ACCA AAA ^INT Syllabus E. Completion, Review and Reporting - Management Letters - Past Papers ^{1 / 1}

You are the manager responsible for the audit of Thurman Co, a manufacturing company which supplies stainless steel components to a wide range of industries. The company’s financial year ended on 31 July 2016 and you are reviewing the audit work which has been completed on a number of material balances and transactions: assets held for sale, capital expenditure and payroll expenses. A summary of the work which has been performed is given below and in each case the description of the audit work indicates the full extent of the audit procedures carried out by the audit team.

(a) Assets held for sale
Due to the planned disposal of one of Thurman Co’s factory sites, the property and associated assets have been classified as held for sale in the financial statements. A manual journal has been posted by the finance director to reclassify the assets as current assets and to adjust the value of the assets for impairment and reversal of depreciation charged from the date at which the assets met the criteria to be classified as held for sale. The finance director asked the audit senior to check the journal before it was posted on the basis of there being no one with the relevant knowledge to do this at Thurman Co.

The planned disposal was discussed with management. A brief note has been put into the audit working papers stating that in management’s opinion the accounting treatment to classify the factory as held for sale is correct. The manual journal has been arithmetically checked by a different member of the audit team, and the amounts agreed back to the non-current asset register. (9 marks)

Required:
In respect of each of the three matters described above:
(i) Comment on the sufficiency and appropriateness of the audit evidence obtained;
(ii) Recommend further audit procedures to be performed by the audit team; and
(iii) Explain the matters which should be included in a report in accordance with ISA 265 Communicating Deficiencies in Internal Controls to Those Charged with Governance and Management.

Note: The split of the mark allocation is shown against each of the matters above.

You are the manager responsible for the audit of Thurman Co, a manufacturing company which supplies stainless steel components to a wide range of industries. The company’s financial year ended on 31 July 2016 and you are reviewing the audit work which has been completed on a number of material balances and transactions: assets held for sale, capital expenditure and payroll expenses. A summary of the work which has been performed is given below and in each case the description of the audit work indicates the full extent of the audit procedures carried out by the audit team.

(b) Capital expenditure
When auditing the company’s capital expenditure, the audit team selected a material transaction to test and found that key internal controls over capital expenditure were not operating effectively. Authorisation had not been obtained for an order placed for several vehicles, and appropriate segregation of duties over initiating and processing the transaction was not maintained.

The audit team noted details of the internal control deficiencies and updated the systems notes on the permanent audit file to reflect the deficiencies. The audit work completed on this order was to agree the purchase of the vehicles to purchase invoices and to the cash book and bank statement. The rest of the audit work on capital expenditure was completed in accordance with the audit programme. (7 marks)

Required:
In respect of each of the three matters described above:
(i) Comment on the sufficiency and appropriateness of the audit evidence obtained;
(ii) Recommend further audit procedures to be performed by the audit team; and
(iii) Explain the matters which should be included in a report in accordance with ISA 265 Communicating Deficiencies in Internal Controls to Those Charged with Governance and Management.

Note: The split of the mark allocation is shown against each of the matters above.

You are the manager responsible for the audit of Thurman Co, a manufacturing company which supplies stainless steel components to a wide range of industries. The company’s financial year ended on 31 July 2016 and you are reviewing the audit work which has been completed on a number of material balances and transactions: assets held for sale, capital expenditure and payroll expenses. A summary of the work which has been performed is given below and in each case the description of the audit work indicates the full extent of the audit procedures carried out by the audit team.

(c) Payroll expenses
The payroll function is outsourced to Jackson Co, a service organisation which processes all of Thurman Co’s salary expenses. The payroll expenses recognised in the financial statements have been traced back to year-end reports issued by Jackson Co. The audit team has had no direct contact with Jackson Co as the year-end reports were sent to Thurman Co’s finance director who then passed them to the audit team.

Thurman Co employs a few casual workers who are paid in cash at the end of each month and are not entered into the payroll system. The audit team has agreed the cash payment made back to the petty cash records and the amounts involved are considered immaterial. (9 marks)

Required:
In respect of each of the three matters described above:
(i) Comment on the sufficiency and appropriateness of the audit evidence obtained;
(ii) Recommend further audit procedures to be performed by the audit team; and
(iii) Explain the matters which should be included in a report in accordance with ISA 265 Communicating Deficiencies in Internal Controls to Those Charged with Governance and Management.

Note: The split of the mark allocation is shown against each of the matters above.

You are the manager responsible for the audit of Yew Co, a company which designs and develops aircraft engines.

The audit for the year ended 31 July 2011 is nearing completion and the audit senior has left the following file note for your attention:

‘I have just returned from a meeting with the management of Yew Co, and there is a matter I want to bring to your attention. Yew Co’s statement of financial position recognises an intangible asset of $12•5 million in respect of capitalised research and development costs relating to new aircraft engine designs.

However, market research conducted by Yew Co in relation to these new designs indicated that there would be little demand in the near future for such designs. Management has provided written representation that they agree with the results of the market research.

Currently, Yew Co has a cash balance of only $125,000 and members of the management team have expressed concerns that the company is finding it difficult to raise additional finance.

The new aircraft designs have been discussed in the chairman’s statement which is to be published with the financial statements. The discussion states that ‘developments of new engine designs are underway, and we believe that these new designs will become a significant source of income for Yew Co in the next 12 months.’

Yew Co’s draft financial statements include profit before tax of $23 million, and total assets of $210 million.

Yew Co is due to publish its annual report next week, so we need to consider the impact of this matter urgently.’

Required:

You are responsible for answering technical queries from other managers and partners of your firm. An audit partner left the following note on your desk this morning:

(i) ‘I am about to draft the audit report for my client, Sycamore Co. I am going on holiday tomorrow and want to have the audit report signed and dated before I leave. The only thing outstanding is the written representation from management – I have verbally confirmed the contents with the finance director who agreed to send the representations to the audit manager within the next few days. I presume this is acceptable?’

Required:

Respond to the audit partner’s comments. (3 marks)

You are responsible for the audit of Moore Co, with a year ended 30 September 2010. The following notes have been left for your attention by the audit senior:

‘Our audit testing performed so far on trade payables revealed some internal control deficiencies. Supplier statement reconciliations have not always been performed by the client, and invoices were often not approved before payment. We have found a few errors in the payables ledger and the individual accounts of suppliers making up the trade payables balance, the total of which is material to the statement of financial position.’

Required:

Recommend the further actions that should be taken by the auditor, and outline any reporting requirements in respect of the internal control deficiencies identified. (5 marks)