Background information

Acorn Food Ltd is a Chinese restaurant chain that operates an all you can eat buffet restaurant. Customers pay a fixed fee to enter the restaurant, where they can eat all they can, but are not allowed to carry out any meals.

The restaurant is open all year round, and has been in operation for the past seven years. It is located on the hip strip in New Kingston. Sales were on the decline during COVID-19, however since the lifting of the COVID restrictions; customer numbers are increasing at approximately 15% each year.

Cash sales

1. All ticket sales are recorded on a computer showing the amount of each sale and the number of tickets issued. This information is transferred electronically to the accounts office.

2. Cash is collected regularly from each ticket office by two security guards. The cash is then counted by two accounts clerks and banked on a daily basis.

3. The total cash from each ticket office is agreed to the sales information that has been transferred from each office.

4. Total cash received is then recorded in the cash book, and then the general ledger.

Credit card sales

1. Payments by credit cards are authorised online as the customers purchase their tickets.

2. Computers in each ticket office record the sales information which is transferred electronically to the accounts office.

3. Credit card sales are recorded for each credit card company in a receivables ledger.

4. When payment is received from the credit card companies, the accounts clerks agree the total sales values to the amounts received from the credit card companies, less the commission payable to those companies. The receivables ledger is updated with the payments received.

You are now commencing the planning of the annual audit of Acorn Food Ltd. The date is 3 June 2021 and Acorn Ltd s year end is 30 June 2021.

Required:

(i) In the planning of the audit, what is the purpose of preliminary analytical procedures? In performing preliminary analytical procedures, what types of comparisons can be used?

(ii) List the substantive analytical procedures that may be used to give assurance on the total income from ticket sales for one day in Acorn Ltd.