Requirement 1

?Users of financial statements can expect that if an unqualified opinion is issued by the auditor, there will be no errors, misstatements, or misapplications of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the financial statements and related footnotes.? React to this statement and include a discussion of how materiality relates to it.

Requirement 2

Prepare the journal entries that would be necessary to adjust for each of the four misstatements provided in the case. Evaluate the total dollar effect of the adjustments on Total Revenues, Total Expenses, Net Income, Total Current Assets, Total Assets, and Total Liabilities. (This requirement can be hand written, and can be placed on another sheet of paper that can be excluded from your page count.)

Requirement 3

Consider the audit sampling done in the area of accounts receivable. Can you only consider the known difference of $8,662? Why or why not?

Requirement 4

Considering the materiality information given in the case, and your answers to the two above requirements, what is your overall conclusion about the proposed audit adjustments? Would you require management to record all of the audit adjustments listed above, would you require them to record only some, or would you allow them to pass on recording all of the audit adjustments? If you would only require them to post some, which ones would you choose, and why?

Requirement 5

Ignore your answer to Requirement 4 above. Assume you found material errors in the financial statements and you required management to make some adjustments in order to ensure that the financial statements were free from material misstatements. Assume management refused to make those adjustments. Would you qualify your opinion on the financial statements? Why or why not?

Case 12.1 EyeMax Corporation Evaluation of Audit Differences MARK S. BEASLEY FRANK A. BUCKLESS STEVEN M. GLOVER DOUGLAS F. PRAWITT The case was prepared by Mark S. Beasley, Ph.D. and Frank A. Buckless, Ph.D. of North Carolina State University and Steven M. Glover, Ph.D. and Douglas F. Prawitt, Ph.D. of Brigham Young University, as a basis for class discussion. It was adapted from an article authored by D. Burgstahler, S. Glover, and J. Jiambalvo, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, (2000, Vol. 1, page 79). EyeMax is a fictitious company. All characters and names represented are fictitious; any similarity to existing companies or persons is purely coincidental. LEARNING OBJECTIVES After completing and discussing this case you should be able to [1] Evaluate proposed adjustments to client financial statements [2] Know how to support your decision to either record or exclude adjustments [3] Appreciate the degree of judgment involved in determining a minimum adjustment, particularly when the client's preference is to not adjust INTRODUCTION The information below relates to the audit of EyeMax Corporation, a client with a calendar yearend. EyeMax has debt agreements associated with publicly traded bonds that require audited financial statements. The company is currently, and historically has been, in compliance with the covenants in the debt agreements. Further, management believes that having audited financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP is important to shareholders and is \"simply a good business practice.\" Assume that audit fieldwork has been completed. At this point you are considering several items that have been posted to a \"Summary of Unadjusted Misstatements.\" The Summary of Unadjusted Misstatements is a listing auditors compile during an audit as they uncover potential or proposed corrections to the client's financial statements. Additional detailed information about the items posted to the Summary of Unadjusted Misstatements is provided on the following pages. Based on the information provided, you will be asked to decide the minimum adjustment (if any) to the financial statements that would be necessary before issuing a \"clean opinion.\" Make sure you carefully consider materiality as you evaluate the misstatements because auditors do not require their clients to book immaterial adjustments. While it is considered best practice to correct errors discovered during the audit, there are situations where it is justifiable to make the corrections in the following period. Therefore, even if, for example, a client has followed a non-GAAP procedure, no adjustment would necessarily be required unless the impact is material (i.e., an individual adjustment(s) is greater than individual account tolerable misstatement or the aggregated sum of all misstatements is greater than overall materiality after considering relevant qualitative factors). At the end of this case you will also be asked several questions related to your decisions. Please carefully consider the following information before you answer the questions. BACKGROUND Nature of client's business. EyeMax is engaged in research and development, manufacture, and sale of medical devices used by ophthalmologists during eye surgeries. Customers of the product lines are primarily doctors of ophthalmology and laser-eye clinics. Wayne Carruth, MD, founded the company in 1986 to produce and market a line of devices he designed for use in optic surgery. Several years ago, EyeMax began to exploit the future prospects of laser technology in optic surgery. EyeMax has grown rapidly, especially in recent years, and has made significant strides in market share. EyeMax is currently the third largest supplier of optical equipment, with a 25 percent market share, and employs 425 people, up from only 285 employees just two years ago. Thirty percent of the stock in EyeMax is owned by Wayne Carruth and his immediate family. An additional 40 percent of the stock is owned by company employees, with the largest individual holding equal to about ten percent of the company's shares. Venture capitalists and a few outside investors hold the remaining shares. The company's shares currently trade on the over-the-counter bulletin-board market. Definition of 'Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board - OTCBB' A regulated electronic trading service offered by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) that shows real-time quotes, last-sale prices and volume information for over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities. Companies listed on this exchange are required to file current financial statements with the SEC or a banking or insurance regulator. There are no listing requirements, such as those found on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange, for a company to start trading on the OTCBB. Accounting environment, risk assessments, and audit approach. The accounting department employs eight people with various backgrounds: the controller is a CPA, the accounting supervisor and payroll supervisor each have college degrees in business, and the remaining five clerks have limited training and experience. Although the company has no material weaknesses in internal controls, the accounting department has not kept pace with the demands created by growth in production and sales. The department is overworked. Key controls appear to be functioning but are not always performed on a timely basis. In the planning phase of the audit, both inherent risk and control risk were assessed at less than the maximum, but the audit plan specifies an audit approach that relies primarily on substantive testing. Management's position regarding audit adjustments. EyeMax has been an audit client for five years. Prior audits have generally detected accounting misstatements, and EyeMax's management has readily made the recommended adjustments. As the client has booked all identified prior-year differences, there are no \"turn-around\" effects to be considered from the prior year. However, in the past, audit reports have been dated before the end of February. This year, because of deadlines imposed by other clients and staffing problems at your audit firm, fieldwork at EyeMax was not completed by the end of February. Nonetheless, the president of EyeMax, without prior consultation with your firm, provided shareholders and creditors with preliminary earnings information in the last week of February. It is now the middle of March, and the president strongly prefers to minimize adjustments to the financial statements because he believes that such adjustments will unduly reduce shareholder and creditor confidence. In his opinion, no adjustment should be made unless it is absolutely essential for fair presentation. The managing partner of your office has been notified of the situation and the client's request. She has not yet reviewed the supporting detail presented below, but at this point she agrees that the audit team should not require adjustments be made unless the firm has no choice based on firm audit-practice standards. Materiality For purposes of planning and conducting the audit, total financial statement materiality was set at $625,000. This amount is equal to approximately 5% of earnings before taxes. (Note that because materiality is stated on a before-tax basis, all of the information below is also presented on a before- tax basis.) According to firm policy, tolerable misstatement for any one financial statement account cannot exceed 75% of overall materiality. MISSTATEMENTS POSTED TO THE SUMMARY OF UNADJUSTED MISSTATEMENTS Four proposed adjustments are posted to the Summary of Unadjusted Misstatements. These differences are related to warranty expense, repair and maintenance expense, litigation expense, and accounts receivable. All items posted to the Summary of Unadjusted Misstatements have been discussed with the client and the client agrees with our (the auditors') position on each item. However, for the reasons discussed above, the client would prefer not to book any of the items in the fiscal year under audit. The first three adjustments have been calculated/estimated based on nonsampling procedures. Information about the last difference is based on audit sampling. A sample was selected from accounts receivables. The sample size was determined based on the tolerable misstatement for the account, the expected misstatement in the population tested, and the acceptable level of risk. Warranty expense Warranty expense in the current year is estimated to be understated by $130,000 based on the following information: EyeMax grants a written one-year warranty for all products and estimates warranty expense based on current-year sales. However, during the last two years, the company has been making verbal commitments to repair or replace all products for a two-year period. The company has been complying with its verbal commitments and intends to continue the practice to improve customer relations. Because of this change in warranty policy, analysis of warranty repair and replacement data supports a $130,000 addition to the warranty expense estimate for the current year. Repair and maintenance expense. Repair and maintenance expense in the current year is understated by $200,000. The client inappropriately capitalized $240,000 of cost related to modifications to its production process. Because the modifications were unsuccessful, the full amount should be written off in the current year. The client has included one-sixth of the capitalized amount in depreciation expense for the year; therefore, net of the amount included in depreciation expense for the current year, overall expense in the current year is understated by $200,000. Litigation Expense Product liability expense is overstated by $50,000. The client maintains product liability insurance with a $50,000 per occurrence deductible. The client has an excellent record relating to product liability. One liability case was pending at year-end and the client had conservatively accrued $50,000 at year-end to provide for the potential loss even though the likelihood of loss was remote. A judge ruled the case was without merit shortly after year-end. Accounts Receivable The major audit work in the accounts receivable area was confirmation of customer balances. At year-end, EyeMax had receivables from 1,545 customers with a book value of approximately $12,600,000. Based on preliminary estimates, a random sample of 40 accounts was selected for positive confirmation. Customer-reported differences and alternative audit procedures applied to nonreplies revealed misstatements in four accounts that are detailed in Exhibit 1. The misstatements all appeared to be unintentional (e.g., using an incorrect price in billing). The net effect of the misstatements is an overstatement of Accounts Receivable (and Sales) at year-end. Exhibit 1 SUMMARY OF UNADJUSTED MISSTATEMENTS The following items have been recorded on the Summary of Unadjusted Misstatements