rates, and to find any calculation errors that may have been made. The substantive test of transactions is necessary to prevent any misstatements. These tests allow auditors to test the effectiveness of internal controls and the dollar amounts of transactions. Auditors can select a sample of employees, to ensure that the correct amounts are recorded in the general ledger accounts, perform analytical procedures, and look at monthly comparisons to prior year budgets and investigate differences if needed. Audit Steps The Audit Steps consist of three main procedures: the test of controls, test of details, and the analytical procedures. The test of controls has several main steps to follow. The first is to understand the accounting system, processes, people and control around the sales and receivable process. This includes the transaction process from initiation to recording stage. Next the auditor will select any single live transaction and perform a walkthrough and then document the walkthrough procedures. Once that is complete the next step is to identify all the controls in the process and select key controls. Key controls are those which affect the transaction materially and prevents error & frauds. Now it is time to perform test of control for each size of population. Samples for testing shall be 25 and shall be selected only using the auditing sampling tool with inputs- random, stratified and monetary units. The final step is to document the test of controls and identify the control weaknesses and conclude whether controls working appropriately. The test of details is a rather shorter process than the test of controls. First, perform test of details for all the individual transactions above the materiality threshold. Next, randomly select 25 transactions using the auditing sampling tool and document the conclusion of the test of details. The analytical procedure process starts by comparing the current years account balances with the prior years account balances for gross receivables; allowance for doubtful accounts; bad debts; and sales returns and allowances. Next, Compare monthly sales by product line for the current year with monthly sales for the prior year and the first few months after year end. Compare monthly sales returns and allowances and credit memos for the current year with those of the prior year and the first few months after year end.

• A brief summary page should be included in this document, 525 to 700 words, for each of the work programs. Include in this summary specific financial information gleaned from the current Form 10-K used to perform an analysis of work program steps. For example, if the team noted significant swings in the Inventory balance year-over-year, identify these swings and how you address them in your work program (this is in essence an audit procedure - analytical review).

I need help with summary portion. The paper is complete except for that part. The company is Apple. The paper is above