Discuss about the Marketing Intelligence and Planning Management.
Auditing refers to process of testing, examining and verifying the various accounting and financial accounts of a business organization. At the time of running any kind of business, the businesspersons need to create many accounts. It is the duty of the auditors to make sure that those financial accounts are free from any kind of material misstatements, fraudulent and threats. At the time of conducting the audit operation for a business organization, the auditors need comply with certain rules, regulations and code of conducts. These are called the Auditor’s Responsibility. On the other hand, the auditors need to be ethical at the time of audit operation as well. As per the Auditing and Assurance Standard Board of Australia, there are some specific rules and regulation regarding the auditor’s responsibility and ethical practices. The auditors of Australia need to comply with all these rules and regulations of auditing. However, it needs to be mentioned that the auditing clients can take legal actions in case of the violation of these auditing rules and regulations. The corrective measures and safeguards are provided in the Auditing Professional and Ethical Standard Board (APESB).
As per the provided case study, Peter Harmon is a professional accountant and does all kinds of accounting works for his clients. It has been seen that Peter Harmon takes 10 percent commission from one of his clients to arrange them buyers among his other clients. As per the Accountant’s code of ethics, this act of Peter Harmon is considered as illegal and it creates the Self-Interest Threat of the accountants (Knechel and Salterio 2016).
As per the Auditor’s responsibility and ethical practices, the auditors cannot help any clients in their business operations and they cannot have nay kinds of financial interest in the property of the clients. According to the given case, despite being an audit professional, he helped Allied Insurance in their business activities without letting the companies know. This act violates the ethical practices of auditing and poses the Self-Interest Thereat, as there is a business relationship between the audit client and the auditor (apesb.org.au 2017).
As per the provided case, Wrench and Company keeps all the details of its clients in its computers. On the other hand, it has been mentioned that the company will allow its clients to access the computer as per their requirement. In this situation, it can be seen that the company allows its audit employees to input the information of other clients. This process violates the principles of confidentiality that states that the auditors cannot disclose the information of their clients to others (Pitt 2014).
According to the given case, Stephanie Barry is the audit partner of Williams Pty. Ltd. It is also mentioned that Williams Pty. Ltd. has another accountant for his or her management services. In order to get the opportunity to serve as a management service provider, Stephanie Barry sends unsolicited management service literature to the company. This act violates the ethical code of accounting as Stephanie forces her client to appoint her for the peculiar job (Nicoll 2016).
According to the given case, Katrina Ng is the manager of a not for profit organizations; and at the same time, she is one of the member of the board of directors. She performs the role of the member of board of director free of cost. Hence, it can be understood that there is no financial interest of Katrina Ng in the not for profit company. Thus, it can be concluded that Katrina Ng is not violating any ethical principle of accounting by performing both the roles at the same time (Polonsky, Landreth Grau and McDonald 2016).
As per the given situation, Peter Beattie performs auditing along with public accounting, tax services, bookkeeping and management advisory for a small firm. There are two situations in this case. If Peter is performing the internal audit for the company, then he does not violate any ethical principles of accounting. On the other hand, if he performs the external audit operation for the company, then he violates the ethical principles as it poses Self-Interest Threat (Shaub and Braun 2014).
According to the given case, Hornsby Auditors has taken a big colourful advertisement showing the pictures of their employees in the local newspaper. This act of the company is highly unethical as it violates the principles of ethical accounting. The company can give an advertisement about the organization, but they cannot mention the name of the employees as it is against the confidentiality principle of the profession (Han Fan, Woodbine and Cheng 2013).
According to the provided case, David Cheadle performs the audit operation for Nestree Ltd. However, it has been seen the audit fees for the year 2015 is still due and the auditor is about to start the audit work for the year 2016. As per the accountant’s ethical principles, the auditors cannot start the audit work until getting the fees of the previous audit work. Hence, the act of David is against the ethical principles of auditing. On the other hand, it indicates that the auditor may have another financial interest in the audit client (Carson, Redmayne and Liao 2014).
As per the principles of auditing, it is the responsibility of the management of the audit client to provide all the necessary information to the auditors at the time of conducting the audit operation. This process makes it easier for the auditors to conduct the audit operation. In this case, due to an unmentioned reason, the auditor was unable to get confirmation from three major clients of the company. However, by using different audit procedure, the auditor obtains the information about those three clients and made himself satisfy about the balance sheet of the company. In this case, the auditor will issue an Unqualified or Clean Audit Report as the auditor has considered that the financial statements of the company are true and fair (Czerney, Schmidt and Thompson 2014).
Auditing is the kind of profession where the auditors need every kinds of financial information of the audit client. Hence, it is the responsibility of the management to permit the auditors to use all the necessary financial information. In this situation, it can be observed that the audit client restricted the auditor to observe the property, plant and equipment of the organization. It is essential for the auditor to use the information about these items as they are making up 20 percent of the total assets. The auditor’s report will not be true and fair without all these information. Hence, in this case, the auditor will issue Qualified Audit report as he does not have enough evidence of those particular assets (Saonm.org 2017).
As per the above discussion, it can be understood that it is the utmost responsibility of the management of the audit client to disclose and include all the necessary information about all the major assets and liabilities. In the given case, the client has excluded the disclosure of a contingent liability that can become an important part of the financial statement of the company. As per the situation, the auditor is unable to get necessary information in order to make fair and true auditor’s report. Hence, in this case, the auditor will issue the Disclaimer Opinion. As per this opinion, the auditor will conclude that the inclusion of that contingent liability may affect the financial statement of the organization (Kachelmeier, Schmidt and Valentine 2016).
It is the responsibility of all the business organizations to follow the rules and regulations of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The accounts part of the business needs to be done as pet the GAAP principles. The GAAP principles say that the companies need to keep proper record of all small and major transactions of the business in the proper way. It can be seen in the given case that the organization did not maintain the major cash transactions and they cannot be tested further even by the auditors. Hence, in this situation the auditor will issue Adverse Opinion that states that the financial reports of the organization is not properly made as per the GAAP principles and they are not fair and true (Lubbe, Modack and Watson 2014).
At the time of auditing the financial accounts of the audit clients, it is must that the auditors will be provided with every kinds of financial information. They need to be provided with the opening and closing balance of all the financial accounts. As per the given case, it can be seen that the audit client will not provide the opening balance of the financial accounts. However, the auditor is satisfied that there is not any kind of material misstatement. In this situation, the auditor will issue Disclaimer Opinion that will include that the presence of that information may affect the financial position of the organization (Carson, Fargher and Zhang 2016).
The Australian Accounting Standard has formed many accounting rules and regulations that all the companies need to comply with at the time of carrying on the business operations. The given case states that the auditing client does not follow the Australian Accounting Standard. This situation implies all the accounting and financial transactions of the organization are not complied with the principles of Australian Accounting Standard. On the other hand, the company has been operating for five years. Hence, in this case, the auditor will issue the Adverse Opinion that will state that the financial statements are not fairly presented and they are not made as per the requited rules and regulations (Rahman 2013).
As discussed above, the Australian Accounting Standard formed some accounting rules and regulations that all the Australian business organizations need to be followed. As per the rules and regulations of Australian Accounting Standard, Last in Last out (LIFO) method cannot be used for inventory valuation for any organization. However, the provided situation implies that the audit client has been using LIFO method that is disallowed by the Australian Accounting Standard. Hence, the auditor will issue the Adverse Opinion that will state that the financial statement of the organization is not fair and true, as the organization has not followed the accounting principles (Abad, Sánchez?Ballesta and Yagüe 2015).
According to the given situation, it can be seen that there is not any kind of material misstatement in the accounts of Numark as per the report of the auditor. However, the existence of the company as a going concern is in doubt as the major customers of the company are liquidated. In this kind of situation, the auditor will the Qualified or Clean Opinion as all there is not any kind of material misstatement in the financial statement of the company. On the other hand, the auditor will include the current condition of the company so that the investors can have the knowledge about the current position of the company (Feldmann and Read 2013).
Conclusion
As per the above discussion, it can be observed that the auditors need to comply with all the rules and regulations of the Australian Accounting Standard. Not complying with these rules and regulations is a serious offence in the audit operation. Another important aspect is that based on the audit reports, the auditors issue the suitable audit opinion. Based on the total study, some recommendations are made below;
References
Abad, D., Sánchez?Ballesta, J.P. and Yagüe, J., 2015. Audit opinions and information asymmetry in the stock market. Accounting & Finance.
apesb.org.au. (2017). APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. [online] Available at: https://www.apesb.org.au/uploads/standards/apesb_standards/standard1.pdf [Accessed 21 Jan. 2017].
Carson, E., Fargher, N. and Zhang, Y., 2016. Trends in Auditor Reporting in Australia: A Synthesis and Opportunities for Research. Australian Accounting Review, 26(3), pp.226-242.
Carson, E., Redmayne, N.B. and Liao, L., 2014. Audit Market Structure and Competition in Australia. Australian Accounting Review, 24(4), pp.298-312.
Czerney, K., Schmidt, J.J. and Thompson, A.M., 2014. Does auditor explanatory language in unqualified audit reports indicate increased financial misstatement risk?. The Accounting Review, 89(6), pp.2115-2149.
Feldmann, D. and Read, W.J., 2013. Going-concern audit opinions for bankrupt companies–impact of credit rating. Managerial Auditing Journal, 28(4), pp.345-363.
Han Fan, Y., Woodbine, G. and Cheng, W., 2013. A study of Australian and Chinese accountants’ attitudes towards independence issues and the impact on ethical judgements. Asian Review of Accounting, 21(3), pp.205-222.
Kachelmeier, S.J., Schmidt, J.J. and Valentine, K., 2016. The disclaimer effect of disclosing critical audit matters in the auditor’s report.
Knechel, W.R. and Salterio, S.E., 2016. Auditing: assurance and risk. Routledge.
Lubbe, I., Modack, G. and Watson, A., 2014. Financial Accounting GAAP Principles. OUP Catalogue.
Nicoll, P., 2016. Audit in a democracy: the Australian model of public sector audit and its application to emerging markets. Routledge.
Pitt, S.A., 2014. Internal audit quality: Developing a quality assurance and improvement program. John Wiley & Sons.
Polonsky, M.J., Landreth Grau, S. and McDonald, S., 2016. Perspectives on social impact measurement and non-profit organisations. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(1), pp.80-98.
Rahman, A.R., 2013. The Australian Accounting Standards Review Board (RLE Accounting): The Establishment of Its Participative Review Process. Routledge.
saonm.org. (2017). TYPES OF AUDIT OPINIONS. [online] Available at: https://www.saonm.org/media/uploads/OSA_Audit_Overview_Jan_19_2016.pdf [Accessed 21 Jan. 2017].
Shaub, M.K. and Braun, R.L., 2014. Call of duty: A framework for auditors’ ethical decisions. In Accounting for the Public Interest (pp. 3-25). Springer Netherlands.
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