A Day in the Life of Brent Dorsey

Staff Auditor Professional Pressures

1) WHAT ALTERNATIVES ARE AVAILABLE TO BRENT IN
REGARDS TO THE AUDIT OF PAYABLES? WHAT ARE THE PROS
AND CONS OF EACH ALTERNATIVE?
2) WHAT CONSEQUENCES FOR BRENT, THE AUDITING FIRM,
AND OTHERS INVOLVED, MAY ARISE FROM EATING TIME, AS
HAN SUGGESTED? SIMILARLY, WHAT CONSEQUENCES FOR
BRENT, THE AUDITING FIRM, AND OTHERS INVOLVED, MAY
ARISE FROM NOT COMPLETING AUDIT PROCEDURES, AS
MEGAN SUGGESTED?
Eating time as we know can lead to inaccurate budgeting for future audits and will bring
consequences to other involves because it is done to maintain the illusion of efficiency. The
consequences for Brent, the auditing firm, and others involved, may arise from eating time, as
Han suggested are managers will see that the job was completed in a shorter time than previous
time and this will make the managers to immediately prepare the next years budget based on
assumption because managers always use prior years audit as their guide while preparing the
budget for an audit in their companies.
Besides that, because of the last years time, it will make the future accountants that audit
the company feel pressure to complete the audit segments in less time than is realistic. It will
make them stressful because each years budget will becoming tighter and less realistic for them
as accountant always pride themselves needed to give a proper job on their work because
specifically there is not enough time for them.
Eating time will not go away anytime soon even though this action is inherently
dishonest in the market because it is not possible to complete a job based on given time to stay
within the budget. This action actually benefits them the most because most of the fee
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arrangements are fixed. New policies should be enforced in every company about the eating
time so that the accountant will not continue to use this. Their senior accountant also should not
encourage them to do the eating time just to make sure their group performance evaluation is
good like in the case study when John wants to cut the budget hours in account payable from 42
hours to 35 hours.
The consequences for Brent, the auditing firm, and others involved that and may arise from not
completing the audit procedures as suggested by Megan:

Skipping audit steps would have very serious consequences. Skipping audit steps can lead to
inaccurate audit decisions. The audit programs were to fix the amount of the transactions to
check, in order to view on unreasonable transactions of the company. As the material
misstatements could have gone unnoticed by the firm and the problem might causes a serious
ethical issue with serious possible consequences for the auditors involved and the firm which
may be a subject of litigation, prosecution and liability. Materiality therefore relates to the
significance of transactions, balances and errors contained in the financial statements. On the
other hand, in financial statement assertions, completeness are included in three categories of
assertions:
1.

2.

3.

Transactions and events:

Completeness - all transactions that should have been recorded have actually taken place.
Accounts balances as of period end
Completeness - all balances that should have been recorded have been recorded.
Presentation and disclosure
Completeness - all disclosures have been included in the financial statements

In the case study, the audit program was set to pull thirty of the transactions was to
determine and check for the materiality of the account payables. This is to ensure that the
auditors would not miss any problems in account payables they were checking. Errors may exist
from time to time if the auditors are trying to make a shortcut by not completing the procedures.
Questioning is the authoritative, vague, and an informal methodology for auditors. As
if the auditors perform audit on account payables, they would have to check for the transactions,
invoices and any related documents to prove the existence of the transactions. Auditors would
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need to question the management if the transactions involved large amounts. From the view of
completeness, all transactions should be proved by the existence of evidence.
Thus Brent Dorsey as the accountants should stick to the original audit plan with thirty
transactions to pull from accounts payable for the auditing.

3) IN YOUR OPINION, WHICH OF BRENTS ALTERNATIVE

COURSES OF ACTION WOULD PROVIDE THE BEST OUTCOME
AND WHY?

WHAT SHOULD BRENT DO? HOW WOULD YOU

HANDLE THE ETHICAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN THIS SITUATION?
The best action Brent could take is discuss about his concerns directly to senior auditor,
John. It is probably that maybe John could relieve the budget pressure within the team and John
should rationalized his actions if he wanted team to accept his plan. As we know, John got
authority to modify the audit plan. Other than that, the team actually know that low-risk area
because they have the same task and area of audit in Northwest for a couple of years. Just like
Megan suggests, relies more heavily on analytics and less on detailed tests could be justified.
That would save a few hours and can finish the audit task in time suggested by John. As we
know that, it is impossible for the team to finish their audit task in 35 hours with the same tests
like previous year.
Otherwise, if John is unable to accept Brent suggestions, Brent may consider talking to
upper manager that above John. Brent should come out with reasonable opinion and suggestion.
Maybe the upper management agree to give more time or little advice. Either way, if they cant
finish in time suggested without taking a risk that could harm themselves, he can stand with good
conscience that he did what was right. As we know, many firms reward people who stand up for
ethical behavior and avoid from eating hours.

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4) WHAT COULD JOHN PETERS AND THE OTHER AUDITORS DO

TO BETTER HANDLE THE DEMANDS OF CAREER AND FAMILY
LIFE?

As John, Han and other auditors had only 35 hours to finish account payables, and at the
same time Brent and Han had plans with their family on the weekend, they clearly need to plan
their time schedule smoothly. Work and life balance is crucial in this situation. Family is indeed
the main priority in life, however job is an important responsible in ones life. Time plays an
important role in this situation.
One of the ways that they can do is they can stay on the weekend to settle the account
payables on time. However they need to limit their working time only for 6 hours only as
example so that they can maybe plan to have a picnic, dinner or short movie date with their
family on that evening. It might be tiring for them, but it might be the best solution for the
situation. It will have the win-win situation for both career and family life.
On the other hand, they can bring their family holiday plan to the next weekend and settle
the account payables first for this weekend. They can focus on their work 100% and make it
done effectively. As for the family, they can plan to have the holiday outside their place maybe
for 2 days and 1 night.

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