Assignment Theme: Developing an Audit Program for a selected listed Company
Learning Outcomes
- Identify and distinguish between tests of controls, substantive tests of transactions and substantive tests of balances.
-Identify and understand when the auditor will undertake substantive audit procedures in response to specific assessed risks of material misstatement.
- Understand how assertions relate to account balances
- Understand how to select the most efficient and effective combination of audit procedures that allows them to achieve the audit objective
- active participation in an "audit team context" with professional group discussions
- Co-operation with fellow students to produce a joint deliverable on time and to a high standard.
The objective of this group assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to design an audit program for a real world company and focus on the "Substantive tests of balances", which involves substantiating the ending balance of an account(s), which is comprised of multiple transactions, as at a certain year-end date.
Introduction and Project Requirements
1. Students are required to form groups of three students and inform their session lecturer of their group members by completing the "HA3032 T1 2018 Group Form details".
2. If you have difficulties forming such groups, please contact your lecturer asap.
3. Each group of students will select, or have selected for them, a unique ASX listed company to use for progressive analysis in this group assignment.
4. Final approval of the company/client - any company listed on the ASX and which has not already been selected by another group - is required by your lecturer.
5. Prepare a detailed audit program Report [Minimum of 3000 words] for the client/company in a group of 3 members.
6. Use publicly available online resources for research purposes.
Detail Project Tasks: Developing an Audit Program for a selected listed Company
1. Select a listed company from the current ASX List.
2. Understand the nature of the entity and its industry, including the following items:
a. Business operations
b. Investments and investment activities
c. Financing and financing activities
d. Financial reporting practices
3. Perform analytical procedures of the Statement of Financial Position and of Financial Performance over the last three years using appropriate ratios and metrics. Select four key ratios and provide a brief explanation in the report. This can be presented in a table format.
4. Discuss with your group members which account balances are considered "material". Explain how you calculated materiality for planning purposes and provide appropriate justification for your decision-making.
(Note - Use a table format to structure your answers to questions 5, 6 and 7.)
5. Select up to ten different material account balances, at least five assets and five liabilities.
6. For each material account balance selected, list the relevant financial report assertions and explain why the selected assertions are applicable to each account.
7. Design a comprehensive set of audit worksteps for each material account balance, which addresses the selected assertions and which will result in sufficient and appropriate audit evidence being collected for your selected client company. (Assume that a predominantly substantive approach is being adopted)