In these unpredictable economic times, how do you produce highly regarded financial statements in the face of demands to minimize external audit costs? Many companies try to solve this problem by using their internal audit department more during the annual external audit. But that can be tricky—because the internal audit staff is required to remain independent. The solution, say the authors of this article, is to actively develop and maintain your internal auditors' professional skepticism. And the authors give you a detailed roadmap that shows how to do that. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

As automation evolves, human capital becomes a firm's strategic asset. Using resource-based theory, we discuss the importance of maintaining human capital with superior skills as a means to sustain a competitive and how to value human capital as a strategic asset. As we do not propose a new accounting regulation, we suggest metrics that may be used to assess the value of strategic human assets.

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