ACCA AA Syllabus D. Audit Evidence - Revenues - Substantive procedures - Past Papers ^{5 / 18}

Heraklion Co is a manufacturer of footballs and is a new audit client for your firm. You are an audit supervisor of Spinalonga & Co and are currently preparing for the forthcoming interim and final audit for the year ending 31 October 20X6. You are required to document and assess the sales system, recommend control improvements to deal with a specific fraud issue as well as undertake substantive testing of revenue.

Sales ordering, goods despatched and invoicing
Heraklion Co sells footballs to a range of large and small sports equipment retailers in several countries. Sales are made through a network of sales staff employed by Heraklion Co, but new customer leads are generated through a third party company. Sales staff are responsible for assessing new customers’ creditworthiness and proposing a credit limit which is then authorised by the sales director. The sales staff have monthly sales targets and are able to use their discretion in granting sales discounts up to a maximum of 10%. They then record any discount granted in the customer master data file.

The sales staff visit customer sites personally and orders are completed using a two-part pre-printed order form. One copy is left with the customer and the other copy is retained by the sales person. The sales order number is based on the sales person’s own identification (ID) number.

The company markets itself on being able to despatch all orders within three working days. Once the order is taken, the sales person emails the finance department and warehouse despatch team with the customer ID and the sales order details and from this a pick list is generated. Sequentially numbered goods despatched notes are completed and filed in the warehouse.

Sequentially numbered invoices are generated using the pick lists for quantities and the customer master data file for prices. Standard credit terms for customers are 30 days and on a monthly basis sales invoices which are over 90 days outstanding are notified to the relevant sales person to chase payment directly with the customer.

Payroll fraud
The finance director, Montse Mirabelle, has informed you that a significant fraud took place during the year in the payroll department. A number of fictitious employees were set up on the payroll and wages were paid into one bank account. This bank account belonged to two supervisors, who were married, and were employed by Heraklion Co.

One had sole responsibility for setting up new joiners in the payroll system and the other processed and authorised bank transfer requests for wages and supplier payments. These employees no longer work for the company and Montse has asked the audit firm for recommendations on how to improve controls in this area to prevent this type of fraud occurring again. Heraklion Co operates a Human Resources department.

Required:
(d) Describe substantive procedures the auditor should perform to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence in relation to Heraklion Co’s revenue. (4 marks)

Hummingbird Scents Co (Hummingbird) manufactures and sells luxury toiletries; they have been trading for over 20 years and the company’s year end is 30 September 2014. Hummingbird sells products to trade customers via its own website; this represents 60% of revenue. Remaining revenue is generated by contracts to supply toiletries to hotels. Below is a description of the sales system.

Hotel revenue
The hotel revenue is made up of four key customers. Hummingbird has one sales clerk, Brenda, who maintains all aspects of this revenue stream; Brenda receives customer orders, raises sales invoices and processes payments. In raising invoices, the sales system automatically inserts the online trade customer prices for products. However, each hotel customer has contracted prices which are lower than the online prices and hence Brenda manually edits the invoices prior to despatch.

Online revenue
New trade customers are set up in the sales ledger master file upon passing suitable credit checks, and a credit limit is set at this stage by the finance director. Customers place online orders up to their pre-set credit limit; they receive an email confirmation and the sales order interfaces into the despatch system. The order number is linked to the customer account number. Goods are despatched daily with a goods despatched note which is referenced to the sales order number but are not sequentially numbered. Hummingbird used to despatch goods via a reliable national courier company. However, to reduce costs they have changed to a cheaper local courier and some orders have been delivered to customers late.

Trade customers’ sales invoices are automatically generated by the system on the day the online order is placed. The prices are inserted in accordance with the website rates. Occasionally Hummingbird makes special offers or discounts sales; when this occurs the master file data has to be amended to ensure that the correct prices are used on invoices. This task is usually performed by a senior sales ledger clerk.

Revenue and receivables records
On a monthly basis statements are sent to the hotel customers; a number of trade customers have been requesting monthly statements and Hummingbird is considering this request. The company only reconciles the sales ledger
control account at the end of September in order to verify the year-end balance.

Required:
(b) Describe substantive procedures the auditor should perform to confirm Hummingbird Co’s revenue. (4 marks)