Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Multiple-Choice Questions
Arens/Elder/Beasley
7. Auditors are _____ to decide on the combined amount of misstatements in
easy the financial statements that they would consider material early in the audit.
b a. permitted
b. required
c. not allowed
d. strongly encouraged
10. After the preliminary judgment about materiality has been established,
auditors may:
easy a. not adjust it.
d b. adjust it downward only.
c. adjust it upward only.
d. adjust it either downward or upward.
11. In an audit area that has a lower inherent risk, it would be prudent to:
easy a. increase the amount of audit evidence gathered.
c b. assign more experienced staff to that area.
c. increase the tolerable misstatement for the area.
d. expand planning procedures.
12. Which of the following is least likely to be appropriate as the basis for
easy determining the preliminary judgment about materiality in the audit of
financial statements?
d a. Net income before taxes.
b. Current assets.
c. Owners’ equity.
d. Inventory.
13. Auditing standards _____ that the basis used to determine the preliminary
easy judgment about materiality be documented in the audit files.
c a. permit
b. do not allow
c. require
d. strongly encourage
14. Amounts involving fraud are usually considered _____ important than
easy unintentional errors of equal dollar amounts.
d a. less
b. no less
c. no more
d. more
Arens/Elder/Beasley
15. Which of the following qualitative factors may significantly influence whether
easy an item is deemed to be material?
a
Misstatements that are
otherwise minor may be Misstatements that are otherwise
material if there are possible immaterial may be material if they
consequences arising from affect a trend in earnings
contractual obligations.
a. Yes Yes
b. No No
c. Yes No
d. No Yes
18. Auditors begin their assessments of inherent risk during audit planning.
easy Which of the following would not help in assessing inherent risk during the
planning phase?
a a. Obtaining client’s agreement on the engagement letter.
b. Obtaining knowledge about the client’s business and industry.
c. Touring the client’s plant and offices.
d. Identifying related parties.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
20. Which of the following is not a correct statement regarding the allocation of
medium the preliminary judgment about materiality to balance sheet accounts?
b a. Auditors expect certain accounts to have more misstatements than
others.
b. The allocation has virtually no effect on audit costs because the auditor
must collect sufficient appropriate audit evidence.
c. Auditors expect to identify overstatements as well as understatements
in the accounts.
d. Relative audit costs affect the allocation.
21. What is the primary means of dealing with risk in planning decisions related
to audit evidence?
medium a. Selection of more effective tests of details of balances.
b b. Application of the audit risk model.
c. Establishing a lower preliminary judgment about materiality.
d. Allocating materiality judgment to segments.
22. The phrase “in our opinion” in the auditor’s report is intended to inform
users that auditors:
medium a. guarantee fair presentation of the financial statements.
d b. act as insurers of the accuracy of the statements.
c. certify the material presented in the statements by management.
d. base their conclusions about the statements on professional judgment.
23. Inherent risk is _______ related to detection risk and _______ related to the
medium amount of audit evidence.
d a. directly, inversely
b. directly, directly
c. inversely, inversely
d. inversely, directly
24. The five steps in applying materiality are listed below in random order.
medium 1. Estimate the combined misstatement.
b 2. Estimate the total misstatement in the segment.
3. Set preliminary judgment about materiality.
4. Allocate preliminary judgment about materiality to segments.
5. Compare combined estimate with preliminary judgment about
materiality.
The correct sequence from start to finish would be:
a. 1 2 5 4 3.
b. 3 4 2 1 5.
c. 4 3 1 5 2.
d. 5 1 3 2 4.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
26. Since materiality is relative, it is necessary to have bases for establishing
medium whether misstatements are material. Normally, the most common base for
deciding materiality is:
a a. net income before taxes.
b. net working capital.
c. net income after taxes.
d. total assets.
27. Certain types of misstatements are likely to be more important than other
medium types to users, even if the dollar amounts are the same. Which of the
following demonstrates this?
a
Amounts involving frauds are Misstatements that are otherwise
considered more important immaterial may be material if they
than errors of equal amount affect a trend in earnings.
a. Yes Yes
b. No No
c. Yes No
d. No Yes
31. Auditors frequently refer to the terms audit assurance, overall assurance,
medium and level of assurance to refer to ________.
c a. detection risk
b. audit report risk
c. acceptable audit risk
d. inherent risk
Arens/Elder/Beasley
32. _____ misstatements are those where the auditor can determine the
medium amount of the misstatement in the account.
c a. Potential
b. Likely
c. Known
d. Projected
33. When a different extent of evidence is needed for the various cycles, the
difference is caused by:
medium a. errors in the client’s accounting system.
d b. a client’s need to achieve an unqualified opinion.
c. an auditor’s need to follow auditing standards.
d. an auditor’s expectations of errors and assessment of internal control.
34. If planned detection risk is reduced, the amount of evidence the auditor
accumulates will:
medium a. increase.
a b. decrease.
c. remain unchanged.
d. be indeterminate.
36. When discussing control risk (CR) and the audit risk model, which of the
following is false?
medium a. CR is a measure of the auditor’s assessment of the likelihood that
b misstatements will not be prevented or detected by internal control.
b. If the auditor concludes that internal control is completely ineffective to
prevent or detect errors, he/she would assign a low value (e.g., 0%) to
CR.
c. The relationship between control risk and detection risk is inverse.
d. The relationship between control risk and evidence needed to support
account balances is direct.
37. Which of the following is not a good indicator of the degree to which
medium statements are relied on by external users?
d a. Client’s size, as measured by total assets or total revenue.
b. Distribution of ownership among the public.
c. Nature and amount of liabilities.
d. Amount of net income or loss after taxes.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
38. If an auditor believes the chance of financial failure is high and there is a
medium corresponding increase in business risk for the auditor, acceptable audit
risk would likely:
a a. be reduced.
b. be increased.
c. remain the same.
d. be calculated using a computerized statistical package.
39. When management has an adequate level of integrity for the auditor to
medium accept the engagement but cannot be regarded as completely honest in all
dealings, auditors normally:
a a. reduce acceptable audit risk and increase inherent risk.
b. reduce inherent risk and control risk.
c. increase inherent risk and control risk.
d. increase acceptable audit risk and reduce inherent risk.
40. One accounting issue that does not require management to use significant
judgments is:
medium a. the allowance for doubtful accounts.
b b. the useful life of equipment for tax purposes.
c. obsolete inventory.
d. the liability for warranty payments.
42. The auditor typically does not assess control risk and inherent risk for:
medium a. each audit objective.
d b. each cycle.
c. each account.
d. the overall audit.
43. (Public) To what extent do auditors typically rely on internal controls of their public
company clients?
medium a. Extensively
a b. Only very little
c. Infrequently
d. Never
44. Auditors typically rely on internal controls of their private company clients:
medium a. Only as needed to complete the audit and satisfy Sarbanes-Oxley
requirements.
b b. Only if the controls are determined to be effective.
c. Only if the client asks an auditor to test controls.
d. Only if the controls are sufficient to increase Control Risk to an
acceptable level.
45. Acceptable audit risk is ordinarily set by the auditor during planning and:
medium a. held constant for each major cycle and account.
a b. held constant for each major cycle but varies by account.
c. varies by each major cycle and by each account.
d. varies by each major cycle but is constant by account.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
46. When the auditor is attempting to determine the extent to which external
medium users rely on a client’s financial statements, they may consider several
factors except for:
d a. client size.
b. concentration of ownership.
c. types and amounts of liabilities.
d. assessment of detection risk.
47. A major difficulty in the application of the audit risk model is:
medium a. defining the terms of the model.
b b. measuring the components of the model.
c. understanding the effect on other factors in the model when one factor
is changed.
d. the failure of the Audit Standards Board to accept it and incorporate it
into standards.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
52. Which one of the following statements about the cycle approach to auditing
is not correct?
challenging a. There are differences among cycles in the frequency and size of
expected errors.
c b. There are differences among cycles in the effectiveness of internal
controls.
c. There are differences among cycles on the auditor’s willingness to
accept risk that material errors exist after the auditing is complete.
d. It is common for auditors to want an equally low likelihood of errors for
each cycle after the auditor is finished.
53. When the auditor has the same level of willingness to risk that material
challenging misstatements will exist after the audit is finished for all financial statement
cycles:
a a. a different extent of evidence will likely be needed for various cycles.
b. the same amount of evidence will be gathered for each cycle.
c. the auditor has not followed generally accepted auditing standards.
d. the level for each cycle must be no more than 2% so that the entire
audit does not exceed 10%.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
58. Which of the following underlies the application of generally accepted
challenging auditing standards, particularly the standards of fieldwork and reporting?
a a. The elements of materiality and relative risk.
b. The element of internal control.
c. The element of corroborating evidence.
d. The element of reasonable assurance.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
Essay Questions
59. Discuss the three main factors that affect an auditor’s preliminary judgment
medium about materiality.
Answer:
The three main factors that affect an auditor’s judgment about
materiality are:
• Materiality is a relative rather than an absolute concept. A
misstatement of a given size might be material for a small company,
whereas the same dollar misstatement could be immaterial for a
larger one.
• Bases are needed for evaluating materiality. Since materiality is
relative, it is necessary to have bases for establishing whether
misstatements are material. Net income before taxes is normally the
most commonly used base, but other possible bases include current
assets, total assets, current liabilities, and owners’ equity.
• Qualitative factors also affect materiality. Certain types of
misstatements are likely to be more important to users than others,
even if the dollar amounts are the same, such as misstatements
involving frauds.
Answer:
Qualitative factors that affect an auditor’s materiality judgment include:
• Amounts involving fraud. Amounts involving fraud are usually
considered more important than unintentional errors of equal dollar
amounts because fraud reflects on the honesty and reliability of the
management or other personnel involved. For example, an
intentional misstatement of inventory would be more important to
users than a clerical error in inventory of the same amount.
• Misstatements affecting contractual obligations. Misstatements that
are otherwise minor may be material if there are possible
consequences arising from contractual obligations. For example, if
a misstatement causes a required minimum account balance to
exceed the minimum, when the correct balance is less than the
minimum, this misstatement likely would be important to users.
• Profit vs. loss. Misstatements that cause a loss to be reported as a
profit or misstatements that affect trends in earnings are likely to be
important to users.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
61. Explain why it is necessary to allocate the preliminary judgment about
medium materiality to individual accounts (segments) in the financial statements.
Also explain why allocating to balance sheet accounts is more common
than allocating to income statement accounts.
Answer:
Allocating the preliminary judgment about materiality to individual
accounts is necessary because evidence is accumulated for accounts
rather than for the financial statements as a whole. Allocating to
accounts establishes a tolerable misstatement amount for each
account, which helps the auditor decide the appropriate audit evidence
to accumulate for each account. Most practitioners allocate materiality
to balance sheet accounts rather than income statement accounts
because there are fewer balance sheet than income statement
accounts.
63. Discuss how auditors use the audit risk model when planning an audit.
medium
Answer:
The audit risk model is used primarily for planning purposes in deciding
how much evidence to accumulate in each cycle. The auditor decides
an acceptable level of audit risk, assesses inherent risk and control
risk, and then uses the relationship depicted in the following model to
determine an appropriate level for planned detection risk:
PDR = AAR
IR x CR
Arens/Elder/Beasley
64. Describe the audit risk model and each of its components.
medium
Answer:
The planning form of the audit risk model is stated as follows:
PDR = AAR
IR x CR
65. There are several factors that affect an audit firm’s business risk and,
medium therefore, acceptable audit risk. Discuss three of these factors.
Answer:
Business risk and acceptable audit risk are affected by:
• The degree to which external users will rely on the statements. For
large, publicly held clients, business risk is greater, and acceptable
audit risk will be less, than for small, privately held clients, all things
being equal.
• The likelihood that a client will have financial difficulties after the
audit report is issued. Business risk is greater, and acceptable audit
risk will be lower, when the client is experiencing financial
difficulties.
• The auditor’s evaluation of management’s integrity. Business risk is
greater and acceptable audit risk will be lower when the client’s
management has questionable integrity.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
66. Discuss each of the five steps in applying materiality in an audit, and
challenging identify the audit phase(s) in which each step is performed. List these steps
in the order in which they occur.
Answer:
Step 1. Set preliminary judgment about materiality. This is the
combined amount of misstatements in the financial statements that
would be considered material. This decision is made in the planning
stage of the audit.
Step 2. Allocate preliminary judgment about materiality to segments. In
this step, the auditor normally allocates the preliminary judgment about
materiality to the balance sheet accounts. The amount of materiality
allocated to an account is referred to as that account’s tolerable
misstatement. This allocation is performed in the audit planning stage.
Step 3. Estimate total misstatement in segment. In this step, the auditor
projects the sample results to the population. An allowance for
sampling risk is also calculated. This would be performed after the
substantive tests for each account are completed.
Step 4. Estimate the combined misstatement. In this step, the projected
errors for each account are added, along with total sampling error, to
calculate the combined misstatement. This would be performed after all
substantive tests have been completed.
Step 5. Compare combined estimated misstatement with preliminary or
revised judgment about materiality. If the combined estimated
misstatement is less than or equal to the judgment about materiality,
then the auditor concludes the financial statements are fairly presented.
This would be performed after all substantive tests have been
completed, in the final review stage of the audit.
67. Below are four situations that involve the audit risk model as it is used for
easy planning audit evidence requirements in the audit of inventory. For each
situation, calculate planned detection risk.
SITUATION
1 2 3 4
Arens/Elder/Beasley
68. Using your knowledge of the relationships among acceptable audit risk,
easy inherent risk, control risk, planned detection risk, tolerable misstatement,
and planned evidence, state the effect on planned evidence (increase or
decrease) of changing each of the following factors, while the other factors
remain unchanged.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
69. Match nine of the terms (a-i) with the definitions provided below (1-9):
medium
a. Business risk
b. Preliminary judgment about materiality
c. Inherent risk
d. Planned detection risk
e. Audit assurance
f. Acceptable audit risk
g. Tolerable misstatement
h. Control risk
i. Materiality
d 1. A measure of the risk that audit evidence for a segment will fail
to detect misstatements exceeding a tolerable amount, should
such misstatements exist.
a 2. The risk that the auditor or audit firm will suffer harm because
of a client relationship, even though the audit report rendered
for the client was correct.
Arens/Elder/Beasley
70. In practice, auditors rarely assign numerical probabilities to inherent risk,
medium control risk, or acceptable audit risk. It is more common to assess these
risks as high, medium, or low. For each of the four situations below, fill in
the blanks for planned detection risk and the amount of evidence you would
plan to gather (“planned evidence”) using the terms high, medium, or low.
SITUATION
1 2 3 4
74. Net income before taxes is normally the most important base for deciding
easy materiality.
a a. True
b. False
Arens/Elder/Beasley
76. The primary purpose of allocating the preliminary judgment about
easy materiality to financial statement accounts is to help the auditor decide the
a appropriate evidence to accumulate.
a. True
b. False
77. Auditors cannot use prior year financial statement balances to establish
easy their preliminary judgment about materiality in planning the current year’s
b audit.
a. True
b. False
78. If acceptable audit risk is low, and inherent risk and control risk are both
easy high, then planned detection risk should be high.
b a. True
b. False
79. Inherent risk and planned detection risk are inversely related; i.e., as
easy inherent risk increases, planned detection risk should decrease, ceteris
a paribus.
a. True
b. False
80. Acceptable audit risk and planned detection risk are inversely related; i.e.,
easy as acceptable audit risk increases, planned detection risk should decrease,
b ceteris paribus.
a. True
b. False
81. The most important element of the audit risk model is control risk.
easy a. True
b b. False
82. For a private company client, auditors are required to test any internal
easy controls they believe have not been operating effectively during the period
b under audit.
a. True
b. False
83. If an auditor believes the client will have financial difficulties after the audit
easy report is issued, and external users will be relying heavily on the financial
a statements, the auditor will probably set acceptable audit risk as low.
a. True
b. False
84. Achieved detection risk can be reduced only by accumulating more audit
medium evidence.
b a. True
b. False
89. Insert risk and control risk are normally assessed for the overall audit.
medium a. True
b b. False
92. To maximize audit efficiency, the auditor should allocate less tolerable
medium misstatement to accounts that can be verified by using low-cost audit
a procedures, such as analytical procedures, than to accounts that are more
costly to audit.
a. True
b. False
94. Acceptable audit risk and the amount of substantive evidence required are
medium inversely related.
a a. True
b. False
95. As control risk increases, the amount of substantive evidence the auditor
medium plans to accumulate should increase.
a a. True
b. False
Arens/Elder/Beasley
96. Inherent risk and control risk are directly related.
medium a. True
b b. False
97. An acceptable audit risk assessment of low indicates a risky client requiring
medium more extensive evidence, assignment of more experienced personnel,
a and/or a more extensive review of audit files.
a. True
b. False
99. Audit assurance is the complement of planned detection risk, that is, one
medium minus planned detection risk.
b a. True
b. False
Arens/Elder/Beasley