Jackdaw Motor Cars Co (Jackdaw) manufactures a range of motor cars and its year end is 31 January 2015. You are the audit supervisor of Puffin & Co and are currently preparing the audit programmes for the year-end audit of Jackdaw. You have had a meeting with your audit manager and he has notified you of a number of issues identified during the audit risk assessment process.
Land and buildings
Jackdaw have a policy of revaluing land and buildings, this is undertaken on a rolling basis over a five-year period. During the year Jackdaw requested an external valuer to revalue a number of properties, including a warehouse purchased in May 2014. Depreciation is charged on a pro rata basis.
Work in progress
Jackdaw undertakes continuous production of cars, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An inventory count is to be undertaken at the year end and Puffin & Co will attend. You are responsible for the audit of work in progress (WIP) and will be part of the team attending the count as well as the final audit. WIP constitutes the partly assembled cars at the year end and this balance is likely to be material. Jackdaw values WIP according to percentage of completion, and standard costs are then applied to these percentages.
Required:
(a) Explain the factors Puffin & Co should consider when placing reliance on the work of the independent valuer. (5 marks)
(b) Describe the substantive procedures the auditor should perform. to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence in relation to:
(i) The revaluation of land and buildings and the recently purchased warehouse; and (6 marks)
(ii) The valuation of work in progress. (4 marks)
(c) During the audit, your team has identified an error in the valuation of work in progress, as a number of the assumptions contain out of date information. The directors of Jackdaw have indicated that they do not wish to amend the financial statements.
Required:
Explain the steps Puffin & Co should now take and the impact on the audit report in relation to the directors’ refusal to amend the financial statements. (5 marks)
You are the audit supervisor of Seagull & Co and are currently planning the audit of your existing client, Eagle Heating Co (Eagle), for the year ending 31 December 2014. Eagle manufactures and sells heating and plumbing equipment to a number of home improvement stores across the country.
Eagle has experienced increased competition and as a result, in order to maintain its current levels of sales, it has decreased the selling price of its products significantly since September 2014. The finance director has informed your audit manager that he expects increased inventory levels at the year end. He also notified your manager that one of Eagle’s key customers has been experiencing financial difficulties. Therefore, Eagle has agreed that the customer can take a six-month payment break, after which payments will continue as normal. The finance director does not believe that any allowance is required against this receivable.
In October 2014 the financial controller of Eagle was dismissed. He had been employed by the company for over 20 years, and he has threatened to sue the company for unfair dismissal. The role of financial controller has not yet been filled and so his tasks have been shared between the existing finance department team. In addition, the purchase ledger supervisor left in August and a replacement has been appointed in the last week. However, for this period no supplier statement reconciliations or purchase ledger control account reconciliations were performed.
You have undertaken a preliminary analytical review of the draft year to date statement of profit or loss, and you are surprised to see a significant fall in administration expenses.
Required:
Explain FIVE audit risks, and the auditor’s response to each risk, in planning the audit of Eagle Heating Co.