[Anonymous]

Hi Ninjas…. I’m having trouble with Assertions. I just can’t grasp the material, no matter how many questions I do on this topic, Assertions just won’t sink in my little brain 🙁

Does anybody have any suggestion on what else I can/should do? I have notes written all over on Assertions, as well, no success 🙁

[sunlessC]

can you explain what you're having trouble grasping? I can't think of a better way to explain assertions than giving the definition of each one unless you can say what's giving you trouble.

[nicole2035]

what helped me was splitting them up. my text lumped all of them together but there are specific ones for each type of statement. like for the balance sheet,income statement & notes, there are specific assertions that pertain to each

[Anonymous]

@sunlessC I'm mostly having trouble with Valuation/Allocation and Rights and Obligations… I know the definitions pretty much say what it means, but I guess my real problem is incorporating these Assertions into MCQ question… like really understanding what the question is asking for 🙁

[Anonymous]

I created a little game out of it. I wrote down all of the assertions that are applicable to account balances, transactions, and disclosures on separate notecards. Then for each assertion, I wrote down the relevant auditor activity (i.e.- search for unrecorded liabilities, confirmation with third parties, etc) by cycle. Then I sit down on the floor and go through cycle by cycle and match them up. It's really helped me and it's something different other than just reading the book or doing MCQs. I did that for like an hour and then went thru and did all the Becker HW questions, all the Wiley questions, and all the CPA Review for Free questions.

[Anonymous]

Also, try not to just memorize it. Auditing questions in particular can get kind of old and I always get questions wrong because I try to memorize things or I don't read the answer and select one quickly. I think this is one area in particular where it will benefit you a lot if you step back and take a few seconds to actually think about it. Think about the assertion being tested, why it's being tested, and what control activity will help the auditor with it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks @Amanda_88 I'll try your suggestion 🙂

[lvr21]

Amanda.. would you be willing to help me out a little more on your way to learn this…

I have no problem matching up

Account Balances: Completeness, valuation and allocation, existence, & rights & obligations

Transactions: Completeness, Cutoff, Accuracy (valuation & allocation), existence & occurrence, Understandability & Classification

Presentation & disclosure; Completeness, Valuation & Accuracy, Rights and obligations, & understandability and classification…

From there things get a little tricky… so if you used NINJA materials or Becker.. where did you get the relevant auditor activity?? I would be eternally grateful

{R: PASSED!! (I passed one!)}
{B: PASSED!! (Halfway there!)}
{F: PASSED!! (1 left!!!)}
{A: PASSED(I am done!!)}

[Anonymous]

What study material are you using? I'm using Becker and in A4 there's about 20 pages dedicated to the different cycles (revenues, expenditures, inventory, investments, PPE, payroll, financing) and it goes through each assertion and what the auditor should do to gain assurance for each one.

[lvr21]

I use Becker.. I know excatly where you are talking about…

So I guess you seperate accout balance, transactions, & disclosure for each cycle ad then match a procedure for each assertion… like page a4-23 for the reveue cycle

sorry for the typos … half of my letters stick

{R: PASSED!! (I passed one!)}
{B: PASSED!! (Halfway there!)}
{F: PASSED!! (1 left!!!)}
{A: PASSED(I am done!!)}

[Anonymous]

Yep, exactly. I just write down every control activity on a separate notecard for each assertion. So I have like 20 notecards for each control cycle. It's just a little game I made up because I get sick of writing notes and doing MCQs

[AScott89]

Any place those of us not using becker could find this info? I get stuck on assertions too

BEC-65
AUD-72(8 '14); 68(11 '14)
FAR-
REG-

[Author]

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