James Thomas is responsible for preparing bank reconciliation statements at Ajax Inc. Ajax has many bank accounts, including separate accounts for each major branch, accounts for payments of salaries and dividends, and accounts kept in foreign currency for overseas divisions. James maintains records including bank statements and weekly bank reconciliations for each account. In addition, there are files containing correspondence with banks about disputed transactions, dishonored checks from Ajax’s customers, and other bank-initiated transactions such as fees and interest.

Required

a. Comment on the appropriateness of the evidence in James’ files for Ajax’s financial statement audit.

b. Explain how an auditor would obtain more appropriate evidence for the relevant assertions for the bank accounts at Ajax.