Following are some of the tests of controls and substantive tests of transactions procedures often performed in the payroll and personnel cycle. (Each procedure is to be done on a sample basis or using audit software.)
1. Reconcile the monthly payroll total for direct manufacturing labor with the labor cost distribution.
2. Examine the time card for the approval of a foreman.
3. Recompute hours on the time card and compare the total with the total hours for which the employee has been paid.
4. Perform a surprise payroll payoff and observe employees picking up and signing for their checks.
5. Compare the employee name, date, check number, and amounts on cancelled checks with the payroll journal.
6. Trace the hours from the employee time cards to job tickets to make sure that the total reconciles, and trace each job ticket to the job-cost record.
7. Use audit software to account for the sequence of payroll checks in the payroll journal.
Required
a. Identify whether each of the procedures is primarily a test of control or a substantive test of transactions.
b. Identify the transaction-related audit objective(s) of each of the procedures.
The following misstatements are included in the accounting records of Lathen Manufacturing Company:
1. Joe Block and Frank Demery take turns "punching in" for each other every few days. The absent employee comes in at noon and tells his foreman that he had car trouble or some other problem. The foreman does not know that the employee is getting paid for the time.
2. The foreman submits a fraudulent time card for a former employee each week and delivers the related payroll check to the employee's house on the way home from work. They split the amount of the paycheck.
3. Employees often overlook recording their hours worked on job-cost tickets as required by the system. Many of the client's contracts are on a cost-plus basis.
4. Direct labor was unintentionally charged to job 620 instead of job 602 by the payroll clerk when he key-entered the labor distribution sheets. Job 602 was completed and the costs were expensed in the current year, whereas job 620 was included in work-in-process.
5. The payroll clerk prepares a check to the same nonexistent person every week when he enters payroll transactions in the computer system, which also records the amount in the payroll journal. He submits it along with all other payroll checks for signature. When the checks are returned to him for distribution, he takes the check and deposits it in a special bank account bearing that person's name.
6. In withholding payroll taxes from employees, the computer operator deducts $0.50 extra federal income taxes from several employees each week and credits the amount to his own employee earnings record.
7. The payroll clerk manually prepares payroll checks but often forgets to record one or two checks in the computer-prepared payroll journal.
Required
a. For each misstatement, state a control that should have prevented it from occurring on a continuing basis.
b. For each misstatement, state a substantive audit procedure that could uncover it.