Analytical and Auditing Skills Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Internal Auditors, External Auditors and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-A-090

Before you join: Participants should understand basic financial statements, accounting entries and common business processes such as purchasing, payroll, revenue and cash management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Auditors are expected to form defensible conclusions from incomplete records, changing business conditions and management explanations that may not fully explain unusual results. Weak planning, poorly targeted analytical procedures, inadequate evidence and unclear working papers can result in missed misstatements, inefficient fieldwork or audit findings that cannot withstand review. This course develops the judgement and analytical discipline needed to identify significant risks, test them appropriately and communicate conclusions with clarity.

Participants learn how to plan an audit using the audit risk model, materiality and financial statement assertions; assess internal controls; perform analytical procedures; select samples; evaluate audit evidence; and document work to a review-ready standard. The course addresses substantive testing, control testing, fraud risk indicators, related-party transactions, going-concern considerations and the assessment of misstatements. Participants also examine how spreadsheet-based data analysis can focus audit work on exceptions, trends and unusual transactions.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with financial statement cases, audit-file reviews, group analysis, evidence-evaluation scenarios and reporting simulations. Examples reflect common issues in banks, public bodies, manufacturing businesses, donor-funded programmes and corporate service functions. Participants leave with a reusable audit planning pack containing risk assessment, analytical review, sampling, evidence and findings-reporting templates, plus an individual application plan for their next assignment.

The course suits finance, internal audit, external audit, compliance and assurance professionals who already work with financial information and need stronger analytical and audit execution skills. It is equally relevant to managers who review audit workpapers or respond to audit findings.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess audit risk using materiality, assertions and the audit risk model
  • Design risk-based audit plans with targeted control and substantive procedures
  • Perform analytical procedures using ratio, trend, reasonableness and expectation testing
  • Evaluate internal controls using COSO components and control-design criteria
  • Select and document audit samples using ISA 530 sampling principles
  • Assess the sufficiency and appropriateness of audit evidence and working papers
  • Investigate fraud indicators, unusual journal entries and management override risks
  • Draft evidence-based audit findings, recommendations and management responses

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make better-supported audit judgements when records or explanations are incomplete
  • Identify unusual balances and transactions before they become significant findings
  • Build workpapers that demonstrate clear linkage between risk, testing and conclusion
  • Challenge control owners and management using evidence rather than general concerns
  • Contribute more confidently to planning meetings, fieldwork reviews and closing discussions

For your organisation

  • More focused audit effort on high-risk balances, processes and transactions
  • Better quality workpapers that support internal review and external scrutiny
  • Earlier identification of control failures, fraud indicators and reporting errors
  • More actionable audit findings with clear causes, impacts and recommendations
  • Improved consistency across audit teams, assignments and reporting standards

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame an audit assignment around relevant risks, assertions, materiality and professional judgement.

  • Audit risk model linking inherent, control and detection risk assessments
  • Assertions for transactions, balances, presentation and disclosure under ISA 315
  • Materiality thresholds derived from financial statement users and planning judgements
  • Professional scepticism applied when evidence conflicts with management explanations
  • Engagement terms, independence threats and safeguards documented before fieldwork begins
  • Audit strategy distinguishing reliance on controls from substantive procedures

Participants can produce a focused audit plan that links business risks to audit responses.

  • Business-process walkthroughs tracing transactions from initiation through financial reporting
  • Risk registers connecting events, assertions, controls and planned audit responses
  • Planning memoranda recording scope, timing, staffing and key audit judgements
  • Significant-account identification using materiality, volatility and inherent-risk indicators
  • Prior-year findings assessed for unresolved causes and recurring control weaknesses
  • Fraud brainstorming structured around incentives, opportunities, rationalisation and management override

Participants can assess control design and implementation using a structured control framework.

  • COSO components mapped to governance, risk assessment and control activities
  • Control objectives defined for revenue, procurement, payroll and cash processes
  • Preventive, detective and corrective controls distinguished by timing and purpose
  • Segregation-of-duties conflicts identified through approval, custody and recording responsibilities
  • Walkthrough evidence used to confirm control design and implementation
  • Control matrices linking risks, control activities, owners, evidence and tests

Participants can develop and investigate analytical expectations for material financial statement areas.

  • ISA 520 analytical procedures applied during planning, testing and completion
  • Horizontal analysis comparing current results with prior periods and budgets
  • Ratio analysis examining liquidity, profitability, efficiency and solvency movements
  • Reasonableness tests built from operational drivers, prices, volumes and headcount
  • Expectation thresholds set using precision, materiality and reliability of data
  • Variance investigations corroborated with contracts, invoices, explanations and subsequent events

Participants can design samples and tests that address defined audit objectives and populations.

  • ISA 530 sampling concepts covering population, sampling risk and tolerable misstatement
  • Test objectives translated into procedures, populations, selections and expected evidence
  • Random, systematic, haphazard and targeted selection methods compared appropriately
  • Stratification separating high-value, unusual and routine transactions before selection
  • Sample-size factors evaluated for control tests and substantive testing
  • Exceptions projected, investigated and assessed against tolerable deviation or misstatement

Participants can evaluate evidence quality and prepare workpapers that support clear conclusions.

  • Sufficiency and appropriateness assessed by relevance, reliability and source independence
  • Inspection, observation, inquiry, confirmation, recalculation and reperformance compared
  • External confirmations controlled through request preparation, dispatch and response evaluation
  • Audit documentation showing purpose, population, work performed, results and conclusion
  • Cross-referencing methods linking lead schedules, tests, exceptions and financial statements
  • Review notes resolved with evidence, judgement rationale and documented clearance

Participants can identify fraud risk indicators and determine appropriate audit responses.

  • Fraud triangle used to assess pressure, opportunity and rationalisation indicators
  • Journal-entry testing targeting unusual users, dates, amounts and account combinations
  • Management override risks addressed through estimates, adjustments and related-party transactions
  • Duplicate-payment indicators identified through supplier, invoice, amount and bank-data matching
  • Revenue-recognition red flags examined against contracts, delivery evidence and credit notes
  • Errors and suspected fraud escalated through defined reporting and investigation protocols

Participants can use structured spreadsheet analysis to identify exceptions and prioritise testing.

  • Data-quality checks identifying missing fields, duplicates, invalid dates and outliers
  • Pivot tables summarising transactions by supplier, account, location and period
  • Benford's Law used cautiously to screen selected transaction populations
  • Ageing analyses identifying overdue receivables, dormant items and unusual movements
  • Exception filters targeting threshold breaches, weekend postings and split transactions
  • Audit trails preserved through source extracts, query logic and retained outputs

Participants can assess identified misstatements and form evidence-based audit conclusions.

  • Factual, judgemental and projected misstatements classified before aggregate evaluation
  • Uncorrected misstatements compared with materiality and qualitative reporting considerations
  • Subsequent-events review assessing post-period evidence affecting reported balances
  • Going-concern indicators evaluated using forecasts, covenant compliance and financing plans
  • Management representations assessed alongside corroborating evidence rather than accepted alone
  • Completion checklists confirming disclosures, findings, review points and final conclusions

Participants can communicate audit conclusions and plan application of the course methods.

  • Finding statements structured around condition, criteria, cause, effect and recommendation
  • Root-cause analysis using five whys and cause-and-effect diagrams
  • Risk ratings calibrated through likelihood, impact, control strength and exposure
  • Management responses assessed for ownership, actions, dates and measurable outcomes
  • Closing meetings prepared with evidence summaries, disputed points and agreed actions
  • Personal application plans prioritising audit templates for upcoming assignments

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Risk-based audit planning template
  2. Control risk and matrix template
  3. Analytical procedures workbook
  4. Audit sampling decision checklist
  5. Evidence and workpaper quality checklist
  6. Audit findings and action-tracking template

Who should attend

  • Internal Auditors — need sharper risk assessment, testing and findings-writing methods
  • External Auditors — need consistent analytical procedures and evidence evaluation
  • Finance Managers — need to prepare records and respond effectively to audit queries
  • Financial Controllers — need to identify control gaps and unusual financial movements
  • Compliance Officers — need to test controls and document assurance conclusions
  • Audit Supervisors — need to review workpapers and challenge audit judgements

Skills and tools covered

Audit risk assessmentAnalytical proceduresControl evaluationAudit samplingEvidence evaluationFindings reporting

Tools and standards

ISA 315, ISA 520, ISA 530, COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish methods and standards, followed by case-based analysis of financial statements, controls, transactions and audit files. Participants work in groups to assess risks, develop expectations, test evidence, select samples and draft findings. Simulations recreate planning discussions, management explanations and audit-review challenges. Facilitated debriefs compare alternative judgements and connect each method to workplace assignments. Individual application planning helps participants transfer the templates and techniques to upcoming audit work.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic financial statements, accounting entries and common business processes such as purchasing, payroll, revenue and cash management. Experience in finance, accounting, compliance, internal audit, external audit or operational assurance is expected. Participants should be comfortable reading a trial balance, income statement, balance sheet and supporting schedules. Prior audit training is helpful but not essential. The course does not require professional-accountancy membership, advanced statistical knowledge, programming skills or specialist audit software experience.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic financial statements and have experience in finance, accounting, compliance or assurance work. Previous audit training is helpful but not required; the course builds the audit methods from their practical use.

Bring a laptop if possible, as spreadsheet-based analysis is discussed during the course. You may also bring a non-confidential example of an audit issue, process map or reporting challenge for use in your application planning.

It is suited to internal and external auditors, finance managers, controllers, compliance officers and audit supervisors. Participants benefit most when they review transactions, test controls, prepare audit evidence or respond to findings.

Financial statement analysis focuses primarily on interpreting performance and financial position, while this course uses analysis to support audit decisions and testing. Internal audit fundamentals courses introduce the function and audit cycle; this course concentrates on intermediate analytical, evidence and reporting skills.

Participants receive reusable templates for planning, control assessment, analytical review, sampling, evidence evaluation and findings reporting. The final module converts these into a personal plan for an upcoming assignment or review.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided across ten teaching modules, with instructor input, cases, group analysis, simulations, discussion and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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