Uploaded bysambousundus
15 views

The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083

The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083 The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083 The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083

Embed presentation

Download to read offline
Download the full version and explore a variety of ebooks or text books at https://ebookball.com The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083 _____ Follow the link below to get your download now _____ https://ebookball.com/product/the-operational-auditing- handbook-auditing-business-and-it-processes-1st-edition-by- andrew-chambers-graham-rand-isbn-9781119991083-15848/ Access ebookball.com now to download high-quality ebooks or textbooks
Here are some recommended products for you. Click the link to download, or explore more at ebookball.com IT Auditing Using Controls to Protect Information Assets 1st Edition by Chris Davis, Mike Schiller, Kevin Wheeler ISBN 0072263431 9780072263435 https://ebookball.com/product/it-auditing-using-controls-to-protect- information-assets-1st-edition-by-chris-davis-mike-schiller-kevin- wheeler-isbn-0072263431-9780072263435-12324/ Auditing Information and Cyber Security Governance A Controls Based Approach 1st edition by Robert Davis 1000416127 9781000416121 https://ebookball.com/product/auditing-information-and-cyber-security- governance-a-controls-based-approach-1st-edition-by-robert- davis-1000416127-9781000416121-20148/ IT and Computer 1st edition by Andrew Tanenbaum https://ebookball.com/product/it-and-computer-1st-edition-by-andrew- tanenbaum-25064/ Governance of the Extended Enterprise Bridging Business and IT Strategies 1st edition by IT Governance Institute 047133443X 9780471334439 https://ebookball.com/product/governance-of-the-extended-enterprise- bridging-business-and-it-strategies-1st-edition-by-it-governance- institute-047133443x-9780471334439-8972/
Can Do Writing The Proven Ten Step System for Fast and Effective Business Writing 1st Edition by Daniel Graham, Judith Graham 0470449799 9780470449790 https://ebookball.com/product/can-do-writing-the-proven-ten-step- system-for-fast-and-effective-business-writing-1st-edition-by-daniel- graham-judith-graham-0470449799-9780470449790-11448/ Business Cornwall wearing it well 1st Edition by Business Cornwall ISBN 9772514842001 https://ebookball.com/product/business-cornwall-wearing-it-well-1st- edition-by-business-cornwall-isbn-9772514842001-23836/ Operational Research Methods in Business Finance and Economics 1st Edition by Constantin Zopounidis, Liadaki Angeliki, Eskantar Marianna ISBN 9783031312410 3031312414 https://ebookball.com/product/operational-research-methods-in- business-finance-and-economics-1st-edition-by-constantin-zopounidis- liadaki-angeliki-eskantar-marianna- isbn-9783031312410-3031312414-24880/ The Secure Online Business E Commerce It Functionality and Business Continuity 1st edition by Adam Jolly,George Cox ISBN 074943936X ‎ 978-0749439361 https://ebookball.com/product/the-secure-online-business-e-commerce- it-functionality-and-business-continuity-1st-edition-by-adam-jolly- george-cox-isbn-074943936x-aeurz-978-0749439361-14420/ Operational Terms and Graphics 1st Edition by Department of the Army ISBN 1973920514 9781973920519 https://ebookball.com/product/operational-terms-and-graphics-1st- edition-by-department-of-the-army-isbn-1973920514-9781973920519-14286/
This page intentionally left blank
The Operational Auditing Handbook
This page intentionally left blank
The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes Second Edition Andrew Chambers Graham Rand A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., Publication
This edition first published 2010 © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Registered office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com. The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chambers, Andrew D. The operational auditing handbook : auditing business and IT processes / Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand.—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-74476-5 1. Management audit. I. Rand, G. V. (Graham V.) II. Title. HD58.95.C48 2010 658.4013—dc22 2009054377 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in 10/12 Times by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Contents Preface xv Acknowledgements xvii Part I Understanding Operational Auditing 1 1 APPROACHES TO OPERATIONAL AUDITING 3 Definitions of “Operational Auditing” 3 Scope 4 Audit Approach to Operational Audits 12 Resourcing the Internal Audit of Technical Activities 16 Productivity and Performance Measurement Systems 19 Value for Money (VFM) Auditing 22 Benchmarking 23 2 BUSINESS PROCESSES 27 Introduction 27 An Audit Universe of Business Processes 28 Self Assessment of Business Processes 30 A Hybrid Audit Universe 30 Reasons For Process Weaknesses 30 Identifying the Processes of an Organisation 32 Why Adopt a “Cycle” or “Process” Approach to Internal Control Design and Review? 35 Business Processes in the Standard Audit Programme Guides 35 The Hallmarks of a Good Business Process 36 Academic Cycles in a University 37
vi CONTENTS 3 DEVELOPING OPERATIONAL REVIEW PROGRAMMES FOR MANAGERIAL AND AUDIT USE 40 Scope 40 Practical Use of SAPGs 41 Format of SAPGs 45 Risk in Operational Auditing 50 4 GOVERNANCE PROCESSES 75 Introduction 75 Internal Control Processes being Part of Risk Management Processes 75 Risk Management Processes being Part of Governance Processes 76 Objectives of Governance, Risk Management and Control Processes 77 The COSO View of Objectives 78 Should there be a Single Set of Objectives? 80 The Internal Governance Processes 81 The Board and External Aspects of Corporate Governance 81 The Board’s Assurance Vacuum 82 Risk and Control Issues for Internal Governance Processes 84 Risk and Control Issues for the Board 87 Risk and Control Issues for External Governance Processes 90 5 RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESSES 95 Introduction 95 Objectives of Risk Management 95 Essential Components of Effective Risk Management 98 The Scope of Internal Audit’s Role in Risk Management 99 Tools for Risk Management 101 The Risk Matrix 101 Risk Registers 106 Risk Management Challenges 107 Control Issues for Risk Management Processes 112 6 INTERNAL CONTROL PROCESSES 116 Introduction 116 Paradigm 1: COSO on Internal Control 118 Paradigm 2: Turnbull on Internal Control 128 Paradigm 3: COCO on Internal Control 129 Paradigm 4: A Systems/Cybernetics Model of Internal Control 130 Paradigm 5: Control by Division with Supervision 135 Paradigm 6: Control by Category 137
CONTENTS vii The Objectives of Internal Control 139 Determining Whether Internal Control is Effective 141 Control Cost-Effectiveness Considerations 142 Issues for Internal Control Processes 143 7 REVIEW OF THE CONTROL ENVIRONMENT 147 Introduction 147 Control Objectives for a Review of the Control Environment 147 Risk and Control Issues for a Review of the Control Environment 148 Fraud 149 8 REVIEWING INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING—THE SARBANES-OXLEY APPROACH 151 Introduction 151 Costs and Benefits 154 2007 SOX-LITE 155 Revised Definitions of “Significant Deficiency” and “Material Weakness” 156 Using a Recognised Internal Control Framework for the Assessment 157 Risk and Control Issues for the Sarbanes-Oxley s. 302 and s. 404 Compliance Process 171 9 BUSINESS/MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AND THEIR IMPACT ON CONTROL AND AUDIT 178 Introduction 178 Business Process Re-Engineering 178 Total Quality Management 181 Delayering 187 Empowerment 189 Outsourcing 191 Just-In-Time Management (JIT) 195 10 CONTROL SELF ASSESSMENT 199 Introduction 199 Survey and Workshop Approaches to CSA 200 Selecting Workshop Participants 200 Where to Apply CSA 200 CSA Roles for Management and for Internal Audit 201 Avoiding Line Management Disillusionment 202 Encouragement from the Top 203
viii CONTENTS Facilitating CSA Workshops, and Training for CSA 204 Anonymous Voting Systems 205 Comparing CSA with Internal Audit 205 Control Self Assessment as Reassurance for Internal Audit 206 A Hybrid Approach—Integrating Internal Auditing Engagements with CSA Workshops 206 Workshop Formats 207 Utilising CoCo in CSA 208 Readings 210 Control Self Assessment 210 11 EVALUATING THE INTERNAL AUDIT ACTIVITY 214 Introduction 214 Ongoing Monitoring 214 Periodic Internal Reviews 215 External Reviews 216 Common Weaknesses Noted by Quality Assurance Reviews 217 Internal Audit Maturity Models 218 Effective Measuring of Internal Auditing’s Contribution to the Enterprise’s Profitability 219 Control Objectives for the Internal Audit Activity 232 Part II Auditing Key Functions 237 12 AUDITING THE FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING FUNCTIONS 239 Introduction 239 System/Function Components of the Financial and Accounting Environment 239 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 240 Treasury 241 Payroll 243 Accounts Payable 246 Accounts Receivable 248 General Ledger/Management Accounts 251 Fixed Assets (and Capital Charges) 253 Budgeting and Monitoring 256 Bank Accounts and Banking Arrangements 258 Sales Tax (VAT) Accounting 261 Taxation 263 Inventories 266 Product/Project Accounting 268
CONTENTS ix Petty Cash and Expenses 270 Financial Information and Reporting 272 Investments 274 13 AUDITING SUBSIDIARIES, REMOTE OPERATING UNITS AND JOINT VENTURES 276 Introduction 276 Fact Finding 277 High Level Review Programme 278 Joint Ventures 279 14 AUDITING CONTRACTS AND THE PURCHASING FUNCTION 285 Introduction 285 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 285 Contracting 289 Contract Management Environment 290 Assessing the Viability and Competence of Contractors 295 Maintaining an Approved List of Contractors 297 Tendering Procedures 299 Contracting and Tendering Documentation 302 Selection and Letting of Contracts 304 Performance Monitoring 306 Valuing Work for Interim Payments 308 Contractor’s Final Account 310 Review of Project Outturn and Performance 313 15 AUDITING OPERATIONS AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 317 Introduction 317 System/Function Components of a Production/Manufacturing Environment 318 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 318 Planning and Production Control 318 Facilities, Plant and Equipment 321 Personnel 324 Materials and Energy 327 Quality Control 330 Safety 332 Environmental Issues 335 Law and Regulatory Compliance 338 Maintenance 339
x CONTENTS 16 AUDITING MARKETING AND SALES 343 Introduction 343 System/Function Components of the Marketing and Sales Functions 343 General Comments 344 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 344 Product Development 345 Market Research 348 Promotion and Advertising 350 Pricing and Discount Policies 353 Sales Management 355 Sales Performance and Monitoring 359 Distributors 362 Relationship with the Parent Company 366 Agents 368 Order Processing 371 Warranty Arrangements 375 Maintenance and Servicing 377 Spare Parts and Supply 380 17 AUDITING DISTRIBUTION 383 Introduction 383 System/Function Components of Distribution 383 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 384 Distribution, Transport and Logistics 384 Distributors 388 Stock Control 392 Warehousing and Storage 395 18 AUDITING HUMAN RESOURCES 399 Introduction 399 System/Function Components of the Personnel Function 399 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 399 Human Resources Department 400 Recruitment 404 Manpower and Succession Planning 408 Staff Training and Development 410 Welfare 413 Performance-Related Compensation, Pension Schemes (and other Benefits) 415 Health Insurance 422 Staff Appraisal and Disciplinary Matters 424 Health and Safety 427
CONTENTS xi Labour Relations 430 Company Vehicles 432 19 AUDITING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 437 Introduction 437 System/Function Components of Research and Development 437 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 437 Product Development 438 Project Appraisal and Monitoring 442 Plant and Equipment 445 Development Project Management 447 Legal and Regulatory Issues 450 20 AUDITING SECURITY 453 Introduction 453 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 454 Security 454 Health and Safety 457 Insurance 460 21 AUDITING ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY 463 Introduction 463 Environmental Auditing 465 The Emergence of Environmental Concerns 465 EMAS—The European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme 466 Linking Environmental Issues to Corporate Strategy and Securing Benefits 467 Environmental Assessment and Auditing System Considerations 468 The Role of Internal Audit 470 Example Programme 470 Part III Auditing Information Technology 477 22 AUDITING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 479 Introduction 479 Introduction to Recognised Standards Related to Information Technology and Related Topics 480
xii CONTENTS System/Function Components of Information Technology and Management 486 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 488 23 IT STRATEGIC PLANNING 489 24 IT ORGANISATION 493 25 IT POLICY FRAMEWORK 496 26 INFORMATION ASSET REGISTER 502 27 CAPACITY MANAGEMENT 511 28 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (IM) 514 29 RECORDS MANAGEMENT (RM) 524 30 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM) 542 31 IT SITES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (INCLUDING PHYSICAL SECURITY) 554 32 PROCESSING OPERATIONS 559 33 BACK-UP AND MEDIA MANAGEMENT 562 34 REMOVABLE MEDIA 566 35 SYSTEM AND OPERATING SOFTWARE (INCLUDING PATCH MANAGEMENT) 570 36 SYSTEM ACCESS CONTROL (LOGICAL SECURITY) 576 37 PERSONAL COMPUTERS (INCLUDING LAPTOPS AND PDAs) 580
CONTENTS xiii 38 REMOTE WORKING 585 39 EMAIL 590 40 INTERNET USAGE 598 41 SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE (INCLUDING CHANGE MANAGEMENT) 605 42 NETWORKS 609 43 DATABASES 613 44 DATA PROTECTION 616 45 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 627 46 DATA TRANSFER AND SHARING (STANDARDS AND PROTOCOL) 636 47 LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES 645 48 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT 648 49 SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT 651 50 SOFTWARE SELECTION 655 51 CONTINGENCY PLANNING 658 52 HUMAN RESOURCES INFORMATION SECURITY 661 53 MONITORING AND LOGGING 667 54 INFORMATION SECURITY INCIDENTS 671 55 DATA RETENTION AND DISPOSAL 680
Other documents randomly have different content
I listened, spellbound. “I thought you and Betty didn’t like to play Pretend,” I was surprised into saying. “Why, we’ll pretend if there’s anything to pretend about that’s real,” said Margaret Amelia, haughtily. They told us where in the palace the various ingredients were likely to be found. Red mosquito-netting, perhaps, in the cellar—at this time of day fairly safe. Red and violet ink in the library—very dangerous indeed at this hour. Cold coffee—almost unobtainable. Green tissue paper, to be taken from the flower-pots in the dining- room—exceedingly dangerous. Blue and orange, if discoverable at all, then in the Christmas tree box in the trunk room—attended by few perils as to meetings en route, but in respect to appropriating what was desired, by the greatest perils of all. This last adventure the Rodmans themselves heroically undertook. It was also conceded that, on their return from their quest—provided they ever did return alive—it would be theirs to procure the necessary cold coffee. The other adventures were distributed, and Mary Elizabeth and I were told off together to penetrate the cellar in search of red mosquito-netting. The bottles had already been collected, and these little Harold Rodman was left to guard and luxuriously to fill with water and luxuriously to empty. There was an outside cellar door, and it was closed. This invited Mary Elizabeth and me to an expedition or two before we even entered. We slid from the top to the bottom, sitting, standing, and backward. Then, since Harold was beginning to observe us with some attention, we lifted the ring—the ring—in the door and descended. “Aladdin immediately beheld bags of inexhaustible riches,” said Mary Elizabeth, almost reverently.
First, there was a long, narrow passage lined with ash barrels, a derelict coal scuttle, starch boxes, mummies of brooms, and the like. But at this point if we had chanced on the red mosquito-netting, we should have felt distinctly cheated of some right. A little farther on, however, the passage branched, and we stood in delighted uncertainty. If the giant lived one way and the gorgon the other, which was our way? The way that we did choose led into a small round cellar, lighted by a narrow, dusty window, now closed. Formless things stood everywhere—crates, tubs, shelves whose ghostly contents were shrouded by newspapers. It occurred to me that I had never yet told Mary Elizabeth about our cellar. I decided to do so then and there. She backed up against the wall to listen, manifestly so that there should be nothing over her shoulder. Our cellar was a round, bricked-in place under the dining-room. Sometimes I had been down there while they had been selecting preserves by candle-light. And I had long ago settled that the curved walls were set with little sealed doors behind each of which He sat. These He’s were not in the least unfriendly—they merely sat there close to the wall, square shouldered and very still, looking neither to right nor left, waiting. Probably, I thought, it might happen some day —whatever they waited for; and then they would all go away. Meanwhile, there they were; and they evidently knew that I knew they were there, but they evidently did not expect me to mention it; for once, when I did so, they all stopped doing nothing and looked at me, all together, as if something used their eyes for them at a signal. It was to Mary Gilbraith that I had spoken, while she was at our house-cleaning, and the moment I had chosen was when she was down in the cellar without a candle and I was lying flat on the floor above her, peering down the trap doorway. “Mary,” I said, “they’s a big row of He’s sitting close together inside the wall. They’ve got big foreheads. Bang on the wall and see
if they’ll answer—” for I had always longed to bang and had never quite dared. “Oh, my great Scotland!” said Mary Gilbraith, and was up the ladder in a second. That was when they looked at me, and then I knew that I should not have spoken to her about them, and I began to see that there are some things that must not be said. And I felt a kind of shame, too, when Mary turned on me. “You little Miss,” she said wrathfully, “with your big eyes. An’ myself bitin’ on my own nerves for fear of picking up a lizard for a potato. Go play.” “I was playing,” I tried to explain. “Play playthings, then, and not ha’nts,” said Mary. So I never said anything more to her, save about plates and fritters and such things. To this recital Mary Elizabeth listened sympathetically. “There’s just one great big one lives down in our cellar,” she confided in turn. “Not in the wall—but out loose. When the apples and stuff go down there, I always think how glad he is.” “Are you afraid of him?” I asked. “Afraid!” Mary Elizabeth repeated. “Why, no. Once, when I was down there, I tried to pretend there wasn’t anything lived there— and then it was frightening and I was scared.” I understood. It would indeed be a great, lonely, terrifying world if these little friendly folk did not live in cellars, walls, attics, stair- closets and the like. Of course they were friendly. Why should they be otherwise? “R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-t,” something went, close by Mary Elizabeth’s head.
We looked up. The dimness of the ceiling was miles deep. We could not see a ceiling. “St-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t,” it went again. And this time it did not stop, and it began to be accompanied by a rumbling sound as from the very cave inside the world. Mary Elizabeth and I took hold of hands and ran. We scrambled up the steps and escaped to the sultry welcome of bright day. Out there everything was as before. Little Harold was crossing the lawn carrying a flower-pot of water which was running steadily from the hole in the bottom. With the maternal importance of little girls, we got the jar from him and undertook to bring him more water. And when he led us to the source of supply, this was a faucet in the side of the house just beyond a narrow, dusty, cellar window. When he turned the faucet, we were, so to speak, face to face with that R-s-t- t-t-t-t. Mary Elizabeth and I looked at each other and looked away. Then we looked back and braved it through. “Anyway,” she said, “we were afraid of a truly thing, and not of a pretend thing.” There seemed to us, I recall, a certain loyalty in this as to a creed. Already Delia had returned from the library. The authorities refused the ink. One might come in there and write with it, but one must not take it from the table. Calista arrived from the dining-room. A waiting-woman to the queen, she reported, was engaged in dusting the sideboard and she herself had advanced no farther than the pantry door. It remained only for Margaret Amelia and Betty to come from their farther quest bearing a green handbill which they thought might take the place of Calista’s quarry if she returned empty-handed; but we were no nearer than before to blue and orange materials, or to any other.
We took counsel and came to a certain ancient conclusion that in union there is strength. We must, we thought we saw, act the aggressor. We moved on the stronghold together. Armed with a spoon and two bottles, we found a keeper of properties within who spooned us out the necessary ink; tea was promised to take the place of coffee if we would keep out of the house and not bother anybody any more, indefinitely; shoe-polish was conceded in a limited quantity, briefly, and under inspection; and we all descended into Aladdin’s cave and easily found baskets to which red mosquito- netting was clinging in sufficient measure. Then we sat in the shade of the side lawn and proceeded to colour many waters. It was a delicate task to cloud the clear liquid to this tint and that, to watch it change expression under our hands, pale, deepen, vary to our touch; in its heart to set jewels and to light fires. We worked with deep deliberation, testing by old standards of taste set up by at least two or three previous experiences, consulting one another’s soberest judgment, occasionally inventing a new liquid. I remember that it was on that day that we first thought of bluing. Common washing bluing, the one substance really intended for colouring water, had so far escaped our notice. “Somebody,” observed Margaret Amelia, as we worked, “ought to keep keeping a look-out to see if they’re coming back.” Delia, who was our man of action, ran to the clothes-reel, which stood on the highest land of the castle grounds, and looked away over the valley. “There’s a cloud of dust on the horizon,” she reported, “but I think it’s Mr. Wells getting home from Caledonia.” “Wouldn’t they blare their horns before they got here?” Mary Elizabeth wanted to know. “What was a knight for, anyway?” Delia demanded.
“For?” Margaret Amelia repeated, in a kind of personal indignation. “Why, to—to—to right wrongs, of course.” Delia surveyed the surrounding scene through the diluted red ink in a glass-stoppered bottle. “I guess I know that,” she said. “But I mean, what was his job?” We had never thought of that. Did one, then, have to have a job other than righting wrongs? Margaret Amelia undertook to explain. “Why,” she said, “it was this way: Knights liberated damsels and razed down strongholds and took robber chieftains and got into adventures. And they lived off the king and off hermits.” “But what was the end of ’em?” Delia wanted to know. “They never married and lived happily ever after. They married and just kept right on going.” “That was on account of the Holy Grail,” said Mary Elizabeth. It was wonderful, as I look back, to remember how her face would light sometimes; as just then, and as when somebody came to school with the first violets. “The what?” said Delia. “They woke up in the night sometimes,” Mary Elizabeth recited softly, “and they saw it, in light, right there inside their dark cell. And they looked and looked, and it was all shiny and near-to. And when they saw it, they knew about all the principal things. And those that never woke up and saw it, always kept trying to, because they knew they weren’t really ones till they saw. Most everybody wasn’t really, because only a few saw it. Most of them died and never saw it at all.”
“What did it look like?” demanded Delia. “Hush!” said Calista, with a shocked glance, having somewhere picked up the impression that very sacred things, like very wicked things, must never be mentioned. But Mary Elizabeth did not heed her. “It was all shining and near to,” she repeated. “It was in a great, dark sky, with great, bright worlds falling all around it, but it was in the centre and it didn’t fall. It was all still, and brighter than anything; and when you saw it, you never forgot.” There was a moment’s pause, which Delia broke. “How do you know?” she demanded. Mary Elizabeth was clouding red mosquito-netting water by shaking soap in it, an effect much to be desired. She went on shaking the corked bottle, and looking away toward the sun slanting to late afternoon. “I don’t know how I know,” she said in manifest surprise. “But I know.” We sat silent for a minute. “Well, I’m going back to see if they’re coming home from the hunt now,” said Delia, scrambling up. “From the chase,” Margaret Amelia corrected her loftily, “and from the tourmey. I b’lieve,” she corrected herself conscientiously, “that had ought to be tourmament.” This time Delia thought that she saw them coming, the king and his knights, with pennons and plumes, just entering Conant Street down by the Brices. As we must be ready by the time the party dismounted, there was need for the greatest haste. But we found
that the clothes-reel, which was to be the fountain, must have a rug and should have flowing curtains if it were to grace a castle courtyard; so, matters having been further delayed by the discovery of Harold about to drink the vanilla water, we concluded that we had been mistaken about the approach of the knights; and that they were by now only on the bridge. A journey to the attic for the rug and curtains resulted in delays, the sight of some cast-off garments imperatively suggesting the fitness of our dressing for the rôle we were to assume. This took some time and was accompanied by the selection of new names all around. At last, however, we were back in the yard with the rugs and the muslin curtains in place, and the array of coloured bottles set up in rows at the top of the carpeted steps. Then we arranged ourselves behind these delicacies, in our bravery of old veils and scarves and tattered sequins. Harold was below, as a page, in a red sash. “A little foot-page,” Margaret Amelia had wanted him called, but this he himself vetoed. “Mine feet big feet,” he defended himself. Then we waited. We waited, chatted amiably, as court ladies will. Occasionally we rose and scanned the street, and reported that they were almost here. Then we resumed our seats and waited. This business had distinctly palled on us all when Delia faced it. “Let’s have them get here if they’re going to,” she said. So we sat and told each other that they were entering the yard, that they were approaching the dais, that they were kneeling at our feet. But it was unconvincing. None of us really wanted them to kneel or knew what to do with them when they did kneel. The whole pretence was lacking in action, and very pale.
“It was lots more fun getting ready than this is,” said Calista, somewhat brutally. We stared in one another’s faces, feeling guilty of a kind of disloyalty, yet compelled to acknowledge this great truth. In our hearts we remembered to have noticed this thing before: That getting ready for a thing was more fun than doing that thing. “Why couldn’t we get a quest?” inquired Margaret Amelia. “Then it wouldn’t have to stop. It’d last every day.” That was the obvious solution: We would get a quest. “Girls can’t quest, can they?” Betty suggested doubtfully. We looked in one another’s faces. Could it be true? Did the damsels sit at home? Was it only the knights who quested? Delia was a free soul. Forthwith she made a precedent. “Well,” she said, “I don’t know whether they did quest. But they can quest. So let’s do it.” The reason in this appealed to us all. Immediately we confronted the problem: What should we quest for? We stared off over the valley through which the little river ran shining and slipped beyond our horizon. “I wonder,” said Mary Elizabeth, “if it would be wrong to quest for the Holy Grail now.” We stood there against the west, where bright doors seemed opening in the pouring gold of the sun, thick with shining dust. The glory seemed very near. Why not do something beautiful? Why not— why not....
THE following pages contain advertisements of Macmillan books by the same author, and new fiction
By the Same Author Christmas By ZONA GALE Author of “Mothers to Men,” “The Loves of Pelleas and Etarre.” Illustrated in colors by Leon Solon. Decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.30 net; postpaid, $1.42 A town in the Middle West, pinched with poverty, decides that it will have no Christmas, as no one can afford to buy gifts. They perhaps foolishly reckon that the heart-burnings and the disappointments of the children will be obviated by passing the holiday season over with no observance. How this was found to be simply and wholly impossible, how the Christmas joys and Christmas spirit crept into the little town and into the hearts of its most positive objectors, and how Christmas cannot be arbitrated about, make up the basis of a more than ordinarily appealing novel. Incidentally it is a little boy who really makes possible a delightful outcome. A thread of romance runs through it all with something of the meaning of Christmas for the individual human being and for the race.
“A fine story of Yuletide impulses in Miss Gale’s best style.”—N. Y. World. “No living writer more thoroughly understands the true spirit of Christmas than does Zona Gale.”— Chicago Record-Herald. “‘Christmas’ is that rare thing, a Yuletide tale, with a touch of originality about it.”—N. Y. Press. “The book is just the thing for a gift.”—Chicago Tribune.
The Other Books of Miss Gale Mothers to Men Decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net; by mail, $1.62 net The author is singularly successful in detaching herself from all the wear and tear of modern life and has produced a book filled with sweetness, beautiful in ideas, charming in characterizations, highly contemplative, and evidencing a philosophy of life all her own. “One of the most widely read of our writers of short fiction.”—The Bookman. Friendship Village Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net “As charming as an April day, all showers and sunshine, and sometimes both together, so that the delighted reader hardly knows
whether laughter or tears are fittest.”—The New York Times. The Loves of Pelleas and Etarre Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net Macmillan Fiction Library 12mo, $.50 net “It contains the sort of message that seems to set the world right for even the most depressed, and can be depended upon to sweeten every moment spent over it.”—San Francisco Chronicle. Friendship Village Love Stories Decorated cloth, gilt top, 12mo, $1.50 net Miss Gale’s pleasant and highly individual outlook upon life has never been revealed to better advantage than in these charming stories of the heart affairs of the young people of Friendship Village.
New Macmillan Fiction MRS. WATTS’S NEW NOVEL Van Cleve By MARY S. WATTS Author of “Nathan Burke,” “The Legacy,” etc. Cloth, 12mo. Never has the author of “Nathan Burke” and “The Legacy” written more convincingly or appealingly than in this story of modern life. Those who have enjoyed the intense realism of Mrs. Watts’s earlier work, the settings of which have largely been of the past, will welcome this book of the present in which she demonstrates that her skill is no less in handling scenes and types of people with which we are familiar than in the so-called “historical” novel. “Van Cleve” is about a young man who, while still in his early twenties, is obliged to support a family of foolish, good-
hearted, ill-balanced women, and one shiftless, pompous old man, his grandmother, aunt, cousin, and uncle. Van Cleve proves himself equal to the obligation—and equal, too, to many other severe tests that are put upon him by his friends. Besides him there is one character which it is doubtful whether the reader will ever forget—Bob. His life not only shapes Van Cleve’s to a large extent, but that of several other people, notably his sister, the girl whom Van Cleve loves in his patient way.
The Valley of the Moon By JACK LONDON With Frontispiece in Colors by George Harper Decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.35 net A love story in Mr. London’s most powerful style, strikingly contrasted against a background of present-day economic problems—that is what “The Valley of the Moon” is. The hero, teamster, prize-fighter, adventurer, man of affairs, is one of Mr. London’s unforgettable big men. The romance which develops out of his meeting with a charming girl and which does not end with their marriage is absorbingly told. The action of the plot is most rapid, one event following another in a fashion which does not allow the reader to lose interest even temporarily. “The Valley of the Moon” is, in other words, an old- fashioned London novel, with all of the entertainment that such a description implies. Robin Hood’s Barn By ALICE BROWN
Author of “Vanishing Points,” “The Secret of the Clan,” “The Country Road,” etc. With Illustrations in Colors and in Black and White by H. M. Carpenter Decorated cloth, 12mo, $0.00 net Miss Brown’s previous books have given her a distinguished reputation as an interpreter of New England life. The idealism, the quaint humor, the skill in character drawing, and the dramatic force which have always marked her work are evident in this charming story of a dream that came true. The illustrations, the frontispiece being in colors, the others in black and white, are by Mr. Horace Carpenter, whose sympathetic craftsmanship is widely known and appreciated.
Deering at Princeton By LATTA GRISWOLD Author of “Deering of Deal” With Illustrations by E. C. Caswell Decorated cloth, 12mo; preparing This is a college story that reads as a college story should. Here Mr. Griswold tells of Deering’s Princeton years from his freshman days to his graduation. A hazing adventure of far-reaching importance, a football game or two in which Deering has a hand, a reform in the eating club system, the fraternity régime of Princeton, initiated by Deering and carried through at the sacrifice of much that he values, a touch of sentiment centering around a pretty girl who later marries Deering’s roommate, besides many lively college happenings which only one familiar with the life could have chronicled, go to the making of an intensely interesting tale. Tide Marks By MARGARET WESTRUP Decorated cloth, 12mo; preparing
Publishers New York A novel of unusual interest and power told in a style both convincing and distinctive. Margaret Westrup promises to be one of the literary finds of the season. The Will to Live By M. P. WILLCOCKS Author of “The Wingless Victory,” etc. Cloth, 12mo; preparing In description, in vividness of character depiction, in cleverness of dialogue, and in skill of plot construction, Miss Willcocks’ previous books have displayed her rare ability. “The Will to Live” is perhaps her most mature work; it is a story with which one is sure to be satisfied when the last page is turned. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64–66 Fifth Avenue
Transcriber’s Note: In the advertisements at the end of the book, the price of $0.00 is as published. Variations in spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been retained as they appear in the original publication except as follows: Page 145 “We are all alike, all of us who live! changed to We are all alike, all of us who live! Page 229 resentfully “And now she’s in her changed to resentfully. “And now she’s in her Page 281 for this seemed a a good way changed to for this seemed a good way Page 286 I’ve fought everyone of changed to I’ve fought every one of Page 289 him and help him. changed to him and help him.” Page 396 London’s unforgetable big men changed to
London’s unforgettable big men
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to specialized publications, self-development books, and children's literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system, we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading. Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and personal growth! ebookball.com

More Related Content

PDF
The operational auditing handbook auditing businesses and IT processes 2nd ed...
byvinlslok124
 
PDF
Implementing And Auditing The Internal Control System Dimitris N Chorafas
byhaffiwajima87
 
PDF
The Internal Auditing Handbook.pdf
byRNHolder
 
PDF
The Internal Auditing Handbook 3rd Edition K. H. Spencer Pickett
byjolynsaror
 
PDF
It Audit Control And Security Wiley Corporate Fa Volume 13 2nd Robert Moeller
byzharasorahyb
 
PDF
IT Audit Control and Security Wiley Corporate F A Volume 13 2nd Edition Rober...
bybuthesaffouq
 
PDF
It Auditing And Sarbanesoxley Compliance Key Strategies For Business Improvem...
byschapalandhf
 
PDF
Managing Risk
bySkoda Minotti
 
The operational auditing handbook auditing businesses and IT processes 2nd ed...
byvinlslok124
 
Implementing And Auditing The Internal Control System Dimitris N Chorafas
byhaffiwajima87
 
The Internal Auditing Handbook.pdf
byRNHolder
 
The Internal Auditing Handbook 3rd Edition K. H. Spencer Pickett
byjolynsaror
 
It Audit Control And Security Wiley Corporate Fa Volume 13 2nd Robert Moeller
byzharasorahyb
 
IT Audit Control and Security Wiley Corporate F A Volume 13 2nd Edition Rober...
bybuthesaffouq
 
It Auditing And Sarbanesoxley Compliance Key Strategies For Business Improvem...
byschapalandhf
 
Managing Risk
bySkoda Minotti
 

Similar to The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083

PDF
Bestpractice Approaches To Internal Auditing Unknown
byzucarotesti86
 
PDF
IT Audit Control and Security Wiley Corporate F A Volume 13 2nd Edition Rober...
byduophidia
 
PDF
Internal controls toolkit First Edition Doxey
bybirrucolaw7o
 
PDF
Solution Manual for Internal Auditing Assurance and Consulting Services 2nd E...
bybizotaleiya
 
PPT
SEATA by TOMMY SEAH
byTommy Seah
 
PPTX
Performance audit adding value
byicgfmconference
 
PDF
Internal Audit and Risk Assesment for Audit
byDeepakChandekar1
 
PPTX
The importance of value for money and perfomance based audits
bypaul young cpa, cga
 
PPTX
Ahmedabad_Session_II.pptx dasdfasfasfafafaffafa
bymenakampr823116018
 
PPTX
Internal Audit Methodology
byManoj Agarwal
 
PDF
prof-elec-3-OPERATIONS-AUDITING-FULL.pdf
bydepozi1218
 
PPT
Compliance audit
byEmma Yaks
 
PDF
Chapter 7
byEasyStudy3
 
PDF
Value based internal auditing - Nilai Dasar Internal Audit
byDr. Zar RDJ
 
PDF
Chapter 7
byEasyStudy3
 
PPT
Internal Audit : an independent service to evaluate an organisation's.ppt
bySrabanAhmedMasum
 
PPTX
The role of Operational and Performance-based Auditing on Government and the ...
bypaul young cpa, cga
 
PPT
GRCICMAI
byMalay Paul
 
PPS
Auditing
byPardhasaradhi ch
 
PDF
2015 Tackling This Year's Audit Hot Spots
byRon Steinkamp
 
Bestpractice Approaches To Internal Auditing Unknown
byzucarotesti86
 
IT Audit Control and Security Wiley Corporate F A Volume 13 2nd Edition Rober...
byduophidia
 
Internal controls toolkit First Edition Doxey
bybirrucolaw7o
 
Solution Manual for Internal Auditing Assurance and Consulting Services 2nd E...
bybizotaleiya
 
SEATA by TOMMY SEAH
byTommy Seah
 
Performance audit adding value
byicgfmconference
 
Internal Audit and Risk Assesment for Audit
byDeepakChandekar1
 
The importance of value for money and perfomance based audits
bypaul young cpa, cga
 
Ahmedabad_Session_II.pptx dasdfasfasfafafaffafa
bymenakampr823116018
 
Internal Audit Methodology
byManoj Agarwal
 
prof-elec-3-OPERATIONS-AUDITING-FULL.pdf
bydepozi1218
 
Compliance audit
byEmma Yaks
 
Chapter 7
byEasyStudy3
 
Value based internal auditing - Nilai Dasar Internal Audit
byDr. Zar RDJ
 
Chapter 7
byEasyStudy3
 
Internal Audit : an independent service to evaluate an organisation's.ppt
bySrabanAhmedMasum
 
The role of Operational and Performance-based Auditing on Government and the ...
bypaul young cpa, cga
 
GRCICMAI
byMalay Paul
 
Auditing
byPardhasaradhi ch
 
2015 Tackling This Year's Audit Hot Spots
byRon Steinkamp
 

Recently uploaded

PDF
The Drift Principle: When Information Accelerates Faster Than Minds Can Compress
byReality Drift Archive
 
PDF
NAVIGATE PHARMACY CAREER OPPORTUNITIES.pdf
byMd. Zakaria Faruki
 
PPTX
The Art Pastor's Guide to the Liturgical Calendar
bySteve Thomason
 
PPTX
15 December 2025 Education for human flourishing Michael Stevenson .pptx
byEduSkills OECD
 
PPTX
ICH Harmonization A Global Pathway to Unified Drug Regulation.pptx
byDr. Smita Kumbhar
 
PPTX
Campfens "The Data Qualify Challenge: Publishers, institutions, and funders r...
byNational Information Standards Organization (NISO)
 
PDF
BỘ TEST KIỂM TRA CUỐI HỌC KÌ 1 - TIẾNG ANH 6-7-8-9 GLOBAL SUCCESS - PHIÊN BẢN...
byNguyen Thanh Tu Collection
 
PPTX
2025-2026 History in your Hands Class 4 December 2025 January 2026 .pptx
byEilsONeill
 
PDF
Blue / Green: Troop Leading Procedure (TLP) Overview.pdf
byBlue / Green Training
 
PDF
APM Wessex Network: DEIB Policy into Practice
byAssociation for Project Management
 
PDF
UKSG Forum 2025 - They asked for everything - The Case of the Systematic Revi...
byUKSG: connecting the knowledge community
 
PDF
Digital Wellness in University Communities: Libraries as Guardians of Healthy...
bySylvester Ebhonu
 
PPTX
Vitamins and mineral deficiency , signs and symptoms associated with exercise
byvirupa chandrika reddy
 
PPTX
Details of Epithelial and Connective Tissue.pptx
byAshish Umale
 
PDF
The Tale of Melon City poem ppt by Sahasra
bybitrasahasra
 
PPTX
How to use search_read method in Odoo 18
byCeline George
 
PPTX
The Cell & Cell Cycle-detailed structure and function of organelles.pptx
byAshish Umale
 
PDF
1ST APPLICATION FOR ANNULMENT (4)8787666.pdf
bykonstantinantountoum1
 
PDF
DHA/HAAD/MOH/DOH OPTOMETRY MCQ PYQ. .pdf
byAnmol Singh
 
PDF
Unit-III pdf (Basic listening Skill, Effective Writing Communication & Writin...
bySayyadTarannum
 
The Drift Principle: When Information Accelerates Faster Than Minds Can Compress
byReality Drift Archive
 
NAVIGATE PHARMACY CAREER OPPORTUNITIES.pdf
byMd. Zakaria Faruki
 
The Art Pastor's Guide to the Liturgical Calendar
bySteve Thomason
 
15 December 2025 Education for human flourishing Michael Stevenson .pptx
byEduSkills OECD
 
ICH Harmonization A Global Pathway to Unified Drug Regulation.pptx
byDr. Smita Kumbhar
 
Campfens "The Data Qualify Challenge: Publishers, institutions, and funders r...
byNational Information Standards Organization (NISO)
 
BỘ TEST KIỂM TRA CUỐI HỌC KÌ 1 - TIẾNG ANH 6-7-8-9 GLOBAL SUCCESS - PHIÊN BẢN...
byNguyen Thanh Tu Collection
 
2025-2026 History in your Hands Class 4 December 2025 January 2026 .pptx
byEilsONeill
 
Blue / Green: Troop Leading Procedure (TLP) Overview.pdf
byBlue / Green Training
 
APM Wessex Network: DEIB Policy into Practice
byAssociation for Project Management
 
UKSG Forum 2025 - They asked for everything - The Case of the Systematic Revi...
byUKSG: connecting the knowledge community
 
Digital Wellness in University Communities: Libraries as Guardians of Healthy...
bySylvester Ebhonu
 
Vitamins and mineral deficiency , signs and symptoms associated with exercise
byvirupa chandrika reddy
 
Details of Epithelial and Connective Tissue.pptx
byAshish Umale
 
The Tale of Melon City poem ppt by Sahasra
bybitrasahasra
 
How to use search_read method in Odoo 18
byCeline George
 
The Cell & Cell Cycle-detailed structure and function of organelles.pptx
byAshish Umale
 
1ST APPLICATION FOR ANNULMENT (4)8787666.pdf
bykonstantinantountoum1
 
DHA/HAAD/MOH/DOH OPTOMETRY MCQ PYQ. .pdf
byAnmol Singh
 
Unit-III pdf (Basic listening Skill, Effective Writing Communication & Writin...
bySayyadTarannum
 

The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083

  • 1.
    Download the fullversion and explore a variety of ebooks or text books at https://ebookball.com The Operational Auditing Handbook Auditing Business and IT Processes 1st Edition by Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand ISBN 9781119991083 _____ Follow the link below to get your download now _____ https://ebookball.com/product/the-operational-auditing- handbook-auditing-business-and-it-processes-1st-edition-by- andrew-chambers-graham-rand-isbn-9781119991083-15848/ Access ebookball.com now to download high-quality ebooks or textbooks
  • 2.
    Here are somerecommended products for you. Click the link to download, or explore more at ebookball.com IT Auditing Using Controls to Protect Information Assets 1st Edition by Chris Davis, Mike Schiller, Kevin Wheeler ISBN 0072263431 9780072263435 https://ebookball.com/product/it-auditing-using-controls-to-protect- information-assets-1st-edition-by-chris-davis-mike-schiller-kevin- wheeler-isbn-0072263431-9780072263435-12324/ Auditing Information and Cyber Security Governance A Controls Based Approach 1st edition by Robert Davis 1000416127 9781000416121 https://ebookball.com/product/auditing-information-and-cyber-security- governance-a-controls-based-approach-1st-edition-by-robert- davis-1000416127-9781000416121-20148/ IT and Computer 1st edition by Andrew Tanenbaum https://ebookball.com/product/it-and-computer-1st-edition-by-andrew- tanenbaum-25064/ Governance of the Extended Enterprise Bridging Business and IT Strategies 1st edition by IT Governance Institute 047133443X 9780471334439 https://ebookball.com/product/governance-of-the-extended-enterprise- bridging-business-and-it-strategies-1st-edition-by-it-governance- institute-047133443x-9780471334439-8972/
  • 3.
    Can Do WritingThe Proven Ten Step System for Fast and Effective Business Writing 1st Edition by Daniel Graham, Judith Graham 0470449799 9780470449790 https://ebookball.com/product/can-do-writing-the-proven-ten-step- system-for-fast-and-effective-business-writing-1st-edition-by-daniel- graham-judith-graham-0470449799-9780470449790-11448/ Business Cornwall wearing it well 1st Edition by Business Cornwall ISBN 9772514842001 https://ebookball.com/product/business-cornwall-wearing-it-well-1st- edition-by-business-cornwall-isbn-9772514842001-23836/ Operational Research Methods in Business Finance and Economics 1st Edition by Constantin Zopounidis, Liadaki Angeliki, Eskantar Marianna ISBN 9783031312410 3031312414 https://ebookball.com/product/operational-research-methods-in- business-finance-and-economics-1st-edition-by-constantin-zopounidis- liadaki-angeliki-eskantar-marianna- isbn-9783031312410-3031312414-24880/ The Secure Online Business E Commerce It Functionality and Business Continuity 1st edition by Adam Jolly,George Cox ISBN 074943936X ‎ 978-0749439361 https://ebookball.com/product/the-secure-online-business-e-commerce- it-functionality-and-business-continuity-1st-edition-by-adam-jolly- george-cox-isbn-074943936x-aeurz-978-0749439361-14420/ Operational Terms and Graphics 1st Edition by Department of the Army ISBN 1973920514 9781973920519 https://ebookball.com/product/operational-terms-and-graphics-1st- edition-by-department-of-the-army-isbn-1973920514-9781973920519-14286/
  • 6.
  • 7.
  • 8.
  • 9.
    The Operational Auditing Handbook AuditingBusiness and IT Processes Second Edition Andrew Chambers Graham Rand A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., Publication
  • 10.
    This edition firstpublished 2010 © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Registered office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com. The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chambers, Andrew D. The operational auditing handbook : auditing business and IT processes / Andrew Chambers, Graham Rand.—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-74476-5 1. Management audit. I. Rand, G. V. (Graham V.) II. Title. HD58.95.C48 2010 658.4013—dc22 2009054377 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset in 10/12 Times by Laserwords Private Limited, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
  • 11.
    Contents Preface xv Acknowledgements xvii PartI Understanding Operational Auditing 1 1 APPROACHES TO OPERATIONAL AUDITING 3 Definitions of “Operational Auditing” 3 Scope 4 Audit Approach to Operational Audits 12 Resourcing the Internal Audit of Technical Activities 16 Productivity and Performance Measurement Systems 19 Value for Money (VFM) Auditing 22 Benchmarking 23 2 BUSINESS PROCESSES 27 Introduction 27 An Audit Universe of Business Processes 28 Self Assessment of Business Processes 30 A Hybrid Audit Universe 30 Reasons For Process Weaknesses 30 Identifying the Processes of an Organisation 32 Why Adopt a “Cycle” or “Process” Approach to Internal Control Design and Review? 35 Business Processes in the Standard Audit Programme Guides 35 The Hallmarks of a Good Business Process 36 Academic Cycles in a University 37
  • 12.
    vi CONTENTS 3 DEVELOPINGOPERATIONAL REVIEW PROGRAMMES FOR MANAGERIAL AND AUDIT USE 40 Scope 40 Practical Use of SAPGs 41 Format of SAPGs 45 Risk in Operational Auditing 50 4 GOVERNANCE PROCESSES 75 Introduction 75 Internal Control Processes being Part of Risk Management Processes 75 Risk Management Processes being Part of Governance Processes 76 Objectives of Governance, Risk Management and Control Processes 77 The COSO View of Objectives 78 Should there be a Single Set of Objectives? 80 The Internal Governance Processes 81 The Board and External Aspects of Corporate Governance 81 The Board’s Assurance Vacuum 82 Risk and Control Issues for Internal Governance Processes 84 Risk and Control Issues for the Board 87 Risk and Control Issues for External Governance Processes 90 5 RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESSES 95 Introduction 95 Objectives of Risk Management 95 Essential Components of Effective Risk Management 98 The Scope of Internal Audit’s Role in Risk Management 99 Tools for Risk Management 101 The Risk Matrix 101 Risk Registers 106 Risk Management Challenges 107 Control Issues for Risk Management Processes 112 6 INTERNAL CONTROL PROCESSES 116 Introduction 116 Paradigm 1: COSO on Internal Control 118 Paradigm 2: Turnbull on Internal Control 128 Paradigm 3: COCO on Internal Control 129 Paradigm 4: A Systems/Cybernetics Model of Internal Control 130 Paradigm 5: Control by Division with Supervision 135 Paradigm 6: Control by Category 137
  • 13.
    CONTENTS vii The Objectivesof Internal Control 139 Determining Whether Internal Control is Effective 141 Control Cost-Effectiveness Considerations 142 Issues for Internal Control Processes 143 7 REVIEW OF THE CONTROL ENVIRONMENT 147 Introduction 147 Control Objectives for a Review of the Control Environment 147 Risk and Control Issues for a Review of the Control Environment 148 Fraud 149 8 REVIEWING INTERNAL CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL REPORTING—THE SARBANES-OXLEY APPROACH 151 Introduction 151 Costs and Benefits 154 2007 SOX-LITE 155 Revised Definitions of “Significant Deficiency” and “Material Weakness” 156 Using a Recognised Internal Control Framework for the Assessment 157 Risk and Control Issues for the Sarbanes-Oxley s. 302 and s. 404 Compliance Process 171 9 BUSINESS/MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AND THEIR IMPACT ON CONTROL AND AUDIT 178 Introduction 178 Business Process Re-Engineering 178 Total Quality Management 181 Delayering 187 Empowerment 189 Outsourcing 191 Just-In-Time Management (JIT) 195 10 CONTROL SELF ASSESSMENT 199 Introduction 199 Survey and Workshop Approaches to CSA 200 Selecting Workshop Participants 200 Where to Apply CSA 200 CSA Roles for Management and for Internal Audit 201 Avoiding Line Management Disillusionment 202 Encouragement from the Top 203
  • 14.
    viii CONTENTS Facilitating CSAWorkshops, and Training for CSA 204 Anonymous Voting Systems 205 Comparing CSA with Internal Audit 205 Control Self Assessment as Reassurance for Internal Audit 206 A Hybrid Approach—Integrating Internal Auditing Engagements with CSA Workshops 206 Workshop Formats 207 Utilising CoCo in CSA 208 Readings 210 Control Self Assessment 210 11 EVALUATING THE INTERNAL AUDIT ACTIVITY 214 Introduction 214 Ongoing Monitoring 214 Periodic Internal Reviews 215 External Reviews 216 Common Weaknesses Noted by Quality Assurance Reviews 217 Internal Audit Maturity Models 218 Effective Measuring of Internal Auditing’s Contribution to the Enterprise’s Profitability 219 Control Objectives for the Internal Audit Activity 232 Part II Auditing Key Functions 237 12 AUDITING THE FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING FUNCTIONS 239 Introduction 239 System/Function Components of the Financial and Accounting Environment 239 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 240 Treasury 241 Payroll 243 Accounts Payable 246 Accounts Receivable 248 General Ledger/Management Accounts 251 Fixed Assets (and Capital Charges) 253 Budgeting and Monitoring 256 Bank Accounts and Banking Arrangements 258 Sales Tax (VAT) Accounting 261 Taxation 263 Inventories 266 Product/Project Accounting 268
  • 15.
    CONTENTS ix Petty Cashand Expenses 270 Financial Information and Reporting 272 Investments 274 13 AUDITING SUBSIDIARIES, REMOTE OPERATING UNITS AND JOINT VENTURES 276 Introduction 276 Fact Finding 277 High Level Review Programme 278 Joint Ventures 279 14 AUDITING CONTRACTS AND THE PURCHASING FUNCTION 285 Introduction 285 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 285 Contracting 289 Contract Management Environment 290 Assessing the Viability and Competence of Contractors 295 Maintaining an Approved List of Contractors 297 Tendering Procedures 299 Contracting and Tendering Documentation 302 Selection and Letting of Contracts 304 Performance Monitoring 306 Valuing Work for Interim Payments 308 Contractor’s Final Account 310 Review of Project Outturn and Performance 313 15 AUDITING OPERATIONS AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 317 Introduction 317 System/Function Components of a Production/Manufacturing Environment 318 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 318 Planning and Production Control 318 Facilities, Plant and Equipment 321 Personnel 324 Materials and Energy 327 Quality Control 330 Safety 332 Environmental Issues 335 Law and Regulatory Compliance 338 Maintenance 339
  • 16.
    x CONTENTS 16 AUDITINGMARKETING AND SALES 343 Introduction 343 System/Function Components of the Marketing and Sales Functions 343 General Comments 344 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 344 Product Development 345 Market Research 348 Promotion and Advertising 350 Pricing and Discount Policies 353 Sales Management 355 Sales Performance and Monitoring 359 Distributors 362 Relationship with the Parent Company 366 Agents 368 Order Processing 371 Warranty Arrangements 375 Maintenance and Servicing 377 Spare Parts and Supply 380 17 AUDITING DISTRIBUTION 383 Introduction 383 System/Function Components of Distribution 383 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 384 Distribution, Transport and Logistics 384 Distributors 388 Stock Control 392 Warehousing and Storage 395 18 AUDITING HUMAN RESOURCES 399 Introduction 399 System/Function Components of the Personnel Function 399 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 399 Human Resources Department 400 Recruitment 404 Manpower and Succession Planning 408 Staff Training and Development 410 Welfare 413 Performance-Related Compensation, Pension Schemes (and other Benefits) 415 Health Insurance 422 Staff Appraisal and Disciplinary Matters 424 Health and Safety 427
  • 17.
    CONTENTS xi Labour Relations430 Company Vehicles 432 19 AUDITING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 437 Introduction 437 System/Function Components of Research and Development 437 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 437 Product Development 438 Project Appraisal and Monitoring 442 Plant and Equipment 445 Development Project Management 447 Legal and Regulatory Issues 450 20 AUDITING SECURITY 453 Introduction 453 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 454 Security 454 Health and Safety 457 Insurance 460 21 AUDITING ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY 463 Introduction 463 Environmental Auditing 465 The Emergence of Environmental Concerns 465 EMAS—The European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme 466 Linking Environmental Issues to Corporate Strategy and Securing Benefits 467 Environmental Assessment and Auditing System Considerations 468 The Role of Internal Audit 470 Example Programme 470 Part III Auditing Information Technology 477 22 AUDITING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 479 Introduction 479 Introduction to Recognised Standards Related to Information Technology and Related Topics 480
  • 18.
    xii CONTENTS System/Function Componentsof Information Technology and Management 486 Control Objectives and Risk and Control Issues 488 23 IT STRATEGIC PLANNING 489 24 IT ORGANISATION 493 25 IT POLICY FRAMEWORK 496 26 INFORMATION ASSET REGISTER 502 27 CAPACITY MANAGEMENT 511 28 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (IM) 514 29 RECORDS MANAGEMENT (RM) 524 30 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM) 542 31 IT SITES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (INCLUDING PHYSICAL SECURITY) 554 32 PROCESSING OPERATIONS 559 33 BACK-UP AND MEDIA MANAGEMENT 562 34 REMOVABLE MEDIA 566 35 SYSTEM AND OPERATING SOFTWARE (INCLUDING PATCH MANAGEMENT) 570 36 SYSTEM ACCESS CONTROL (LOGICAL SECURITY) 576 37 PERSONAL COMPUTERS (INCLUDING LAPTOPS AND PDAs) 580
  • 19.
    CONTENTS xiii 38 REMOTEWORKING 585 39 EMAIL 590 40 INTERNET USAGE 598 41 SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE (INCLUDING CHANGE MANAGEMENT) 605 42 NETWORKS 609 43 DATABASES 613 44 DATA PROTECTION 616 45 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 627 46 DATA TRANSFER AND SHARING (STANDARDS AND PROTOCOL) 636 47 LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES 645 48 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT 648 49 SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT 651 50 SOFTWARE SELECTION 655 51 CONTINGENCY PLANNING 658 52 HUMAN RESOURCES INFORMATION SECURITY 661 53 MONITORING AND LOGGING 667 54 INFORMATION SECURITY INCIDENTS 671 55 DATA RETENTION AND DISPOSAL 680
  • 20.
    Other documents randomlyhave different content
  • 21.
    I listened, spellbound. “Ithought you and Betty didn’t like to play Pretend,” I was surprised into saying. “Why, we’ll pretend if there’s anything to pretend about that’s real,” said Margaret Amelia, haughtily. They told us where in the palace the various ingredients were likely to be found. Red mosquito-netting, perhaps, in the cellar—at this time of day fairly safe. Red and violet ink in the library—very dangerous indeed at this hour. Cold coffee—almost unobtainable. Green tissue paper, to be taken from the flower-pots in the dining- room—exceedingly dangerous. Blue and orange, if discoverable at all, then in the Christmas tree box in the trunk room—attended by few perils as to meetings en route, but in respect to appropriating what was desired, by the greatest perils of all. This last adventure the Rodmans themselves heroically undertook. It was also conceded that, on their return from their quest—provided they ever did return alive—it would be theirs to procure the necessary cold coffee. The other adventures were distributed, and Mary Elizabeth and I were told off together to penetrate the cellar in search of red mosquito-netting. The bottles had already been collected, and these little Harold Rodman was left to guard and luxuriously to fill with water and luxuriously to empty. There was an outside cellar door, and it was closed. This invited Mary Elizabeth and me to an expedition or two before we even entered. We slid from the top to the bottom, sitting, standing, and backward. Then, since Harold was beginning to observe us with some attention, we lifted the ring—the ring—in the door and descended. “Aladdin immediately beheld bags of inexhaustible riches,” said Mary Elizabeth, almost reverently.
  • 22.
    First, there wasa long, narrow passage lined with ash barrels, a derelict coal scuttle, starch boxes, mummies of brooms, and the like. But at this point if we had chanced on the red mosquito-netting, we should have felt distinctly cheated of some right. A little farther on, however, the passage branched, and we stood in delighted uncertainty. If the giant lived one way and the gorgon the other, which was our way? The way that we did choose led into a small round cellar, lighted by a narrow, dusty window, now closed. Formless things stood everywhere—crates, tubs, shelves whose ghostly contents were shrouded by newspapers. It occurred to me that I had never yet told Mary Elizabeth about our cellar. I decided to do so then and there. She backed up against the wall to listen, manifestly so that there should be nothing over her shoulder. Our cellar was a round, bricked-in place under the dining-room. Sometimes I had been down there while they had been selecting preserves by candle-light. And I had long ago settled that the curved walls were set with little sealed doors behind each of which He sat. These He’s were not in the least unfriendly—they merely sat there close to the wall, square shouldered and very still, looking neither to right nor left, waiting. Probably, I thought, it might happen some day —whatever they waited for; and then they would all go away. Meanwhile, there they were; and they evidently knew that I knew they were there, but they evidently did not expect me to mention it; for once, when I did so, they all stopped doing nothing and looked at me, all together, as if something used their eyes for them at a signal. It was to Mary Gilbraith that I had spoken, while she was at our house-cleaning, and the moment I had chosen was when she was down in the cellar without a candle and I was lying flat on the floor above her, peering down the trap doorway. “Mary,” I said, “they’s a big row of He’s sitting close together inside the wall. They’ve got big foreheads. Bang on the wall and see
  • 23.
    if they’ll answer—”for I had always longed to bang and had never quite dared. “Oh, my great Scotland!” said Mary Gilbraith, and was up the ladder in a second. That was when they looked at me, and then I knew that I should not have spoken to her about them, and I began to see that there are some things that must not be said. And I felt a kind of shame, too, when Mary turned on me. “You little Miss,” she said wrathfully, “with your big eyes. An’ myself bitin’ on my own nerves for fear of picking up a lizard for a potato. Go play.” “I was playing,” I tried to explain. “Play playthings, then, and not ha’nts,” said Mary. So I never said anything more to her, save about plates and fritters and such things. To this recital Mary Elizabeth listened sympathetically. “There’s just one great big one lives down in our cellar,” she confided in turn. “Not in the wall—but out loose. When the apples and stuff go down there, I always think how glad he is.” “Are you afraid of him?” I asked. “Afraid!” Mary Elizabeth repeated. “Why, no. Once, when I was down there, I tried to pretend there wasn’t anything lived there— and then it was frightening and I was scared.” I understood. It would indeed be a great, lonely, terrifying world if these little friendly folk did not live in cellars, walls, attics, stair- closets and the like. Of course they were friendly. Why should they be otherwise? “R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-t,” something went, close by Mary Elizabeth’s head.
  • 24.
    We looked up.The dimness of the ceiling was miles deep. We could not see a ceiling. “St-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t,” it went again. And this time it did not stop, and it began to be accompanied by a rumbling sound as from the very cave inside the world. Mary Elizabeth and I took hold of hands and ran. We scrambled up the steps and escaped to the sultry welcome of bright day. Out there everything was as before. Little Harold was crossing the lawn carrying a flower-pot of water which was running steadily from the hole in the bottom. With the maternal importance of little girls, we got the jar from him and undertook to bring him more water. And when he led us to the source of supply, this was a faucet in the side of the house just beyond a narrow, dusty, cellar window. When he turned the faucet, we were, so to speak, face to face with that R-s-t- t-t-t-t. Mary Elizabeth and I looked at each other and looked away. Then we looked back and braved it through. “Anyway,” she said, “we were afraid of a truly thing, and not of a pretend thing.” There seemed to us, I recall, a certain loyalty in this as to a creed. Already Delia had returned from the library. The authorities refused the ink. One might come in there and write with it, but one must not take it from the table. Calista arrived from the dining-room. A waiting-woman to the queen, she reported, was engaged in dusting the sideboard and she herself had advanced no farther than the pantry door. It remained only for Margaret Amelia and Betty to come from their farther quest bearing a green handbill which they thought might take the place of Calista’s quarry if she returned empty-handed; but we were no nearer than before to blue and orange materials, or to any other.
  • 25.
    We took counseland came to a certain ancient conclusion that in union there is strength. We must, we thought we saw, act the aggressor. We moved on the stronghold together. Armed with a spoon and two bottles, we found a keeper of properties within who spooned us out the necessary ink; tea was promised to take the place of coffee if we would keep out of the house and not bother anybody any more, indefinitely; shoe-polish was conceded in a limited quantity, briefly, and under inspection; and we all descended into Aladdin’s cave and easily found baskets to which red mosquito- netting was clinging in sufficient measure. Then we sat in the shade of the side lawn and proceeded to colour many waters. It was a delicate task to cloud the clear liquid to this tint and that, to watch it change expression under our hands, pale, deepen, vary to our touch; in its heart to set jewels and to light fires. We worked with deep deliberation, testing by old standards of taste set up by at least two or three previous experiences, consulting one another’s soberest judgment, occasionally inventing a new liquid. I remember that it was on that day that we first thought of bluing. Common washing bluing, the one substance really intended for colouring water, had so far escaped our notice. “Somebody,” observed Margaret Amelia, as we worked, “ought to keep keeping a look-out to see if they’re coming back.” Delia, who was our man of action, ran to the clothes-reel, which stood on the highest land of the castle grounds, and looked away over the valley. “There’s a cloud of dust on the horizon,” she reported, “but I think it’s Mr. Wells getting home from Caledonia.” “Wouldn’t they blare their horns before they got here?” Mary Elizabeth wanted to know. “What was a knight for, anyway?” Delia demanded.
  • 26.
    “For?” Margaret Ameliarepeated, in a kind of personal indignation. “Why, to—to—to right wrongs, of course.” Delia surveyed the surrounding scene through the diluted red ink in a glass-stoppered bottle. “I guess I know that,” she said. “But I mean, what was his job?” We had never thought of that. Did one, then, have to have a job other than righting wrongs? Margaret Amelia undertook to explain. “Why,” she said, “it was this way: Knights liberated damsels and razed down strongholds and took robber chieftains and got into adventures. And they lived off the king and off hermits.” “But what was the end of ’em?” Delia wanted to know. “They never married and lived happily ever after. They married and just kept right on going.” “That was on account of the Holy Grail,” said Mary Elizabeth. It was wonderful, as I look back, to remember how her face would light sometimes; as just then, and as when somebody came to school with the first violets. “The what?” said Delia. “They woke up in the night sometimes,” Mary Elizabeth recited softly, “and they saw it, in light, right there inside their dark cell. And they looked and looked, and it was all shiny and near-to. And when they saw it, they knew about all the principal things. And those that never woke up and saw it, always kept trying to, because they knew they weren’t really ones till they saw. Most everybody wasn’t really, because only a few saw it. Most of them died and never saw it at all.”
  • 27.
    “What did itlook like?” demanded Delia. “Hush!” said Calista, with a shocked glance, having somewhere picked up the impression that very sacred things, like very wicked things, must never be mentioned. But Mary Elizabeth did not heed her. “It was all shining and near to,” she repeated. “It was in a great, dark sky, with great, bright worlds falling all around it, but it was in the centre and it didn’t fall. It was all still, and brighter than anything; and when you saw it, you never forgot.” There was a moment’s pause, which Delia broke. “How do you know?” she demanded. Mary Elizabeth was clouding red mosquito-netting water by shaking soap in it, an effect much to be desired. She went on shaking the corked bottle, and looking away toward the sun slanting to late afternoon. “I don’t know how I know,” she said in manifest surprise. “But I know.” We sat silent for a minute. “Well, I’m going back to see if they’re coming home from the hunt now,” said Delia, scrambling up. “From the chase,” Margaret Amelia corrected her loftily, “and from the tourmey. I b’lieve,” she corrected herself conscientiously, “that had ought to be tourmament.” This time Delia thought that she saw them coming, the king and his knights, with pennons and plumes, just entering Conant Street down by the Brices. As we must be ready by the time the party dismounted, there was need for the greatest haste. But we found
  • 28.
    that the clothes-reel,which was to be the fountain, must have a rug and should have flowing curtains if it were to grace a castle courtyard; so, matters having been further delayed by the discovery of Harold about to drink the vanilla water, we concluded that we had been mistaken about the approach of the knights; and that they were by now only on the bridge. A journey to the attic for the rug and curtains resulted in delays, the sight of some cast-off garments imperatively suggesting the fitness of our dressing for the rôle we were to assume. This took some time and was accompanied by the selection of new names all around. At last, however, we were back in the yard with the rugs and the muslin curtains in place, and the array of coloured bottles set up in rows at the top of the carpeted steps. Then we arranged ourselves behind these delicacies, in our bravery of old veils and scarves and tattered sequins. Harold was below, as a page, in a red sash. “A little foot-page,” Margaret Amelia had wanted him called, but this he himself vetoed. “Mine feet big feet,” he defended himself. Then we waited. We waited, chatted amiably, as court ladies will. Occasionally we rose and scanned the street, and reported that they were almost here. Then we resumed our seats and waited. This business had distinctly palled on us all when Delia faced it. “Let’s have them get here if they’re going to,” she said. So we sat and told each other that they were entering the yard, that they were approaching the dais, that they were kneeling at our feet. But it was unconvincing. None of us really wanted them to kneel or knew what to do with them when they did kneel. The whole pretence was lacking in action, and very pale.
  • 29.
    “It was lotsmore fun getting ready than this is,” said Calista, somewhat brutally. We stared in one another’s faces, feeling guilty of a kind of disloyalty, yet compelled to acknowledge this great truth. In our hearts we remembered to have noticed this thing before: That getting ready for a thing was more fun than doing that thing. “Why couldn’t we get a quest?” inquired Margaret Amelia. “Then it wouldn’t have to stop. It’d last every day.” That was the obvious solution: We would get a quest. “Girls can’t quest, can they?” Betty suggested doubtfully. We looked in one another’s faces. Could it be true? Did the damsels sit at home? Was it only the knights who quested? Delia was a free soul. Forthwith she made a precedent. “Well,” she said, “I don’t know whether they did quest. But they can quest. So let’s do it.” The reason in this appealed to us all. Immediately we confronted the problem: What should we quest for? We stared off over the valley through which the little river ran shining and slipped beyond our horizon. “I wonder,” said Mary Elizabeth, “if it would be wrong to quest for the Holy Grail now.” We stood there against the west, where bright doors seemed opening in the pouring gold of the sun, thick with shining dust. The glory seemed very near. Why not do something beautiful? Why not— why not....
  • 30.
    THE following pagescontain advertisements of Macmillan books by the same author, and new fiction
  • 31.
    By the SameAuthor Christmas By ZONA GALE Author of “Mothers to Men,” “The Loves of Pelleas and Etarre.” Illustrated in colors by Leon Solon. Decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.30 net; postpaid, $1.42 A town in the Middle West, pinched with poverty, decides that it will have no Christmas, as no one can afford to buy gifts. They perhaps foolishly reckon that the heart-burnings and the disappointments of the children will be obviated by passing the holiday season over with no observance. How this was found to be simply and wholly impossible, how the Christmas joys and Christmas spirit crept into the little town and into the hearts of its most positive objectors, and how Christmas cannot be arbitrated about, make up the basis of a more than ordinarily appealing novel. Incidentally it is a little boy who really makes possible a delightful outcome. A thread of romance runs through it all with something of the meaning of Christmas for the individual human being and for the race.
  • 32.
    “A fine storyof Yuletide impulses in Miss Gale’s best style.”—N. Y. World. “No living writer more thoroughly understands the true spirit of Christmas than does Zona Gale.”— Chicago Record-Herald. “‘Christmas’ is that rare thing, a Yuletide tale, with a touch of originality about it.”—N. Y. Press. “The book is just the thing for a gift.”—Chicago Tribune.
  • 33.
    The Other Booksof Miss Gale Mothers to Men Decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net; by mail, $1.62 net The author is singularly successful in detaching herself from all the wear and tear of modern life and has produced a book filled with sweetness, beautiful in ideas, charming in characterizations, highly contemplative, and evidencing a philosophy of life all her own. “One of the most widely read of our writers of short fiction.”—The Bookman. Friendship Village Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net “As charming as an April day, all showers and sunshine, and sometimes both together, so that the delighted reader hardly knows
  • 34.
    whether laughter ortears are fittest.”—The New York Times. The Loves of Pelleas and Etarre Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net Macmillan Fiction Library 12mo, $.50 net “It contains the sort of message that seems to set the world right for even the most depressed, and can be depended upon to sweeten every moment spent over it.”—San Francisco Chronicle. Friendship Village Love Stories Decorated cloth, gilt top, 12mo, $1.50 net Miss Gale’s pleasant and highly individual outlook upon life has never been revealed to better advantage than in these charming stories of the heart affairs of the young people of Friendship Village.
  • 35.
    New Macmillan Fiction MRS.WATTS’S NEW NOVEL Van Cleve By MARY S. WATTS Author of “Nathan Burke,” “The Legacy,” etc. Cloth, 12mo. Never has the author of “Nathan Burke” and “The Legacy” written more convincingly or appealingly than in this story of modern life. Those who have enjoyed the intense realism of Mrs. Watts’s earlier work, the settings of which have largely been of the past, will welcome this book of the present in which she demonstrates that her skill is no less in handling scenes and types of people with which we are familiar than in the so-called “historical” novel. “Van Cleve” is about a young man who, while still in his early twenties, is obliged to support a family of foolish, good-
  • 36.
    hearted, ill-balanced women,and one shiftless, pompous old man, his grandmother, aunt, cousin, and uncle. Van Cleve proves himself equal to the obligation—and equal, too, to many other severe tests that are put upon him by his friends. Besides him there is one character which it is doubtful whether the reader will ever forget—Bob. His life not only shapes Van Cleve’s to a large extent, but that of several other people, notably his sister, the girl whom Van Cleve loves in his patient way.
  • 37.
    The Valley ofthe Moon By JACK LONDON With Frontispiece in Colors by George Harper Decorated cloth, 12mo, $1.35 net A love story in Mr. London’s most powerful style, strikingly contrasted against a background of present-day economic problems—that is what “The Valley of the Moon” is. The hero, teamster, prize-fighter, adventurer, man of affairs, is one of Mr. London’s unforgettable big men. The romance which develops out of his meeting with a charming girl and which does not end with their marriage is absorbingly told. The action of the plot is most rapid, one event following another in a fashion which does not allow the reader to lose interest even temporarily. “The Valley of the Moon” is, in other words, an old- fashioned London novel, with all of the entertainment that such a description implies. Robin Hood’s Barn By ALICE BROWN
  • 38.
    Author of “VanishingPoints,” “The Secret of the Clan,” “The Country Road,” etc. With Illustrations in Colors and in Black and White by H. M. Carpenter Decorated cloth, 12mo, $0.00 net Miss Brown’s previous books have given her a distinguished reputation as an interpreter of New England life. The idealism, the quaint humor, the skill in character drawing, and the dramatic force which have always marked her work are evident in this charming story of a dream that came true. The illustrations, the frontispiece being in colors, the others in black and white, are by Mr. Horace Carpenter, whose sympathetic craftsmanship is widely known and appreciated.
  • 39.
    Deering at Princeton ByLATTA GRISWOLD Author of “Deering of Deal” With Illustrations by E. C. Caswell Decorated cloth, 12mo; preparing This is a college story that reads as a college story should. Here Mr. Griswold tells of Deering’s Princeton years from his freshman days to his graduation. A hazing adventure of far-reaching importance, a football game or two in which Deering has a hand, a reform in the eating club system, the fraternity régime of Princeton, initiated by Deering and carried through at the sacrifice of much that he values, a touch of sentiment centering around a pretty girl who later marries Deering’s roommate, besides many lively college happenings which only one familiar with the life could have chronicled, go to the making of an intensely interesting tale. Tide Marks By MARGARET WESTRUP Decorated cloth, 12mo; preparing
  • 40.
    Publishers New York Anovel of unusual interest and power told in a style both convincing and distinctive. Margaret Westrup promises to be one of the literary finds of the season. The Will to Live By M. P. WILLCOCKS Author of “The Wingless Victory,” etc. Cloth, 12mo; preparing In description, in vividness of character depiction, in cleverness of dialogue, and in skill of plot construction, Miss Willcocks’ previous books have displayed her rare ability. “The Will to Live” is perhaps her most mature work; it is a story with which one is sure to be satisfied when the last page is turned. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64–66 Fifth Avenue
  • 41.
    Transcriber’s Note: In theadvertisements at the end of the book, the price of $0.00 is as published. Variations in spelling, hyphenation and punctuation have been retained as they appear in the original publication except as follows: Page 145 “We are all alike, all of us who live! changed to We are all alike, all of us who live! Page 229 resentfully “And now she’s in her changed to resentfully. “And now she’s in her Page 281 for this seemed a a good way changed to for this seemed a good way Page 286 I’ve fought everyone of changed to I’ve fought every one of Page 289 him and help him. changed to him and help him.” Page 396 London’s unforgetable big men changed to
  • 42.
  • 43.
    Welcome to ourwebsite – the ideal destination for book lovers and knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to specialized publications, self-development books, and children's literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system, we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading. Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and personal growth! ebookball.com