You are an audit supervisor of Amethyst & Co and are currently planning the audit of your client, Aquamarine Co (Aquamarine) which manufactures elevators. Its year end is 31 July 2016 and the forecast profit before tax is $15·2 million.

The company undertakes continuous production in its factory, therefore at the year end it is anticipated that work in progress will be approximately $950,000. In order to improve the manufacturing process, Aquamarine placed an order in April for $720,000 of new plant and machinery; one third of this order was received in May with the remainder expected to be delivered by the supplier in late July or early August.

At the beginning of the year, Aquamarine purchased a patent for $1·3 million which gives them the exclusive right to manufacture specialised elevator equipment for five years. In order to finance this purchase, Aquamarine borrowed $1·2 million from the bank which is repayable over five years.

In January 2016 Aquamarine outsourced its payroll processing to an external service organisation, Coral Payrolls Co (Coral). Coral handles all elements of the payroll cycle and sends monthly reports to Aquamarine detailing the payroll costs. Aquamarine ran its own payroll until 31 December 2015, at which point the records were transferred over to Coral.

The company has a policy of revaluing land and buildings and the finance director has announced that all land and buildings will be revalued at the year end. During a review of the management accounts for the month of May 2016, you have noticed that receivables have increased significantly on the previous year end and against May 2015.

The finance director has informed you that the company is planning to make approximately 65 employees redundant after the year end. No decision has been made as to when this will be announced, but it is likely to be prior to the year end.

Required:
(b) Describe SIX audit risks, and explain the auditor’s response to each risk, in planning the audit of Aquamarine Co.