The company has been audited by your firm for a number of years and this is the second year you have been responsible as manager for the audit. However, owing to your responsibilities for other audits you are only intending to make periodic visits to the company during the course of the audit and you will not be involved in any of the detailed audit work. Required Describe the way in which you would control the audit from the commencement of the work by the audit staff to the review stage by the partner immediately prior to him signing the audit report

Ways to control the audit

1. Scoping of the work and delegation

First I would determine the scope of the work to be carried out and our client‘s expectation. Basing on this I will identify the staff that I will require to carry out the work. In doing this I will need to consider, the complexity of the assignment and the level of experience required of the staff. I will delegate the work to a team that has appropriate training and experience to carry out the work

2. Direction

I would give appropriate instructions/directions to the staff I have delegated the work to. This involves informing assistants of their responsibilities and the objectives of the procedures they are to perform. This also involves informing them of matters such as the nature of the entity‘s business and possible accounting and auditing problems that may affect the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures to be performed. I would summarise such instructions in an audit programme.

3. Supervision of the work

I would supervise the work being carried out by the audit team. This will include:

• Monitoring the progress of the audit to consider whether assistants have the necessary skills and competence to carry out their assigned tasks;
• Establish whether assistants understand the audit instructions as documented in the audit programme;
• Ensure that work is being carried out in accordance with the overall audit plan and the audit program;
• To identify and address any significant accounting and auditing questions raised during the audit;
• Resolve any differences of professional judgment between the audit team.

4. Review

Before submitting the work to the partner I will need to review the work done. This is to ensure that:

• The work has been performed in accordance with the audit program
• The work performed and the results obtained have been adequately documented.
• All significant audit matters have been resolved or are reflected in audit conclusions.
• The objectives of the audit procedures have been achieved; and
• The conclusions expressed are consistent with the results of the work performed and support the audit opinion.
• I would then submit the work done to the audit partner for review.