ACCA AA Syllabus D. Audit Evidence - Receivables - Other Evidence - Past Papers ^{3 / 18}

You are the audit manager of Chestnut & Co and are reviewing the key issues identified in the files of two audit clients.

Palm Industries Co (Palm)
Palm’s year end was 31 March 2015 and the draft financial statements show revenue of $28·2 million, receivables of $5·6 million and profit before tax of $4·8 million. The fieldwork stage for this audit has been completed.

A customer of Palm owed an amount of $350,000 at the year end. Testing of receivables in April highlighted that no amounts had been paid to Palm from this customer as they were disputing the quality of certain goods received from Palm. The finance director is confident the issue will be resolved and no allowance for receivables was made with regards to this balance.

Ash Trading Co (Ash)
Ash is a new client of Chestnut & Co, its year end was 31 January 2015 and the firm was only appointed auditors in February 2015, as the previous auditors were suddenly unable to undertake the audit. The fieldwork stage for this audit is currently ongoing.

The inventory count at Ash’s warehouse was undertaken on 31 January 2015 and was overseen by the company’s internal audit department. Neither Chestnut & Co nor the previous auditors attended the count. Detailed inventory records were maintained but it was not possible to undertake another full inventory count subsequent to the year end.

The draft financial statements show a profit before tax of $2·4 million, revenue of $10·1 million and inventory of $510,000.

Required:
For each of the two issues:

(iii) Describe the impact on the audit report if the issue remains UNRESOLVED.

Notes:
1 The total marks will be split equally between each of the two issues.
2 Audit report extracts are NOT required.

(b) Hawthorn Enterprises Co (Hawthorn) manufactures and distributes fashion clothing to retail stores. Its year end was 31 March 2015. You are the audit manager and the year-end audit is due to commence shortly. The following three matters have been brought to your attention.

(iii) Receivables
Hawthorn’s receivables ledger has increased considerably during the year, and the year-end balance is $2·3 million compared to $1·4 million last year. The finance director of Hawthorn has requested that a receivables circularisation is not carried out as a number of their customers complained last year about the inconvenience involved in responding. The engagement partner has agreed to this request, and tasked you with identifying alternative procedures to confirm the existence and valuation of receivables. (5 marks)

Required:
Describe substantive procedures you would perform to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence in relation to the above three matters.

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

Background information

B-Star is a theme park based on a popular series of children’s books. Customers pay a fixed fee to enter the park, where they can participate in a variety of activities such as riding roller-coasters, playing on slides and purchasing themed souvenirs from gift shops.

The park is open all year and has been in operation for the last seven years. It is located in a country which has very little rainfall – the park is open-air so poor weather such as rain results in a significant fall in the number of customers for that day (normally by 50%). During the last seven years there have been on average 30 days each year with rain.

B-Star is now very successful; customer numbers are increasing at approximately 15% each year.

Cash sales

1. All ticket sales are recorded on a computer showing the amount of each sale and the number of tickets issued. This information is transferred electronically to the accounts office.

2. Cash is collected regularly from each ticket office by two security guards. The cash is then counted by two accounts clerks and banked on a daily basis.

3. The total cash from each ticket office is agreed to the sales information that has been transferred from each office.

4. Total cash received is then recorded in the cash book, and then the general ledger.

Credit card sales

1. Payments by credit cards are authorised online as the customers purchase their tickets.

2. Computers in each ticket office record the sales information which is transferred electronically to the accounts office.

3. Credit card sales are recorded for each credit card company in a receivables ledger.

4. When payment is received from the credit card companies, the accounts clerks agree the total sales values to the amounts received from the credit card companies, less the commission payable to those companies. The receivables ledger is updated with the payments received.  
You are now commencing the planning of the annual audit of B-Star. The date is 3 June 2009 and B-Star’s year end is 30 June 2009.

Required:

List the audit procedures you should perform on the credit card receivables balance. (4 marks)