We’re recruiting!
We’re very excited to be recruiting a full or part time technical trainer and audit file reviewer to our team. Please get in touch if you know of anyone who might be interested. Click here for the job spec.
Upcoming courses
Our 2024 CPD programme is now live and open for bookings. Click to download our brochure and booking form.
Date – Time – Course – Presenter
4th June – 9.30-12.30 – VAT Common Errors – Dean Wootten
4th June – 1.30-3.30 – AML Update – Peter Herbert
4th June – 3.45-4.45 – AML Due Diligence Q&A – Peter Herbert
11th June – 9.30-12.30 – Auditing Groups – Jez Williams
19th June – 9.30-11.30 – How to Become an Effective Audit Senior – James Charlton
19th June – 12.30-1.30 – Auditing Experts and Service Organisations – James Charlton
20th June – 9.30-12.30 – Deferred Tax and Tax Reconciliations – Malcolm Greenbaum
24th June – 9.30-11.30 – How to Become an Effective Audit Manager – Richard Hemmings
24th June – 12.30-1.30 – Materiality, Sampling and Misstatements – Richard Hemmings
2nd July – 9.30-11.00 – Academies – The Fundamentals – James Charlton
2nd July – 11.15-12.45 – Academies Update – James Charlton
Our new AML, Ethics and GDPR E-Learning Programmes are available now.
“Excellent delivery, easily understood with some good points raised.” Delegate, Autumn series
FAQs from recent courses
Audit
Could you rebut the presumption of fraud in revenue recognition via an EPOS system if you did a proof in total of revenue on the EPOS system compared to the accounting system, as long as the client is unable to manipulate the data?
We encourage firms to consider rebutting the presumption of fraud in revenue recognition. Many think it’s not allowed. However, the assessment should be done before taking account of relevant internal controls. Are such controls crucial to the client’s inability to manipulate data perhaps? Even where the presumption isn’t being rebutted, think carefully about the revenue streams and assertions affected by the fraud risk and focus your audit effort in those areas.
Charities
We have a client who is a church charity and they have ‘restricted’ funds going back to WWI for orphans. Are these now not restricted? If restricted funds are not applied within a ‘reasonable period’, do they automatically become unrestricted?
The general rule on repurposing restricted funds is that Charity Commission (CCEW) consent must be sought first. However, changes introduced in October 2022 as part of the Charities Act 2022 revisions now mean that unreturned donations of up to £1K can be repurposed without CCEW consent. A resolution is required to agree the new purpose for the donations and the rules in the charity’s governing document must be followed to pass the resolution. The devil’s in the detail so check out the CCEW guidance here.
Financial Reporting
In FRS 102 section 1A accounts, in the employee numbers note, are you required to disclose directors if they are not employees on the payroll?
Many companies use the number of people on the payroll as a marker for how many employees they have – which, in turn, drives the employee number disclosure. However, it’s really all about how many people have a contract of employment. It would be possible to have a contract of employment and not be on the payroll. ICAEW’s useful help sheet on employee numbers, which can be downloaded here, states that ‘it is possible to have a verbal or an implied contract of service, but this is not automatic.’
Is it true that the government are doing away with the need for a strategic report for medium sized companies?
It is something which is being consulted on, along with a proposal to increase the employee numbers threshold for medium-sized companies to 500 from 250. A consultation has just been announced and will run for 6 weeks to 27 June 2024. A link to the consultation can be found here.
In a recent poll
Audit
Is challenging the integrity of spreadsheets something you think about regularly?
This is currently a big areas of focus for ICAEW. Auditors are thinking more and more about the risks associated with IT and related controls in light of the revised ISAs 315 (risk assessment) and 240 (fraud). Spreadsheets often figure somewhere in the accounting system and yet auditors can have a blind spot where these are concerned. The poll response here was encouraging. ICAEW members can download a useful article on auditing spreadsheets here.
