student accountant issue 05/2010
For PER support and advice on answering challenge questions
www.accaglobal.com/students/acca/per/support
01
FOCUS ON per
PO 17: prepare and collect evidence for audit
linked to ACCA qualification papers f8 and p7
Audits cannot be carried out effectively
without meticulous preparation, which starts
with understanding your client’s personnel,
management structures, operational systems
and risk factors, as well as the sector within
which it does business.
How you conduct an audit is critical,
not just to your own employer, but
also to your client, your professional
reputation, and the reputation of
ACCA. It might even be that the
outcome of legal proceedings rest
on how diligently and thoroughly you
perform, especially for forensic work.
Audits cannot be carried out
effectively without meticulous
preparation, which starts with
understanding your client’s personnel,
management structures, operational
systems and risk factors, as well as the
sector within which it does business. The
amount, quality and relevance of the
evidence you select to rely on, along with
information you obtain from the client in
the absence of evidence will determine
the accuracy of the conclusions you
draw and the value of recommendations
you make. And the record‑keeping for
which you are personally responsible
must itself be beyond reproach.
To effectively demonstrate your
competency, you might:
¤ Prepare and review audits, including
meetings with clients and the
audit team.
¤ Collect and analyse relevant client
information (its trading position).
¤ Document, review and (where relevant)
test accounting, reporting, risk and
control procedures and activities.
¤ Document and resolve issues arising
during the audit with client staff.
¤ Describe relevant audit regulatory
and legal frameworks.
¤ Identify audit-related professional
and ethical considerations.
¤ Explain the role and processes of
internal audit, review and control.
The next step is to answer the challenge
questions for this objective in the
trainee development matrix (TDM):
¤ Describe your role and the experience
you have had in relation to audits
– Include your specific responsibilities
on different audits; what did they
involve and what was the purpose?
Was it internal or external audit?
– What level of supervision were
you subjected to, and/or who did
you supervise?
– Who did you liaise with at your
client? Give examples of the types
of information you sought from
them, or which you provided
them with.
¤ With workplace illustrations, how
have you found that ineffective
planning undermines the quality of
audit work?
– Say how lack of research or
preparation would have impeded
your effective performance.
– If relevant, give examples of
instances where you observed the
results of ineffective planning.
– You might also consider how
ineffective planning would
impact on the client’s perception
of you, your team or of the
auditing profession.
¤ From your audit work, how have you
been able to contribute to improved
business performance?
– If you identified weaknesses
(operational, financial or
risk) and made subsequent
recommendations, what were those?
– What were the results? Consider
how readily your recommendations
were accepted by the client – and
had tangible results.
– If you have conducted a
subsequent audit at the same
client, describe the difference
between your observations on
each occasion.
Performance objective 17 is linked
to Paper F8, Audit and Assurance,
and Paper P7, Advanced Audit
and Assurance.