You are a manager in Ryder & Co, a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants, and you ha

ve taken on the responsibility for providing support and guidance to new members of the firm. Ryder & Co has recently recruited a new audit junior, Sam Tyler, who has come across several issues in his first few months at the firm which he would like your guidance on. Sam’s comments and questions are shown below:

(a) I know that auditors are required to assess risks of material misstatement by developing an understanding of the business risks of an audit client, but I am not clear on the relationship between business risk and risk of material misstatement. Can you explain the two types of risk, and how identifying business risk relates to risk of material misstatement？ (4 marks)

(b) I worked on the interim audit of Crow Co, a manufacturing company which outsources its payroll function. I know that for Crow Co payroll is material. How does the outsourcing of payroll affect our audit planning？ (4 marks)

(c) Crow Co is tendering for an important contract to supply Hatfield Co. I know that Hatfield Co is also an audit client of our firm, and I have heard that Crow Co’s management has requested our firm to provide advice on the tender it is preparing. What matters should our firm consider in deciding whether to provide advice to Crow Co on the tender？ (5 marks)

(d) I also worked on the audit of Campbell Co, where I heard the managing director, Ting Campbell, discussing a potential new business opportunity with the audit engagement partner. Campbell Co is an events organiser, and is planning to run a programme of nationwide events for accountants, at which speakers will discuss technical updates to financial reporting, tax and audit regulations. Ting proposed that our firm could invest some cash in the business opportunity, supply the speakers, market the events to our audit clients, and that any profit made would be shared between Ryder & Co and Campbell Co. What would be the implications of our firm considering this business opportunity？ (7 marks)

Required:

For each of the issues raised, respond to the audit junior, explaining the ethical and professional matters arising from the audit junior’s comments.

Note: The split of the mark allocation is shown against each of the issues above.