The auditor of a stock brokerage company, Roller Securities Inc., sends out negative confirmations of account details for a sample of about 50% of the stock brokerage’s customers, selected at random.
Historically, 2–5% of the confirmations have been returned, and the majority of the discrepancies reported have been understatements. Investigation of the discrepancies rarely indicates an error on Roller Securities Inc.’s part. Usually, they are explained by transactions that are in progress or pending over the year-end, by late payments on the customer’s part, or other mistakes in the customer’s own records.

Required:
a. Describe the inherent risks and the internal control risks that exist for customer accounts at Roller Securities Inc.
b. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using negative confirmations to provide audit evidence about the assertions in this case. Comment on the persuasiveness of the evidence the negative confirmations provide; do you think it can be sufficient to support the auditor’s opinion?