Woolworths Limited: Industry Analysis, Key Audit Matters, And Concerned Risks Essay.

Industry Detail and Its Nature

For the purpose of the furtherance of this report, the company that has been selected Woolworths Limited. Being the company listed in the Australia Stock Exchange and is one of the ASX lists of top hundred listed companies. The company has been into the existence from the last hundred years and since then the company has been into the retail sector.   

Industry Detail and Its Nature

The industry in which the company is operating is the retail sector. As per the latest index, the company is the number two company in the retail industry which has the more income. The company is operating across Australia and New Zealand. The company has its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. The industry under which the company is operating provides all the products for the home at one place and the store commonly known as the departmental store (Woolworths Limited official website, 2017). The major emphasis under which the company is operating as listed in financial report of the company is – to identify the customer preferences, to generate the higher revenues from the drinks, and then from the business of hotels and to become the best retailer of the country having the adequate systems and objectives.

ASA 701 – AN ANLAYSIS  Causes

The global financial crisis have been started from the mid of the year of two thousand and seven and has been persisting till the end of the year two thousand and nine ((Bajada and Trayler, 2010). These crises have been started from the collapse of the largest companies namely Lehman Brothers, One Tel and HIH Insurance. The collapses have been occurred due to the accounting fraud committed by the company and also the improper functioning of the management of the company. In case of the Lehman Brothers the accounting fraud is the adoption of the reverse repo method due to which their reported profits keep going on higher value and when the saturation point is reached then the company has been forced to provide the actual figures of the net loss which has created a wave of the shock in the industry (Xu, 2011).

These collapses have provoked the standard setting bodies tom develop an auditing standard through which the stakeholders can have the idea as to what is happening in the company or any material misstatement reported by the auditor, etc (Cordos and Fülöpa, 2015). To overcome these types of crises and collapses, the new auditing standard has come into place.    

ANALYSIS OF ANNUAL REPORT

The auditor of the company has disclosed the key audit matters in the financial report of the company for the year ending the month of June two thousand and seventeen. The key audit matters are mentioned below:

Home Improvement Business

During the period under review, it has been observed by the auditor that due to the closure of the operations of one of the segment of the company namely Home Improvement Business many components of the same are required to be checked in detail as it involves the complex accounting treatment of each and every component. Each and every component of it has different accounting as well as valuation treatment. Due to this complexity, the auditor has specified the same in the audit report.

ASA 701 – AN ANALYSIS Causes

Big W Segment

Under this segment, the company has charged the high value of impairment amounting to thirty five million dollar which has resulted in the immediate downfall of the carrying amount of the asset so concerned. Impairment has been charged because of the fact that the carrying amount has exceeded the recoverable amount. In this the company has calculated the recoverable amount on the basis of the cash flows which the company has determined using their own estimate clubbed with the discount rate adopted by the company. Due to the management discretion of estimating the cash flows and which in turn have led to the immediate downfall of the carrying amount, the event shall be reported as the key audit matter.

Stock

In the financial statements of the company, the amount has been provided on account of the damaged inventory and that too on the premise of the estimates of the future cash flows that the company will generate out of the available stock. The company has emphasized on the provision also on account of the goods which are slow moving and the seasonal one. Thus, it is of key matter because of the fact that the forecast has been made by the management at its own discretion. 

Discounts

In the normal course of business, the company is in receipt of discounts from the parties who supplies the goods and accordingly the accounting of the same is required to be done effectively. The same has to be done for the rebates. The company has been receiving the rebates and discounts from the suppliers but the accounting for the same needs to be checked with the contracts if any with those parties. 

IT Environment

It has been mentioned by the auditor that the system that the company has installed in the organization is very complex and it shall be checked in detail and due to this complexity, the item has been reported as the key audit matter.

CONCERNED RISKS

On reading the annual report of the company along with the independent auditors report and also specifically the key audit matters as communicated by the auditors, following are the two risks that have been noticed and have the material effect on the financial position and financial performance of the company. 

• Big W – The segment of Big W has been considered as the high risky area. It is because of the fact that the segment is not able to generate the higher amount of revenue and moreover value of the assets coming under the head of Big W has been impaired with the heavy amount Further the company has not even decided to close this segment of business rather mentioned in the report as to continue the same with low value and low revenue. Thus, this segment is at high risk.
• Information technology system is the major risky area. It is because through this system only the management of the company gets the various forms of reports along with the exception reports. As the system installed in the company is complex in nature therefore it has been very difficult for the auditors to conduct the audit in such a complex environment and therefore, it has been considered as second major risky area in accordance with the ASA 701.

EVENTS HAVING IMPACT ON AUDIT

The new auditing standard number 701 has specified the matters which are regarded as the significant event or the transaction. In accordance with the paragraph number nine of the auditing standard 701, the auditor is required to determine the matters or the events which requires the urgent attention of the auditor while conducting the audit. These matters so identified shall be from the matters as communicated with the persons which are charged with the governance. While determining such matters, the auditor is required to consider the following:

• Areas which are classified as the higher risk of providing the material misstatement or any other significant risk which are duly determined using the provisions of the auditing standard number three hundred and fifteen.
• Areas which requires the significant auditor judgment and also the significant judgment of the management of the company. These areas include the estimates of accounting which involves the high estimates of uncertainty.
• The effect that the significant transaction or event will have on audit for that particular period (AASB, 2015)

Following are the events or the transaction which have the material impact and effect on the audit for the financial year ending two thousand and seventeen:

• One of the significant events which have affected the audit for the concerned year is the accounting treatment of the assets reported under the Big W segment. It is because the company has impaired all the assets to then value equivalent to its recoverable amount as at the end of the accounting period. The auditor as per the provisions of the new auditing standard has conducted the audit like has discussed with the management regarding the valuations of the future cash flows, the discount rate adopted by them, methods adopted for the valuation of the future cash flows and analyzing the sensitivity of the segment if there has been change in discount rate by some percentage, etc (Kachelmeier, Schmidt and Valentine, 2016). Still the auditor thinks that it has some sort of complexity and has material impact on the financial health of the company and therefore the same shall be reported to the users of the financial statements also including the stakeholders of the company. Therefore, it has been reported in the auditor report of the company (Xu, 2013).
• Second of the significant event has been observed is the closure of the segment – home improvement business. The event alone has been regarded as the most significant event and has mentioned as the key audit matters in the auditor report. It is because of the fact that the event has led to beginning of so many events which have made the accounting as well as treatment of the event more complex in nature. The simultaneous events that have happened are the immediate sale of Hydrox holdings Limited and then for the clearance of the stock the agent has been appointed – GA Australia Limited for the defined amount of four hundred and ninety two million dollars, then contracting through the sale deed of shares, giving the call option to the company – Home Investment Consortium and then the accounting for the impairment of the assets of this segment – Home Improvement. There are other related events to which ate necessary and have led the exit of the business of Home Improvement from the company. As there is the list of many events and due to this complexity, the auditor has considered the event and transaction are of significance and therefore, the same has been reported and have posed material effect on the audit.   

(McKee, 2015).       

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

There has been collapses which have occurred in the past decade and which have further led to the financial crisis on the global basis. By following the global financial crisis the government has sought to have such standard which ensures the high transparency in the financial statements of the company so as to cater the needs of the stakeholders of the company as well as the management of the company. Due to this, the standard setting bodies has come up with the new auditing standard number 701 on communicating the key audit matters in the audit report. It has provided as to which transaction or event is required to be reported in the audit report. In this report, the analysis of the annual report of the company for the financial year ending June 2017 has been selected and the company – Woolworths Limited has been chosen.

The detailed analysis have been made with respect to the key audit matters and in regard to the different type of risks mentioned.  In order to conclude the report, the new auditing standard has given the path for the auditor so as to disclose all the significant transaction or event which will be helpful to the users of the financial statements.

The recommendation on high degree for the company will be to have the adoption of the clear and precise accounting policies and estimates and the procedures to enable the auditor to conduct the audit in best manner. 

AASB, (2015), “ASA 701, Communicating Key Audit Matters in the Independents Auditors report”, available on 

Bajada, C. and Trayler, R., 2010. How Australia Survived the Global Financial Crisis. The Financial and Economic Crises: An International Perspective, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, USA, pp.139-154.

Cordos, G.S. and Fülöpa, M.T., 2015. Understanding audit reporting changes: introduction of Key Audit Matters. Accounting and Management Information Systems, 14(1), p.128.

Kachelmeier, S.J., Schmidt, J.J. and Valentine, K., 2016. The disclaimer effect of disclosing critical audit matters in the auditor’s report.

Masytoh O, (2010), “The analysis of determinants of Going Concern Audit Report”, Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing, Vol 6(4), pp 27-36.

McKee, D., (2015). New external audit report standards are game changing. Governance Directions, 67(4), p.222.

Thomson, J., (2008), “Five lessons from the Spectacular fall of Eddy Grooves”, available at 

Woolworths Limited official website, 2017, “Annual Report 2017” available on http://www.woolworthslimited.com.au accessed on 08/05/2018.

Xu, Y., 2011. Audit reports in Australia during the global financial crisis. Australian Accounting Review, 21(1), pp.22-31

Xu, Y., 2013. Responses by Australian auditors to the global financial crisis. Accounting & Finance, 53(1), pp.301-338.

Industry Detail and Its Nature

As the title recommends the current report orients around evaluation of the newly developed auditing standard that is to say, communicating key audit matters in particularly independent assessors’ report. The current report explains in detail regarding the auditing rule ASA 701 that proposes about regulations as regards communication of various key audit matters principally in independent announcements of the assessors. The auditing directive under consideration is the ASA 701 that specifies about “Communicating Key Audit Matters” in the Independent Audit Report is primarily designed at the setting of international financial crisis.

The current study takes into account operations of firms operating in the retail segment. The firms include Wesfarmers, Woolworths, Jb hifi, Bapcor ltd, Speciality fashion group, Webjet ltd, Whitehawk, Myer holding ltd, OROTONGROUP LIMITED and TEMPLE & WEBSTER GROUP LTD.

Background

The present section accomplishes elaborate analysis of financial crisis and the associated liability of the evaluators. The period of different monetary instability can necessarily aid in understanding varied notions associated to crisis. Fundamentally, there is manifestation of different challenges specifically from economic, political together with social environment. Alzeban and Sawan (2015) suggests that worldwide economic crisis talks about tension, disorder together with critical assessment that necessarily gets manifested in the entire community. Therefore, financial crisis discusses about demonstration of diverse financial crisis that again replicates distrusts in financial framework, considerable decline in dealings of stock exchange along with disorders of the market transactions.

The government as well as transnational institutions that operate in the retail segment of Australia include Wesfarmers, Woolworths,  Jb hifi,  Bapcor ltd, Speciality fashion group, Webjet ltd, Whitehawk, Myer holding ltd, Orotongroup Limited And Temple & Webster Group Ltd. These firms endeavour to overcome adverse influence of worldwide crisis by carrying out the mechanism of financial restructuring.  Directives stipulated under the rule ASA 701 mentions about auditing standard that necessarily talks about different requirements and present applications, different explanatory materials concerning communication of key matters of audit prepared as well as presented by evaluators in their independent report.

ASA 701 is a specific auditing standard that can be employed for entire procedure of assessment of financial announcement of the firm Woolworths limited for the specified time period. Financial statements of the firms take into replicates exhaustive set of pecuniary announcements that employ ASA 701. Financial statements of these firms consider monetary reporting of business entities on and after the period of December 15 of the year 2016.

Essentially, this specified directive can aid auditors in handling different responsibilities of the auditors of the firms to properly convey key audit matters. In a bid to undertake the procedure, assessors can take into consideration a variety of areas of material misstatement in the financial statements of the firms. Risks are detected in the financial announcements of the retail firms are as per regulation stipulated under ASA 315 (indicating towards paragraph A19-A22).

Intrinsically, this mechanism of ascertainment also contains extensive judgement and decision of auditors in specific areas that include administrator’s judgement, including different approximations of accounting detected as high approximation uncertainty. Influence of audit of various important events or else business transactions occurred during particular period of time. In essence, the assessor also has the necessity to determine specific matters that were mentioned as per paragraph 9 of auditing standard in the evaluation report of the financial assertion of current period. Therefore, this can be referred to as the key audit matters as presented in the paragraph A19 to A 11 as well as A 27 to A30).

ASA 701 – AN ANALYSIS Causes

Financial statement of retailing corporations indicate towards consolidated and individual financial assertions on an annual basis that are presented according to International Financial Reporting Standards (also referred to as IFRS), regulations of International Accounting Standards Board (indicated as IASB). Also, financial assertions are stated by Financial Reporting Standards Council, as per different necessities under Companies Act of mainly South Africa, South African Institute of Chartered Accountants also simply indicated as SAICA, requirements of the Companies Act mentioned under South Africa along with JSE Limited Listing Rules.

In particular, these are essentially the matters that can aid financiers on observing maintenance of adherence to rules as regards financial arrangement, auditing as well as assurance. For example, the annual report of Temple & Webster Group reflects the audit as per Australian Auditing Standards.

The financial reports of the firms are presented as per Corporations Act of the year 2001. The standards are illustrated in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the financial report. The yearly report of firms presents key audit matters that were of considerable importance in audit report of the current year.

The key audit matters that are disclosed in the annual report include the following:

• Assessment of going concern: Audit procedures of the chosen firms analysed suppositions presented in the budget and forecasts presented in the cash flow validated by the board. The corporation considered historical accurateness of cash flow forecasting and takes into account influence of a wide range of different sensitivities to the model of cash flow to evaluate breakeven position (Messier Jr 2014). The selected companies taken into account evaluated overall consistency of the suppositions counted in the going concern model of cash flow with assertions associated to upcoming plans as well as commitments contained in the yearly report.
• Corporations taken into consideration assessed consistency of forecasts utilized by the entire group in specifically the going concerns model of cash flow with assertions associated to upcoming plans as well as commitments contained in the information presented in the yearly assertions (Hay 2015). The assessors of these selected firms also reviewed overall consistency of the forecasts utilized by the entire group in the going concern forecast and in the impairment testing models and evaluated adequacy of going concern disclosures.

Impairment of particularly goodwill and other intangible assets: Audit procedures

Audit procedures of the selected firms operating in the retail segment of Australia included assessment of impairment of goodwill as well as other intangible assets as a key audit matter. The entire selected set of firms operating in the retailing segment evaluated whether the methodology utilized by the group satisfied the necessities of Australian Accounting Standard (referring to AASB 136 for Impairment of Assets), counting appropriateness of identified cash generating unit (CGU) (Trotman et al. 2015). The auditors also examined whether the models utilized were mathematically fitting.

The auditors of the firms also consider processes of valuations that specialists carry out for assisting in the work carried out. Again, the auditors also analysed consistency of the forecasts utilized by the entire group in the going concern cash flow forecasts and in the testing models for impairment testing. The company analysed the adequacy of overall disclosures counted in financial reports with respect to carrying value of intangible assets as well as impairment testing.

-Revenue Recognition: Analysis of financial statements reveals the fact that revenue transactions was registered appropriately in appropriate period counting examination of whether the sales dealings were counted as deferred revenue. Audit processes consist of sample revenue transactions during the specified period of time (Hay et al. 2014). The auditors examined whether revenue was registered in the appropriate period counting testing whether sale transactions were counted as deferred revenue. The auditors examined whether revenue recognition are implemented to the terms as well as conditions of the sale was according to Australian Accounting Standard (also referred to as AASB 118 for revenue) (Wong and Millington 2014). The auditors take into consideration adequacy of particularly revenue recognition strategy disclosures contained in note.

Research on accounting strategies as well as policies:

The yearly report of retailing corporations elaborately illustrate about accounting policies that in turn can be utilized by financiers for understanding financial condition of the business. As mentioned in the annual report of the firm, the basis of preparation of consolidated along with individual statements is the usage of historical cost along with bases of going concern. Therefore, this can help in gaining insight regarding different modified opinion according to rules of ASA 570 and material uncertainty linked to incidents/circumstances that might possibly cast doubt on potential of the business concern to continue operations as a going concern according to rules mentioned in ASA 570. Thus, this can be referred to as “key audit matters” as this requires proper communication in the statement of the auditor. This can assist them in comprehending potential of the corporation to operate as a going concern.

Analysis of Annual Report

Evaluation of financial announcement of selected corporations

Report prepared and presented by auditors of the business concerns per the viewpoints of the assessors, both consolidated and individual financial pronouncements necessarily reflects fair view.

Significance of assessment of audit risk

The causes behind issuance of auditing standard ASA 315 by particularly Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (also referred to as AUASB) is to help in identifying and evaluating risks associated to material misstatements. This is undertaken by appropriate comprehension of particular business entity and environment of the business. As mentioned in the regulation stipulated under ASA 315, assessors of the firms have the necessity to comprehend risks of business that necessarily points out towards risk ensuing from significant conditions, specific incidents, circumstances, operational inactions that can unfavourably influence potential of the entity to achieve objectives and employ strategies.

In essence, it is vital to analyse associated risks of procedures of audit for gaining distinct understanding of the reporting entity together with the environment, including internal control. This can help in identifying and evaluating risks linked to material misstatement stemming from fraudulent actions, scams or errors (deliberate or else accidental) at the financial account of the firm.

The process in which it can be linked with the financial statement of the chosen Companies under the ASX limited

                        As the regulations stipulated by the ASA 315 (As Referred to Paragraph A 105 – A108) it has been identified about the assessment and identification of the risk of material misstatement in the levels of financial report. This is collaborated with the material risk misstatement also at the assertion level for diverse transaction classes, balances of account and the disclosures of the corporation to deliver a foundation for primarily performing and designing the processes of audit (Titman, Keown and Martin 2017). The auditor can make the analysis, detect the risks, and find out whether they associate more to financial report.

 The importance of business risk in the Audit Plan

In terms of accounting scandals at present the accountability and role of the auditor can be examined. In the chosen retail companies, the auditors must have a sound knowledge of the organisation on the basis of risks together with exposures of the company makes them ignore the impacts of aggressive accounting practice. Most importantly, in the context of the type of collapses that acceptance of top down approach can be stressed in which the auditor advances to gain knowledge of the business organisation, environment of the business in which the firm operates, important business risks and the way this kind of risks translate into risks of audit.

Processes that can be performed by an assessor in order to analyse the risk

The mechanisms that can be followed by an assessor in order to make the risk assessment involves the following steps:

• To Identify the business risks related to  the financial reporting objectives of the business
• Risks importance approximation
• Evaluation of the overall occurrence possibility
• Decision regarding the activities to address the risks identified

According to AUS A24.1 of ASA 315, governance arrangement and ownership must be present. The ones charged with liabilities of governance and the board of directors can make the determination of the risk level ascertainment policies. Implementation and monitoring of the effectual risk management systems can be designed by the senior management in order to execute the policies as recommended by the board of directors. In addition to it, the non-executive directors present on the board as well as independent compensation commission can review the discretionary bonuses diverse incentive plans, counting commissions, profit sharing service and contracts of directors (Jones et al. 2017). Specifically internal audit operation and audit committee and their role can enable in the independent appraisal function.  

Concerned Risks

Significant rise of internal control to a specific organisation and to the independent auditors

The auditor can obtain knowledge regarding  the relevant industry divisions, regulatory and other external surfaces with the framework financial reporting which are applicable as per the (Ref: paragraph A 36 to A41). The auditor can also acquire a comprehensive understanding as regarded to the internal control related to the audit process. Although majority of the controls applicable to the process of audit can probably be related to the financial reporting process.

However, all controls types that relate to financial reporting are not applicable to audit. Basically, as per the regulation as stipulated as per (ASA 315, ref paragraph, A42 to A65), this is a matter of professional judgement of the auditor whether a specific control, singly or in combination with different others is related to the process of audit (Green, Taylor and Wu 2017). Primarily, the auditor can may comprehend the environment control by obtaining a proper knowledge by evaluating whether administration with the oversight of the ones charged with governance has maintained and generated an environment of ethical behaviour and honesty.

Material misstatement risk:

Material misstatement risk can be referred to as risk that corporations the financial assertions of a have been stated inappropriately to a certain material degree. However, the risk can be assessed by the auditors at two different levels that includes control risk and inherent risk at the assertion level. According to Knechel and Salterio (2016), the inherent risk is the of company’s weakness of the financial misstatement statement owing to fault or else fraud before considering the diverse controls. Similarly, the control risk can be considered as the material misstatement risk that cannot be evaded or else identified by internal control of a particular reporting concern (Lisic et al.2016).

Standard of Auditing must comply with the International Standard on Auditing Standard ISA 260 that includes the need for the communication of the ones charged with the governance practices issued by the Assurance Standards Board and the International Auditing. As specified by Gay and Simnett (2014), the board is entirely responsible for the mechanism of the internal control for the entire group. It is vital to declare the result of the risk management practices, along with the actions of the autonomous provider of assurance. This helps in the process of financial control and can be considered to be vital audit matters.

The chosen ASX based companies’ annual report represents the fact that the directors have audited the group’s budget and prediction of cash flow during 2017 and insurance arrangements details of the whole group (Arens, et al., 2016). However, on the basis of the review and the present financial condition backdrop and along with the current borrowing facilities, directors of the organisation stay satisfied that the particular group is an appropriate going concern and have sustained to presuppose going concern based on the course of preparation and presentation of the Annual Financial Statements. This communication technique of key audit matters therefore helps the management to come at appropriate preparation and judgements as well financial statements preparation (Leung et al.2014).

Events Having Impact on Audit

Going concern Considerations

As per the directions of the  Auditing Standard ASA 570  that indicates towards going concern, there is requirement for the mentioning procedure for assessment of risk and the activities that are related, assessment of the administration, phase beyond management assessment, processes for supplementary inspection during detections of  when events  and the conditions (Knechel and Salterio 2016). The requirement of the standard ASA 570 also includes communication with the ones charged with accountabilities of governance.

However, analysis of financial assertion of the firms shows that the fact that group treasury committee was established in the firm that necessarily can oversee specific treasury actions of the entire group (Alzeban and Sawan 2015). This group was responsible to make it certain that there is appropriate governance of diverse significant function/operation. The audit committee delivers diverse oversight duties from the standpoint of the entire board and from the perspective of mainly Companies Act of particularly South Africa (Simnett, Carson and Vanstraelen, 2016).

This mainly can be associated to auditors, internal controls as well as financial assertions of the company and the limit up to to which it complies with the pertinent legislation, directives as well as governance exercises. On a yearly basis the committee regulated properly all the affairs as instituted in terms of reference that are audited and approved by the board, aligned to the regulatory committee necessities. This helps users of financial information to understand whether the company is fulfilling the going concern necessities (Khelil, Hussainey, and Noubbigh 2016).

The working group has made the analysis regarding the appraisal of entire going concern position of the whole group and recommended to board that the total group can turn into a going concern for the predicted future (Junior, Best and Cotter 2014). This report also suggests that it is solvent and can give out projected dividend. This declaration can also be considered to be an important audit matter that essentially has the need to be communicated for comprehension of the actual financial condition of the chosen companies.

Analysing business entities as well as business environment

Auditors have the necessity to have proper understanding regarding business concerns and atmosphere in which the business operates. Furthermore, evaluators of financial statements of the firms have the necessity to concentrate on specific areas of financial reporting for proper recognition of material misstatement of the corporation. In essence, the auditor also has the prerequisite for exceptional considerations for different areas of financial reporting. There are adjustment and alteration in accounting, impairment of diverse documented asset worth, modifications in share capital plus debt arrangement among many others.

The above mentioned study helps in gaining deep insight regarding strategies and acquires validation to uphold diverse types of administration. Numerous financial accounts are accurate within limitations of materiality. Consequently, for conveying this type of viewpoints, the auditor has the necessity to evaluate different subsisting substantiation to cover different material information that can be preserved. In particular, professional cynicism in mainly financial reporting of the firms can restrict judgement of the auditors concerning process of validation that are essential to attain the status.

Further, principles of accounting are necessarily rigid, directorial and obligatory in nature. Contrarily, the directives for primarily regulations are essentially descriptive in nature and this depends to large extent on auditors’ perceptions as well as judgements. In essence, the auditors are anticipated to be independent and govern different clients both in practice as well as appearance. Essentially, this has the requirement to be extremely objective in nature and auditors need to monitor audit validation.

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