You are a new junior auditor and this week he met with two audit partners to discuss two engagements that he'll be completing in the next few weeks. You happen to be assigned to complete the audit of the same two sections for both of the upcoming audit engagements: accounts receivable and property, plant and equipment.

For the first engagement, you are told he'll be spending most of his time auditing the accounts receivable balance: going through the responses to requests for confirmation, and completing alternative procedures. The audit of PP&E is expected to take very little time. The whole engagement is expected to take 4 days to complete.

For the second engagement, the company is much smaller, but you are told that you would be spending a significant amount of time auditing PP&E, including performing a detailed inspection of all capital asset additions in the year, and testing the opening balance of all the capital assets. You noticed that sample sizes for the accounts receivable testing are about the same as the sample sizes for the first engagement. This engagement is expected to take 7 days.

What differences in risk assessment could be affecting the total time spent on these two engagements, and the amount of evidence that needs to be accumulated for each? Identify at least three factors and explain the impact they could have on the audit response.