Q1: What alternatives are available to Brent in regards to the audit of payables? What are the pros and cons of each alternative?
“Eating time”:
The first alternative that that Brent and the audit team can use is “eating time”. What is meant by this is that the team will spend as much time as needed on the audit in order to finish it on time. However, they will only report the maximum amount of time that was budgeted in order to finish the audit.
One of the pros of this alternative is that the audit will be done in time. Another pro is that by not recording all the hours spent on auditing the audit will not exceed the budget. These pros will result in a satisfied client and supervisor. And it will also secure future business and loyalty of the client. Furthermore, the auditing team will get recognition for getting the work done under budgetary and time
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First of all, the most important con is that a gap is created between the employees and their supervisor. This gap is then filled with untruthful information regarding the hours spent on the audit . This can result in a culture and atmosphere that encourages lies and wrong decision making. Second, by not recording the actual amount of hours and effort spent on the audit a wrong standard is set. This may result in unachievable future budgets and decrease of audit quality.
Changing the audit plan:
Another alternative as suggested by Megan was to change the audit plan. This means that certain procedures would be cut to save time on the audit. An example of this is that instead of pulling thirty invoices they only pull twenty.
One of the pros of changing the audit plan is that audit will be done on time. This will result in a satisfied client and supervisor. Which will have a positive effect on future business with the client and the auditing team will get recognition and praise for completing the audit in