In recent years many accounting practitioners and academics have requested accounting educators to increase the emphasis on the development of students' critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal relationship skills. Development of these types of skills requires a shift from passive involvement to active involvement of students in the learning process. Unfortunately, current course materials provided by many publishers are not readily adaptable to this more active learning environment. The objective of writing this casebook was to develop course materials that would provide students hands-on-exposure to realistic cases involving all aspects of the audit process.

This casebook contains a collection of 36 auditing cases that address most major activities performed during the conduct of an audit from client acceptance to issuance of an audit report. Many of the cases are based on actual companies, some of which were engaged in financial reporting fraud. Several cases involve students working with realistic audit evidence and preparing and evaluating audit documentation. Some of the cases expose students to assurance and other value added services.

The cases included in this book are suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students. At the undergraduate level, the cases provide students with active learning experiences that reinforce key audit concepts addressed by the instructor and textbook. At the graduate' level, the cases provide students with active learning experiences that expand the depth of their audit knowledge. Use of the casebook will provide undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to develop critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal relationship skills.

The casebook provides a wide variety of cases to facilitate different learning and teaching styles. For example, several of the cases can be used either as in-class exercises or out-of-class assignments. The instructor resource manual accompanying the casebook clearly illustrates the different instructional approaches available for each case (e.g., examples of cooperative / active learning activities and identification of which cases are useful for brief in-class exercises and / or out-of-class individual or group assignments) and efficiently prepares the instructor for leading interactive discussions. To access this manual, log onto www.prenhall.com/beasley.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank our families for their understanding and support while writing this casebook. We would also like to thank our editor, Thomas Sigel, for his support with this endeavor.