Curdco is a company that runs a chain of fast food restaurants. The company has a centralized
operating style and managers of individual restaurants have very limited decision-making powers
on day-to-day operational matters. The company’s centralized administration is responsible for
the buying of food, the payment of staff, the maintenance and cleaning of restaurants by staff
employed by a national agency, and all other matters relating to the running of the business. The
company has good internal controls over purchasing. Inventory counts are conducted at each
restaurant at the year-end. Your firm has recently been appointed as auditor to Curdco.

Required:
a. List the account headings you would expect to find in Curdco’s schedule of accounts payable and accrued expenditure.
b. Describe and give reasons for the audit tests you would carry out to obtain audit evidence for Curdco’s accounts payable and accrued expenditure.

  

Answers


Wilfred
(a) Headings: accounts payable and accrued expenditure
Whilst there are a great number of possible headings for accounts payable and accrued expenditure, the seven headings below seem likely:
Food and beverages;
Payroll;
Cleaning;
Maintenance of properties;
Waste disposal;
Light, heat, water and other utilities;
Business and other local taxes.

(b) Audit tests and reasons: accounts payable and accrued expenditure
General
The firm would first obtain an understanding of the business, including reviewing management
and financial accounts, in order to enable the firm to make some predictions as to the
likely relationships between items of financial and non financial data. There are likely to be
direct relationships that do not vary such as gross margins, and income and expenditure.
These relationships may be applied to each restaurant and to the company as a whole.
Understanding the business is important because it is the firm’s first year as auditor and
because it enables the auditor to properly plan tests, and evaluate the results thereof.
Tests of controls would be performed on expenditure under each heading to enable the firm
to determine the level of substantive procedures required at the year-end.
Analytical procedures would be applied to each heading, both for the company as a whole,
for regions and for individual restaurants if necessary. This would establish the level of
expenditure, and the level of accounts payable and accruals in the prior year and for each
period within the current year for which figures were available. Any unusual items would be
investigated and explanations sought and substantiated. Analytical procedures are useful
in the planning of audit tests to establish areas to which greater audit resources need to be
devoted.
Food, payroll, cleaning, maintenance of properties
I n all cases, substantive procedures would involve tracing source documentation created by
the company (such as purchase orders for food, contracts with the cleaning and maintenance
agencies and clock cards or timesheets) through the system (via goods received notes, signed
documentation indicating that services had been performed, etc.) to daybooks, ledgers and
control accounts and finally to schedules supporting the financial statements. This type of
test helps provide audit comfort that accounts payable and accruals are complete, correctly
calculated, properly authorized and recorded in the correct accounting period.
Substantive procedures tracing entries in the financial statements back to supporting
schedules, entries in the ledgers, control accounts and daybooks through to source
documentation help provide audit comfort that accounts payable and accruals exist are
properly authorized and recorded in the correct accounting period.
Substantive procedures may also involve direct confirmation of accounts payable, although
if suppliers send regular statements this may not be necessary. Such confirmations and
statements provide the auditor with valuable third party, written evidence that is generated
outside the company, showing the existence, accuracy and proper recording of accounts
payable.
After-date payment of both accounts payable and accruals also provides evidence of the
existence and accuracy of accounts payable and accrued expenditure.
Cut-off tests (checking samples of invoices for food received just before and just after the
year-end to goods received notes, purchase invoices and records of inventory counts, for
example) help ensure that expenditure and the related accounts payable and accruals are
recorded in the correct accounting period.
For many such items, there may be accrued expenditure. Tests for accrued expenditure will
be similar to those noted under the following heading.
Waste disposal, light, heat, water and other utilities and business and other local taxes
These items are less likely to have source documentation created by the company than
those noted above. They are also more likely to be billed or invoiced less frequently than
those noted above and there are likely to be more accruals for such items.
Accrued expenditure is an accounting estimate based on previous experience. Analytical
procedures such as those noted above form a large part of the checking of accrued
expenditure.
The firm should establish the basis on which accrued expenditure is calculated to ensure
that it appears reasonable and consistent with prior periods, and check the actual calculation
of the expenditure (possibly on a sample basis).
Checking accrued expenditure to invoices or bills received after the year-end and to payments
after the year-end provides evidence as to the correct calculation of accruals.
Wilfykil answered the question on April 12, 2019 at 10:29


Next: Explain the difficulties faced by auditors, and the decisions that auditors have to make, in conducting direct confirmations of accounts payable.
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