ACCA Paper AAA December 2020 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments

I really struggled with the last section on the advice of the other non audit matters. Hopefully scored enough on section A and B.

So hard to know if you have raised valid points in the BR and ROMM!!

This is me!
I had the points but really couldn’t develop them. I hope the marker is lenient enough. Fingers crossed.

I always struggle with time in this exam and it is my biggest downfall but I think this time was the worst as I rushed question 3 completely. I hate that they asked for 2 types of risks, took up time to differentiate.

Anywho, my business risks:

– Management resigning (lack of knowledge retention and risk to strategy)
– Aquisitions (staff training to familiarise with group systems will take time and resources)
– Cash was almost non existent, pressure on cash flows
– Gearing was too high (75%) and they were about to take on another loan. Risk that existing loan threshold agreements have been broken and may need to repay debts. Can they pay?
– 5% interest on £65mil on potential loan material as would essentially have taken the profit into a loss (did anyone else get this)? The profit after tax was forecasted as only 3 mil. Can’t remember what the operating profit was.

There may be more.

ROMM:

– Share based payments – Management bias so increase professional scepticism
– Inventory increased significantly and was slow moving. Some may need to be written down & Balance may be overstated.
– Advertising costs have been wrongly capitalised to intangible assets. Profit overstated, assets overstated.
– Internal controls weak – system needed approval for the expenses and was able to produce a coherent average apart from the one anomalie. Also suggested possible fraud from senior management as may be claiming smaller amounts frequently to try to get round the system (who knows)?
– Goodwill

Side note: I think we were supposed to calculate EPS ratio? however I couldn’t see the number of shares. Mine said ‘Number of stores’ which may have been a typo? Did anyone use that info?

If I don’t pass I’ll move on to SBL or TAX as those are my last two!

I used number of store for inventory count changes 85 to 140 store risk of inventory counting and over or under stated inventory

Ahh okay – I’m glad it wasn’t a typo.

So it seems like exam questions are different, depending on what time you had… are no they?

what are Audit committee responsibilities during audit ?

Advertising
– review invoices and payments made on invoices to confirm the total amount paid for advertising
– recalculate the totals to confirm the total amount spend on advertising for this year
– review advertising contracts to confirm terms and conditions of the ads
– discuss with management their rationale to why they have capitalized advertising expenses
– obtain any evidence of the adverts to confirm their existence
– review board minutes to confirm approval of advertising campaigns

Goodwill
– agree cash book and bank reconciliation to confirm payment was received
– review the acquisition documentations to confirm the terms of the contingent consideration
– review board minutes to confirm any issues around the acquisition

Had a few more but cant remember

My experience with the CBE exam (home) Bulgaria early afternoon on 7th:
1. Started 2 hr. late
2. System was lagging
3. Chat function was not working so no comfort brake, not allowed to put the light on in the room and no assistance when I was prevented from answering the last question.
4. At the end of the exam system was busy and i was not able to open/ enter anything in the answer section of Q3
Basically the only things that were running correctly were the camera recording and the countdown clock.

Wery dissapounted. Feel that someone is making jokes with my effort and dedication.

I didn’t calculated any materiality of the ROMM’s I identified because there was no time for that. I had to choose what to abondon from my answers 🙁

I read and comprehend fast but still it took me around 1 hr to read the questions and plan my answers.

This paper should be for at least for 4hr and 15 min.

Was supposed to start CBE exam at 09 ..but waited 5 to 6 hours to be admitted to the exam hall..hungry and full of anxiety.
Managed to attempt all questions and kept briefing notes format (introduction,body and conclusion) came up with 6 business risks and 6 ROMM..5 audit procedures on Goodwill but only 3 for the brand(got stuck)..copied and pasted the whole financials to the spreadsheet answers and put formula for trend analysis and dragged formula down(saved me time) then started reading on audit committee but had run out of the 1:30minutes I had allocated to question one so moved on to question 3 which I made a lot of mistakes on due to the pressure I had I can’t say I did well on building revaluation,revenue & depreciation (I thought the 10% non refundable was recognized right because they were non refundable but looking at peoples answers I was wrong)..anyway question was disaster for me.
Moved to question 2,started with ethics questions and thought there was a lot on advocacy and management responsibilities and self interest threat coz of non assurance fees ..calculated the increment in fees.Then moved on to capex audit procedures ..I looked at the individual capex amounts and tried to work with each individually.
Went back to question 1 to fine tune the lose ends I left.
I pray for a pass even after the stress of the whole day .

What did everyone put for the capital forecast? That really stumped me

Can anybody remember what was the Q2;

Capital expenditure forecast – 9 marks
Ethics – 8 marks?