Audit Strategy, Planning & Programme

Correct answer A: Giving appropriate attention to important audit areas.

Planning should focus attention on important areas. Convenience is not a substitute for significance; planning does not guarantee detection of every error.

Correct answer C: As a continuous, iterative process requiring necessary updates.

Planning continues through the engagement. New information can require changes to strategy and plan; neither the fieldwork start nor the original approval freezes it.

Correct answer A: Involve the partner and other key members to use their experience and insight.

Key engagement members, including the partner, participate in planning and team discussion. Their experience improves the planning process.

Correct answer A: Coordinate useful logistics but avoid discussions that compromise audit effectiveness.

Elements of planning may be discussed to facilitate the audit. Care is needed not to compromise effectiveness, so logistical coordination does not justify damaging disclosure.

Correct answer B: Consider relevant integrity, competence and engagement issues rather than renew automatically.

Preliminary engagement activities include continuance procedures. Changed owners, team competence and prior/current issues require assessment, not automatic acceptance or an invented audit opinion.

Correct answer B: Assess ethical compliance and the new threat during the engagement.

Ethical compliance and independence are ongoing. The relationship needs assessment and appropriate action; an annual declaration is not a full-year exemption.

Correct answer D: Establish a shared understanding of the engagement terms before commencement.

Understanding terms is a preliminary activity that avoids misunderstandings and informs planning. The fee alone does not settle the nature of the engagement.

Correct answer C: The overall audit strategy.

The strategy sets scope, timing and direction and guides the more detailed audit plan. It need not contain every detailed verification step.

Correct answer C: The type of resources to deploy to specific audit areas.

Strategy assists decisions about suitable resources, including experienced staff and experts for complex matters. A resource decision is not proof of misstatement.

Correct answer D: The amount of resources allocated to particular areas.

Strategy addresses amounts such as staff numbers and audit hours in significant areas. Equal allocation is not a universal rule.

Correct answer D: When audit resources should be deployed.

Resources may be needed at interim stages or key cut-off dates. Evidence needs and timing opportunities matter, not only a convenient final-week roster.

Correct answer A: How resources are managed, directed, supervised and reviewed.

The strategy assists planning how staff are managed and reviewed. Briefing/review arrangements support work; they do not replace it or prove a result.

Correct answer C: Engagement characteristics defining scope and needed specialised knowledge.

Framework, business segments, industry requirements and knowledge needs help define scope. An unchanged client name does not make a changed business irrelevant.

Correct answer B: Procedure timing and the nature/timing of management and team communications.

Reporting objectives include deadlines and communications with management and the team, including review timing. They are wider than a final date or fee term.

Correct answer D: Consider the prior results and action taken, assessing their current relevance.

Prior knowledge can inform strategy, including identified deficiencies and responses. It must be considered in the current circumstances, not blindly carried forward.

Correct answer D: Nature, timing and extent of planned risk assessment procedures.

SA300 plan content includes the planned nature, timing and extent of risk assessment. Account headings alone are not that description.

Correct answer B: Planned further audit procedures at assertion level.

Further assertion-level procedures respond to assessed risks. They are distinct from client acceptance and do not exhaust the audit-plan requirements.

Correct answer B: Include other planned procedures needed to comply with applicable SAs.

The plan includes risk assessment, further assertion-level procedures and other procedures required for SA compliance. A short high-risk list is not the whole plan.

Correct answer B: No; some further procedures can begin while remaining planning develops.

Planning develops through the audit. Appropriate further work in some areas may begin before all remaining procedures are planned; this does not excuse unplanned or obsolete work.

Correct answer D: Yes; strategy and plan are closely related and changes may affect both.

The broad strategy and detailed plan are interrelated rather than rigidly isolated stages. A change may require consequential updates, not automatic disposal of all work.

Correct answer C: Update strategy and plan as needed, revising the procedural response to risks.

Unexpected events, changed conditions or audit evidence may require changed strategy, plan and further procedure nature/timing/extent. They do not automatically determine an opinion.

Correct answer A: The individual team members' capabilities and competence.

Supervision/review depends on size/complexity, area, risks and individual capability. There is no universal identical or hourly schedule.

Correct answer A: The significant changes and reasons, alongside the strategy and plan.

Planning documentation covers strategy, plan and significant changes with their reasons. It explains the final response rather than merely hide the revision history.

Correct answer D: An audit programme.

An audit programme sets out verification procedures and detailed instructions to obtain evidence and implement the audit plan. Its existence is not assurance of a perfect result.

Correct answer A: Tailor the programme to the entity's nature, controls and engagement scope.

Businesses and controls differ. Standard programmes can be starting points but must reflect relevant engagement circumstances; a universally unchanged programme is not practical.

Correct answer B: No; she should remain alert beyond the programme and report it to seniors.

Assistants should keep an open mind and report significant matters. Initiative does not confer authority for silent unilateral rewriting.

Correct answer C: Follow authorised instructions until the programme is officially changed, raising the issue for review.

The programme should be reviewed and updated as needed, but assistants follow the detailed instructions until properly changed. Private convenience edits are not the revision process.

Correct answer C: State objectives and useful procedures with enough detail and extent to guide the assistants.

Programme construction calls for relevant objectives and workable instructions, including extent. Vague headings and arbitrary universal samples do not serve that purpose.

Correct answer B: Select and weigh evidence for the particular assertions; one procedure may not establish all of them.

Evidence needs differ by assertion and circumstance. Documentary, physical and other sources may complement each other; one procedure does not always bring sufficient satisfaction.

Correct answer A: Receptive supervision, objective observations and reporting of significant matters, with programme review.

Mechanical work, rigidity, shelter for inefficiency and loss of initiative are programme disadvantages. Attentive supervision and receptive reporting help reduce them; signatures are not immunity.