Hh no, not Store 51," Avis Love moaned under her breath. For the third time, Avis compared the dates listed in the cash receipts journal with the corresponding dates on the bank deposit slips. Avis shook her head softly and leaned back in her chair. There was no doubt in her mind now. Mo Rappelle had delinitely held open Store 5/ 's cash receipts journal at the end of October.' Avis Love was a stalf accountant with the Atlanta office of a large international accounting firm. Several months earlier. Avis had graduated with an sccounting degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Although she did not plan to pursue a career in public accounting. Avis had accepted one of the several job ollers she received from major accounting firms. The 22 year-old wanted to take a two-or three-year "vacation" from coliege, while at the same time accumulating a bankroll to finance three years of law school. Avis intended to practice law with a major firm for a few years and then return to her hometown in eastern Alabarna and set up her own practice. For the past few weeks, Avis had been assigned to the audit engagement for Lowell. Inc. a public company that operated nearly 100 retail sporting 8 oods stores scattered across the South. Avis was nearing completion of a yearend cash receipts cutoff test for a sample of 20 Lowell stores. The audit procedures she had performed included preparing a list of the cash receipts reported in each of those stores accounting records during the last five days of Lowell's fiscal year, which ended October 31. She had then obtained the relevant bank statements for each of the stores to determine whether the cash receipts had been deposited on a timely basis. For three of the stores in her sample, the deposit dates for the cash receipts ranged trom three to seven days following the dates the receipts had been entered in the cash reccipts fournal. The individual store managers had apparently backdated cast receipts for the first several days of the new fiscal year, making it appear that the receipts had occurred in the fiscal year under audit by Avis's firm. Avis had quickly realized that the oblective of the store managers was not to overstate their units year-end cash balances-instead, the managers intended to inflate their recorded sales. Before Avis began the cutolt test, Teddy Tankersley, the senior assigned to the Lowell audit and Avis's immediate superior, had advised her that there was a higher-than-normal risk of cash receipts and ales cutoll ertors for Lowell this year The end of Lowell's fiscal year coincided with the end of a three-month The end of Lowell's fiscal year coincided with the end of a theer-menthes for omotion. This campaign to boosi Lowell's sageing Thies was the first time that tanagers who exceeded their quarteriy sales guodest success. Founth-quarter salec II had run such a campaign. and it was a modesing sales lor the previons fiscal year by 6 percent. of backdated cashy receipts, ahe had felt fed the first instance of backdoted cakh seceipts ahe had te.t ff excitement. In several wontis of tracing down insors the young What Names locktione and eetain other beck accountant had occasionally found isolated errors in client accounting records. But this was different. This was fraud. Avis had a much different reaction when she uncovered the second case of back. dated cash receipts. She had suddenly realized that the results of her cutoff test would have "rial world" implications for several parties, principally the store managk ers involved in the fraudulent scheme. During the past few months. Avis had visited six of Lowell's retail stores to perform various interim tests of controls and to observe physical inventory procedures. The typical store manager was in his or her early 30 s, married, with one or two small children. Because of Lowell's miserly pay scale, the stores were chronically understaffed, meaning that the store managers worked extremely long hours to earn their modest salaries: No doubt, the store managers who backdated sales to increase their bonuses would be fired immediately. Clay Shamblin, Lowell's chief executive officer (CEO), was a hard-nosed businessman known for his punctuality, honesty, and work ethic. Shamblin exhibited little patience with subordinates who did not display those same traits. When Avis came to the last store in her sample, she had hesitated. She realized that Mo Rappelle managed Store 51. Three weeks earlier, Avis had spent a long Saturday afternoon observing the physical inventory at Store 51 on the outskirts of Atlanta. Although the Lowell store managers were generally courteous and accommodating. Mo had gone out of his way to help Avis complete her tasks. Mo had allowed Avis to use his own desk in the store's cramped office, shared a pizza with her during an afternoon break, and introduced her to his wife and two small children who dropped by the store later in the day. "Mo, what a stupid thing to do," Avis thought after reviewing the workpapers for the cutoff tests a final time. "And for just a few extra dollars," Mo had apparently backdated cash receipts for only the first two days of the new year. According to Avis's calcula. tions, the backdated sales had increased Mo's year-end bonus by slightly more than \$100. From the standpoint of Lowell, Inc., the backdated sales for Mo's store clearly had an immaterial impact on the company's operating results for the year just ended. After putting away the workpapers for the cutoff test, a thought occurred to Avis. The Lowell audit program required her to perform cash receipts cutolf tests for 20 stores... any 20 stores she selected. Why not just drop Store 51 from her sample and replace it with Store 52 or 53 or whatever? Avis brooded over the results of her cutoff test backdated transactions. The CEO told her that the the remainder of that day at work and most of company's internal auditors had tested the yearthat evening. The following day, she gave the end cash receipts and sales cutoff for the remainworkpaper file to Teddy Tankersley. Avis reluc- ing 72 stores and identified seven additional store: tantly told Teddy about the backdated cash managers whohad tampered with their accountreceipts and sales she had discovered in three ing records. As Avis was leaving the CEO's olfice; stores: Store 12, Store 24, and Store 51. Teddy he thanked her once more and assured her that congratulated Avis on her thorough work and the store managers involved in the scam "would fold her that Clay Shamblin would be very inter- soon be looking for a new line of work.... in ested in her findings. another part of the country. A few days later, Shamblin called Avis into his office and thanked her for uncovering the Questions 1. Would it have been appropriate for Avis to substitute another store for Store 51 after she discovered the cutoff errors in that store's accounting records? Defend your answer. 2. Identify the parties potentially affected by the outcome of the ethical dilemma faced by Avis Love. What obligation, if any, did Avis have to each of these parties? 3. Does the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct prohibit auditors from developing friendships with client personnel? If not, what measures can auditors take to prevent such friendships from interfering with the performance of their professional responsibilities? 4. Identify the key audit objectives associated with year-end cash receipts and sales cutoff tests. 5. What method would you have recommended that Avis or her colleagues use in deciding whether the cutoff errors she discovered had a material impact on Lowell's year-end financial statements? Identify the factors or benchmarks that should have been considered in making this decision