This article explains AuditMiner's Plan Analytics Workpaper
The Plan Analytics workpaper is often utilized as preliminary analytical procedures performed during the risk assessment process. (AAG-EBP 3.18-.19)
Review of analytics may assist with the following:
- Assessing the risks of material misstatement to provide a basis for designing and implementing audit procedures.
- Enhancing the understanding of the business and any significant transactions that occurred during the year.
- Identifying unusual transactions, events, amounts, ratios, and trends that may impact the audit.
AuditMiner generates analytics over the key areas of the employee benefit plan audit which includes investments, contributions, disbursements, and expenses. Currently, AuditMiner does not populate prior year information other than beginning of the year investment amounts. The provided analytics are listed below:
- Assets per participant
- Investment return compared to published benchmarks
- Deferrals per participant
- Employer contribution per participant
- Employer contribution rate
- Average distribution payment
- Expenses per participant
- Expenses as a percentage of average plan assets
The auditor should modify the expectations in the workpaper and then conclude as to whether the analytic met documented expectations.
Analytic numbers are generated from the Participant Activity Detail Package and Distribution Package. The published benchmark is the S&P 500 return obtained from Yahoo! Finance which can be found at https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history?p=%5EGSPC