Internal Audit Handbook（2007）C9-Revenue Recognition Assurance.pdfVIP

9 Revenue Recognition Assurance Key Points ••• • The GIAS revenue recognition assurance program supports the company in en- suring compliance with revenue recognition rules. • This concept includes, for example, customer confirmations and unannounced license audits that are used in addition to regular audit activities. • Internal Audit’s general quality assurance program has been adapted to the spe- cial requirements of revenue recognition assurance work. ConceptConcept Compliance with revenue recognition rules is an important audit topic. For this reason, SAP’s Internal Audit has developed an additional program, which provides special work programs for this issue. Under this revenue recognition assurance program, Internal Audit conducts unannounced audits of license agreements and obtains contract confirmations from customers. Unannounced license audits largely follow the procedure for standard license audits (see Section C, Chapter 5.3). Customer contract confirmations involve writing to customers, asking them to confirm the components and terms and conditions of contracts. The objective of these tests is to ensure that the contract documentation is complete and to exclude the existence of any supplementary agreements that are not documented or taken