AAA*** ACCA P7 September 2017 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

So this was a resit for me. I got 49% in June. I have to say this exam is brutal! it is the time pressure. Maybe I'm slow at reading but time just slips away so easily. How many of you actually finish all parts of the questions? I answered Q3 and Q4 thoroughly. Q1 Part a mostly and bits of part b. There was so much going on in this question!!! Q2 bits of each section due to time.

The most time pressured exam for me so far (still P5 & P2 to go). There was so much information jammed into Q1 that I spent ages on that, I probably could have gone on an on about various risks, there were so many. By the time I was done with Q1 I was kind of panicking. My answers to Q2, 3 and 4 were probably way too brief. I went with Q3 & 4 just because they were the first ones in section B and I really had no time to read one more question and decide.

I also gat 49 in June :( I found section B harder this time. I answered q3 and q4 and was happy to see due deligence, but then the way it was asked I am not sure I ve answered it correctly. I felt that everything I wanted to say was already included within the question. I spent too much time on Q1 but overall i tried to put something in every part of the question but not sure if it will be enough to get me a pass.

While I am glad to hear I am not alone in the time pressure situation, I also feel your pain. The due diligence question was not like any I'd seen before in past papers. All past papers were asking for you to define due diligence and the benefits of it, but Q3 was not that. It was wrapped in thoughts about groups, and ethics. Let's hope we are across the line and don't need to go through that one again!

@kasia86 said: I also gat 49 in June :( I found section B harder this time. I answered q3 and q4 and was happy to see due deligence, but then the way it was asked I am not sure I ve answered it correctly. I felt that everything I wanted to say was already included within the question. I spent too much time on Q1 but overall i tried to put something in every part of the question but not sure if it will be enough to get me a pass.

I felt the same. There were so many risks of material misstatement we could have been there forever. Hopefully the ones we did mention get us decent marks. It could be interpreted that this was a gift of a question are there were so many potential answers.

It is my second attempt to P7. The September 2017 P7 is easy as comparing to June Sitting, but i am always lack of time to finish all the required ques. :'( Q1- Business Risk, ROMM, NOCLAR and audit procedure, it is expected question by according to the trend of past year examinations. Q2- For me, i am not able to identify the matter to consider fully in this ques as the 3 cases are difficult to point out. IAS 16, IAS 37, IAS 8, IFRS 9 impairment of finance asset. Q3- Due Diligence ques Q4- Ethic and professional issue Q5- Going concern and critically assess the audit report As usual, I am lack of time to finish my question with critically answering the questions. I hope examiners be kind to me to give me a pass. Bless to God.

I got 48% june sitting. But compare to september paper. I think i pretty screwed up for q2 and q3

Q 1 audit risk for 10 marks as well

It was business risk

Look at it this way folks. From what I have been told, Q1 biggest marks were for business risks and risks of mat misst. Both of which are core, were heavily tipped, and so you will have practised them. So the scenario had lots of risks, not a problem! Just produce 10 mark answers (around 7-8 business risks, and 5 risks of mat misst) and then stop looking for any more. Not sure on the NOCLAR (as I said have not seen paper) but again this was a virtual guarantee to come up so presumably some straightforward marks available. And typically 3 of the prof marks are a gift a well. Also a predictable Q2 by the sound of it. Well practised = lots of marks. Sounds like the optional questions were tougher in a technical sense, but if they are tough for one person they are tough for all, and the pass rate cannot get any lower (I say this with a sense of hope). I am interested to hear what the due diligence question actually asked. Can anyone detail it, as it sounds like it might have been a bit different to recent past exam examples?

BR :- LUXURY HOTELS =BR IS ECONOMIC RECESSION FOOD AND DRINKS=BR IS IF QUALITY IS NOT MAINTAINED THEN CUSTOMER GETS ..... HOTEL COMPLEX purchased from competitor but local legislation not allowed to use beaches and stuff this is what actual business model is for sunshine group , if these services are not being provided to the customer for which sunshine group is well know they might end up loosing sales MAJOR COMPETITOR AND HIGH Standards: if not maintained properly as a result looses their customers and will see dramatic decline in sales revenue what other business risks you guys wrote ?

I think three hours and 15 minutes is not enough to critically examine the case and provide a well thought of answer. Not to mention provide a legible hand writing. Time just flies... Hope the examiner considers these and the fact that under examination condition, the examiner's request (from examiner's report) is really hard to do. Hope we get a pass and hope passing rates this time around is not as low as the previous ones... Good luck guys!

Business risks have 3 components - financial, operational and compliance risks. The scenario should be used to identify the business risks relating to the 3 components: Sunshine Group BR: -Competition -Non compliance with laws and regulations -upward and downward fluctuations in foreign exchange rates -High maintenance costs especially to hotels in hurricane prone area -Reputational risk if made public in press reports -Restricted access to private beach -Unpaid bills by customers as they can pay 60% on departure -Diversification from the franchise of Moulin Blanche

It was a time pressured exams as any other previous P7 exams. Q1 was lengthy and there was a lot to grasp in little time but it was not too difficult I guess(BR+ROMM+Group audit planning+Evidence on the $10m as claim from pressure groups) Q2 was typical P7 questions on ISAs+Matters to consider & evidence. Provision for decommisiong costs+change in estimate technique for calculating depreciation+Trade receivables. Q3 was on due diligence where it was asked why two points made need to be investigated. One was on a major customer who is not renewing the agreement with the manufacturer and the other point was on a piece of land which was gifted and used as a nature reserve - a bit of an odd type though. Then the investigation procedures was asked and the questioned finished off with a bit of ethics. Q4 was on ethics+professional issues+recommendations in a three sub parts. Q5-No idea did not get there!

Questions as I remember: Q1. a. business risk - 10m; romm - 10m b. group audit planning - 5/6m c. further procedures for claim - 5/6m Q.2 - Matters to consider and expected audit evidence on the following: a. Provision for decommissioning costs (change of implicit rate used from 6% to 8%) - ?m b. Smth with change in depreciation policy and revue of useful life of assets and retrospective adjustment - ?m c. There was smth on recievebles, ratio on rec days and alloawance. - ?m Q3. a. - Why due dilligence performed was not enough and further actions i. loss of customer that presents 5% of revenue - 6m ii. smth with land that was granted by government and there were restrictions on usage / ownership (don't really remember, didn't get to this one) - 6m b. smth that parent for which we perform group audit asked to perform advisory services for its sub (significant component) to advise on purchase price of another company - 8m Q4. - what were the scenarios? Q5 - part b - audit report (didn't choose to answer) Can you please remind me what was in q4? And what you answered shortly on the questions. Thank you!

Seems like we wrote the exact same risks. Did you copy me? ?

I also found this exam very difficult in time. Q3 - I advised for 1 that there was risk of reputational damage, cheaper competitors to consider for acquisition, drop in revenues ans possibly most customer may be lost. Material customer lost etc Q4- I can barely remember Part B was a listed co that requested we help them with a due diligence review on one of their material group subsidiaries, but I said as it was a PLC we can't offer audit and non audit services if they are materials. Part C- we had audit partner that needed rotation was had been partner for the client for 7 years, audit client said he would put audit out to tender if we changed audit partner as he was only staying with the auditors due to close relationship. I said not possible , partner rotation necessary and if intimidation threat so may lose client but may have stepped down from audit anyway if relationship soured and threats in place , too big to safeguard. I did Q2 second, not too bad I think, then Q1 which half way through i realised i was 15 mins over time on....so had to totally squeeze Q4 cause had only 20 mins left ? What were the implications to be assessed from the Ocean protection case against the co in Question 1? Was it just that the integrity of co was in Question and that kinda thing....or how did people answer this part? Hope I did enough to pass, preferred the paper to the June one which I got 41% in so fingers crossed!!! ??

The time frame for this exam is quite ridiculous giving the amount of information expected from the examiner. I practiced a lot on my timing, however question 1 still took 1hr 30 mins. Quite baffling as I had Practiced to complete question 1 in 65 minutes I rushed questions 2 and 3, there were some technical answers required however i had to adapt the strategy of providing recommendations and audit procedures first before commenting on the matters, this allowed me to catch up a lot as I spent less time thinking through the technicality of the questions Question 5 was sincerely a gift!!! There were so many easy marks from this question . -Recommending additional audit procedures -critically appraising an audit repor. Both questions were worth 15 marks in total. The audit report to be criticized was drooling with so many issues, it was rather easy to dissect . I hope the examiners don't penalize for writing in point formart. All the best to all candidates

@spud said: Q4- I can barely remember Part B was a listed co that requested we help them with a due diligence review on one of their material group subsidiaries, but I said as it was a PLC we can't offer audit and non audit services if they are materials.

wasn't it question 3b? :) Q1.c. (Claim) I wrote smth from standard, like result of past event, probable, measurable, so must be recognized now. If not => qualified report. But ppl above were writing smth about NOCLAR. I don;t know whats that :D I used old book, probably smth new and hopefully I can fit with my answer with it...

BTW, did you write in Q1.c. that auditor must report to authorities? I only wrote modified report...

Oh Thanks!!! ?? Yeah, what is NOCLAR?? ?

can some one please tell audit procedures for going conern and 10 million claim please ?

Hi. I have confusion with one requirement in exam. Will threats to auditors independence arise, if we provide non assurance service to SUBSIDIARY of audit client. Where subsidiary is not audited by our firm

Re 10 million claim in q1, I said something like: Analyse documents pertaining to the claim. Confirm 10million is accurate estimate. Discuss with management their reasoning for not including in financial statements. Confirm details with Ocean protect company to confirm accuracy. Discuss with mgmt 're potential need for expert valuation. Confirm plans to ensure no further claims will be made against co. If mgmt refuse to amend Financial statements, advise them of the implications to the audit report.

With regard to question 2 and 4 where there were matters to consider, how detrimental is not stating Materiality as one of the factors to consider. I totally forgot to put that. And about the evidence that you expect to find for the file review, I simply put the evidence but not the audit work on that evidence. Would that be detrimental too?

Business risks I mentioned: - political risk - restrictions to beaches => not following their strategy - new locations might not be investigated properly -> might end up in the same way - management is incompetent in choosing locations - extra costs are required, that will be borrowed and will add up to gearing. Potential breach of covenants => financing problems - reputation loss due to regulations - also stated smth about hurricane, which migh lead to loos of clients and extra expenses required.

With regard to question 2 and 4 where there were matters to consider, how detrimental is not stating Materiality as one of the factors to consider. I totally forgot to put that. And about the evidence that you expect to find for the file review, I simply put the evidence but not the audit work on that evidence. Would that be detrimental too? I think if you can state other matters other than materiality you would still pick up the marks as long as they're valid matters. For evidence I did the same, stayed pieces of evidence but not the audit work as procedure was not asked, only evidence! Hopefully that's right! ?

What did you put for your matters to consider. Somehow I can't even remember what I put.

For matters I put down materiality, was it material etc! Then the accounting standards to be adhered to for that area and what they have to do. Also if there was a risk of material misstatement. I used the same 3 of those for all 3 parts of the Q for the matters to be considered and tried to add one or 2 more where I could to get as many marks as possible ?

What was the group audit planning in Q1 please? Somehow I can't remember this one at all... Not holding much hope. Gutted, as if I was doing this paper at home, I would probably think it was one of the easier ones.