ACC 675 Milestone One Guidelines and Rubric

Companies today must ensure that operational processes are performing efficiently and effectively in compliance with current regulations. Accountants must adhere to domestic standards set by organizations—such as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Financial Accounting and Standards Board—as well as global standards, such as the International Financial Reporting Standards, requiring appropriate implementation and assessment of internal controls. Whether developing appropriate processes internally or preparing substantive testing, external auditors must be able to quickly and completely assess the financial processes, determine weaknesses, and provide recommendations for improvement.

The ability to transcribe formalized or narrative processes into functional workflows allows an auditor to identify potential gaps in accounting systems. These gaps can result in material audit findings necessitating changes in the company’s control structure.

However, it is not only the process and flow of transactions that requires scrutiny. Companies evolve into sophisticated, computerized systems that require an in depth understanding of administrative rights, electronic process flows, and end user reporting.

 

In this case study, you will apply all of these skills in developing recommendations for Trinity Industries. Though the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) promulgated many internal control structure changes, the company is unsure as to whether they are applying too few or too many internal controls. Unnecessary controls place added burden on staff and cost the company thousands of dollars in monitoring and maintenance.

 

For Milestone One, prepare an overview of Trinity Industries. Provide an overview of the company and its market industry. Include background, key market demographics, financial position, and governance policies in your company overview. By understanding the industry, you will gain valuable insight into the appropriate software systems that will provide industry-specific needs and financial reporting. You will need this information to conduct your case study.

 

Prompt: Provide a company overview report of Trinity Industries and its market industry, including background, key market demographics, financial position, and governance policies.

 

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

 

Address the following seven subjects:

 

1. Overview of the organization
2. Size of the organization
3. Sector/industry (along with three other companies that would be comparable) d) Structure/line of businesses
4. Organizational structure (organization chart)
5. Yearly performance in terms of revenue (as compared with the three other companies identified)
6. Management and culture (i.e., how long key staff has been employed, stability of the company over the history, growth in industry)

 

Rubric

Guidelines for Submission: Your company overview report must be submitted as a 1–2-page Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and at least three sources cited in APA format.

 

Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade Center. For more information, review these instructions.

 

Critical Elements	Proficient (100%)	Needs Improvement (75%)	Not Evident (0%)	Value
Overview: Organization	Provides a comprehensive overview of the organization, including size, sector, and industry	Provides an overview of the organization but overview is cursory or lacks detail	Does not provide an overview of the organization	24
Overview: Structure	Describes structure of organization, including organizational chart	Description of organization and/or organizational chart lacks detail or components	Does not provide a description of organizational structure	24
Overview: Yearly Performance	Compares yearly revenue performance of organization with three other companies in the sector/industry	Overview of yearly revenue performance is not compared to at least three others in the sector/industry	Does not compare yearly performance of organization with three other companies in the sector/industry	24
Overview: Management and Culture	Discusses the management style and culture in organization	Discussion of management style and culture is cursory or lacks detail	Does not include a discussion of management style and culture in organization	24
Articulation of Response	Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization	Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas	Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas	4
			Earned Total	100%