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Monitoring Questionnaire
Internal Control Questionnaire
Question
Yes
No
N/A
Remarks
Management requires reliable in
formation to run university
operations. In some situations m
anagement directly monitors the
performance of specific control pr
ocedures established to provide
that information. In other situ
ations, management evaluates the
information in the normal course
of monitoring the results of
operations. Either directly or indirectly these monitoring activities
help assure the reliability of
financial reporting information.
1.
Does the information system provide management with necessary
reports on the departments/univers
itys performance relative to
established objectives (e.g., budgets),
including relevant external
and internal information?
2.
Is the information provided to department heads in sufficient
detail and on time to enable them to carry out their
responsibilities efficien
tly and effectively?
3.
Do departments provide senior management and ABOR with
proper reports to make important financial decisions?
4.
Does management review key performance indicators (e.g.,
budget) when monitoring fina
ncial reporting activities?
5.
Does management compare general ledger balances with
independently accumulated information (e.g., budgets, forecasts,
etc.)?
6.
Does management review inform
ation such as long outstanding
items, unusual or significant entrie

s, control overrides, etc.?

7.
Does management perform and re
view analyses (e.g., analytics)
to identify unusual fluctuati
ons in account balances?
8.
Does management periodically re
view major transaction cycles
(e.g., payroll, cash receipts, et
c.) and transaction data?
9.
Does management ensure that
policies and procedures are
adequately followed relating to the entitys general ledger? These
would include processing of journa
l entries, cut-off, required preapproval of journal entries, GAAP
conversion process, etc.?
Question
Yes
No
N/A
Remarks
10.
Does management review account
reconciliations, including
clearance of reconciling items (e.g., bank account
reconciliations)?
11.
Does management monitor procedures
to ensure that transactions
are recorded in the proper period?
12.
Does management periodically
review financial reports?
13.
Does management monitor procedures to ensure that all
economic activity of the government
al entity for the period is
reflected in the fina
ncial statements?
14.
Are signatures required to evidence the performance of critical
control functions such
as reconciliations?
15.
Does Financial Services have
a process to identify significant
changes in accounting principles
or other reporting changes, such
as those that may be required

by the Federal government or other

authoritative source?
16.
Does Financial Services have communication channels in place
to be notified of changes in the
entitys operational practices that
may affect the method or proces
s of recording
transactions?
17.
If there is an internal audit function, is it
independent of other
departments and programs? If the entity has internal audits,
obtain applicable reports a
nd centrally file them.
18.
Does the internal audit function re
port to a sufficiently high level
of authority to assure that its fi
ndings will receive consideration?
19.
Does management review inte
rnal audit reports and take
corrective action on recomme
ndations/deficiencies?
20.
Does management review exte
rnal audit reports and take
corrective action on recomme
ndations/deficiencies?
21.
Does Financial Services have pr
ocedures in place to ensure
relevant changes in accounti
ng policies are implemented?
MONITORING EVALUATION
Conclude on the overall sufficien
cy of monitoring. Any risk
factors identified that could
result in errors, fraud, irregularities and/or i
llegal acts should be considered when analyzing
the departments operations,
and the completed questionnaire should be forwarded to
Financial Controls.

How many people do I really need to send my survey

to?

When youre asking how many survey respondents do I need?, what youre really
asking is, how big does my sample need to be in order to accurately estimate my
population? These concepts are complex, so weve broken the process into 5 steps,
allowing you to easily calculate your ideal sample size and ensure accuracy in your
surveys results.

5 steps to make sure your sample accurately estimates your population:

Step 1
What is Your Population?
By population we mean the entire set of people who you want to understand (your sample
is going to be the people from this population who end up actually taking your survey).
So, for example, if you want to understand how to market your toothpaste in France, your
population would be residents of France. If youre trying to understand how many
vacation days people who work for your toothpaste company would like to have, your
population would be employees of your toothpaste company.
Regardless of whether its a country or a company, figuring out what population youre
trying to understand is a vital first step. Once you know what your population is, figure
out how many people (roughly) make up that population. For example, roughly 65
million people live in France and were guessing that your toothpaste company has fewer
employees than that.

Got your number? Okay then lets keep going

Step 2
How Accurate Do You Need To Be?
Think of this step as an assessment of how much of a risk youre willing to take that the
answers you get to your survey will be off by a little bit due to the fact that youre not
surveying your entire population. So here are your two questions to answer:
1. How sure do you need to be that the answers reflect the views of your population?
This is your margin of error. So if, for example, 90% of your sample likes grape
bubble gum. A 5% margin of error would add 5% on either side of that number,
meaning that actually 85-95% of your sample likes grape bubble gum. 5% is the
most commonly used margin of error, but you may want anywhere from 1-10%
for a margin of error depending on your survey. Increasing your margin of error
above 10% is not recommended.
2. How sure do you need to be that the sample accurately samples your population?
This is your confidence level. A confidence level is the likelihood that the sample
you picked mattered in the results you got. The calculation is usually done in the
following way. If you picked 30 more samples randomly from your population,
how often would the results you got in your one sample significantly differ those
other 30 samples? A 95% confidence level means that you would get the same
results 95% of the time. 95% is the most commonly used confidence level but you
may want a 90% or 99% confidence level depending on your survey. Decreasing
your confidence level below 90% is not recommended.
Step 3
How Big a Sample Do I Need?
Using the chart below, select your approximate target population, then choose your
margin of error to estimate the number of completed surveys youll require.
Now that you have your numbers from Step #1 and Step #2 check out this handy chart
below to figure out how big a sample youll need
Population
100
500
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000+

Margin of Error
10%
5%
1%
50
80
99
81
218
476
88
278
906
96
370
4,900
96
383
8,763
97
384
9,513

Confidence Level
90%
95%
99%
74
80
88
176
218
286
215
278
400
264
370
623
270
383
660
271
384
664

Note: These are intended as rough guidelines only. Also, for populations of more than 1
million you might want to round up slightly to the nearest hundred.
Step 4

How Responsive Will People Be?

Were sorry to say that not everybody you send your survey to will fill it out.
The percentage of people who do actually fill out a survey that they receive is known as
the response rate. Estimating your response rate will help you determine the total
number of surveys youll need to send out to obtain the required number of completed
surveys.
Response rates vary widely depending on a number of factors such as the relationship
with your target audience, survey length and complexity, incentives, and topic of your
survey. For online surveys in which there is no prior relationship with recipients, a
response rate of between 20-30% is considered to be highly successful. A response rate of
10-15% is a more conservative and a safer guess if you havent surveyed your population
before.
Step 5
So How Many People Do I Send It To?
This parts easy!
Just divide the number you got from Step #3 by the number you got from Step #4. Thats
your magic number.
So, for example, if you need 100 women who use shampoo to fill out your survey and
you think about 10% of these shampoo-using women that you send the survey to will
actually fill it out, then you need to send it to 100/10% women 1000!

Survey Research and Questionnaires

Survey Research

Questionnaire Design

Survey Administration

Sampling Procedures

Measurement Error

Ethics of Survey Research

Advantages and Disadvantages of Survey Research

Survey Research

Survey research is a commonly used method of collecting information about a population

of interest. There are many different types of surveys, several ways to administer them,
and many methods of sampling. There are two key features of survey research:

Questionnaires -- a predefined series of questions used to collect

information from individuals

Sampling -- a technique in which a subgroup of the population is

selected to answer the survey questions; the information collected can
be generalized to the entire population of interest

Questionnaire Design

The two most common types of survey questions are closed-ended questions and openended questions.
Closed-Ended Questions

The respondents are given a list of predetermined responses from

which to choose their answer

The list of responses should include every possible response and the
meaning of the responses should not overlap

An example of a close-ended survey question would be, "Please rate

how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statement: 'I feel
good about my work on the job.' Do you strongly agree, somewhat
agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly
disagree?"

A Likert scale, which is used in the example above, is a commonly used

set of responses for closed-ended questions

Closed-ended questions are usually preferred in survey research

because of the ease of counting the frequency of each response

Open-Ended Questions

Survey respondents are asked to answer each question in their own

words

Responses are usually categorized into a smaller list of responses that

can be counted by the study team for statistical analysis

Considerations for Designing a Questionnaire

It is important to consider the order in which questions are presented.

Sensitive questions, such as questions about income, drug use, or
sexual activity, should be put at the end of the survey. This allows the
researcher to establish trust before asking questions that might
embarrass respondents. Researchers also recommend putting routine
questions, such as age, gender, and marital status, at the end of the
questionnaire

Double-barreled questions, which ask two questions in one, should

never be used in a survey. An example of a double barreled question is,
"Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following
statement: 'I feel good about my work on the job, and I get along well
with others at work.'" This question is problematic because survey
respondents are asked to give one response for two questions

Researchers should avoid using emotionally loaded or biased words

and phrases

Visit the following websites for more information about questionnaire design:

A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development

Survey Design

Glossary terms related to questionnaire design:

Double-Barreled Question
Pretesting
Questionnaire
Survey Administration

Surveys can be admininistered in three ways:

Through the mail

o

Advantage: Low cost

Disadvantage: Low response rate

By telephone
o

Advantages: Higher response rates; responses can be gathered

more quickly

Disadvantage: More expensive than mail surveys

Face-to-face
o

Advantages: Highest response rates; better suited to collecting

complex information

Disadvantage: Very expensive

Visit the following website for more information about survey administration:

What is a Survey?

Glossary terms related to survey administration:

Attrition
Completion Rate
Cooperation Rate
Refusal Rate
Response Categories
Response Rate
Sampling Procedures

One of the primary strengths of sampling is that accurate estimates of a population's

characteristics can be obtained by surveying a small proportion of the population. Four
sampling techniques are described here:
Simple Random Sampling

Simple random sampling is the most basic form of sampling

Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

This sampling process is similar to a lottery: the entire population of

interest could be selected for the survey, but only a few are chosen at
random

Researchers often use random-digit dialing to perform simple random

sampling. In this procedure, telephone numbers are generated by a
computer at random and called to identify individuals to participate in
the survey

Cluster Sampling

Cluster sampling is generally used when it is geographically impossible

to undertake a simple random sample

Cluster sampling requires that adjustments be made in statistical

analyses

For example, in a face-to-face interview, it is difficult and expensive to survey

households across the nation. Instead, researchers will randomly select geographic areas
(for example, counties), then randomly select households within these areas. This creates
a cluster sample, in which respondents are clustered together geographically.
Stratified Sampling

Stratified samples are used when a researcher wants to ensure that

there are enough respondents with certain characteristics in the
sample

The researcher first identifies the people in the population who have
the desired characteristics, then randomly selects a sample of them

Stratified sampling requires that adjustments be made in statistical

analyses

For example, a researcher may want to compare survey responses of African-Americans

and Caucasians. To ensure that there are enough Afrian-Americans in the survey, the
researcher will first identify the African-Americans in the population and then randomly
select a sample of African-Americans.
Nonrandom Sampling

Common nonrandom sampling techniques include convenience

sampling and snowball sampling

Nonrandom samples cannot be generalized to the population of

interest. Consequently, it is problematic to make inferences about the
population

In survey research, random, cluster, or stratified samples are

preferable

Visit the following websites for more information about sampling procedures:
Sampling

Sampling (Cornell University)

Sampling Methods (StatPac)

Glossary terms related to sampling procedures:

Convenience Sampling
Oversampling
Probability Sampling
Purposive Sampling
Quota Sampling
Random Sampling
Random Selection
Representativeness
Sample
Sample Size
Sampling
Sampling Design
Sampling Frame
Snowball Sampling
Stratification
Stratified Sampling
Measurement Error

Measurement error is the difference between the target population's characteristics and
the measurement of these characteristics in a survey. There are two types of measurement
error: systematic error and random error.
Systematic Error

Systematic error is more serious than random error

Occurs when the survey responses are systematically different from

the target population responses

For example, if a researcher only surveyed individuals who answered

their phone between 9 and 5, Monday through Friday, the survey
results would be biased toward individuals who are unemployed

Sources of bias include

o

Nonobservational error -- Individuals in the target population

are systematically excluded from the sample, such as in the
example above

Observational error -- When respondents systematically

answer surveys question incorrectly. For example, surveys that
ask respondents how much they weigh will probably
underestimate the population's weight because respondents are
likely to underreport their weight

Random Error

Random error is an expected part of survey research, and statistical

techniques are designed to account for this sort of measurement error

Occurs because of natural and uncontrollable variations in the survey

process, i.e., the mood of the respondent

For example, a researcher may administer a survey about marital happiness. However,
some respondents may have had a fight with their spouse the evening prior to the survey,
while other respondents' spouses may have cooked the respondent's favorite meal. The
survey responses will be affected by the random day on which the respondents were
chosen to participate in the study. With random error, the positive and negative influences
on the survey measure balance out.
Visit the following website for more information about measurement error:

Reducing Measurement Error

Glossary terms related to measurement error:

Interviewer Error
Nonsampling Error
Nonresponse Error

Nonresponse Rate Bias

Sampling Bias
Ethics of Survey Research
Informed Consent

Respondents should give informed consent before participating in a survey. In order for
respondents to give informed consent,

The researcher must inform the respondents of the study's purpose,

content, duration, and potential risks and benefits

The researcher must inform the respondents that they do not have to
answer all the survey questions

The researcher must inform the resondents that they can stop
participating in the study at any point

Confidentiality and Anonymity

It is absolutely imperative that researchers keep respondents' identities confidential. To

ensure confidentiality, researchers should not link respondents' identifiers to their survey
responses when using data. Common identifiers include names, social security numbers,
addresses, and telephone numbers.
Anonymity

Anonymity is an even stronger safeguard of respondent privacy. If a researcher assures

anonymity, it means that the researcher is unable to link respondents' names to their
surveys.
Visit the following websites for more information about anonymity:

CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research

The Responsible Collection, Retention, Sharing and Interpretation of

Data

Tips on Informed Consent

Glossary terms related to ethics:

Anonymity
Confidentiality
Informed Consent
Advantages and Disadvantages of Survey Research
Advantages

Sample surveys are a cost-effective and efficient means of gathering

information about a population

Survey sampling makes it possible to accurately estimate the

characteristics of a target population without interviewing all members
of the population

Survey sampling is particularly useful when the population of interest is very large or
dispersed across a large geographic area.
Disadvantages

Surveys do not allow researchers to develop an intimate understanding

of individual circumstances or the local culture that may be the root
cause of respondent behavior

Respondents often will not share sensitive information in the survey

format

A growing problem in survey research is the widespread decline in

response rates