AAA*** March 2024 ACCA AAA exam – Instant Poll and comments ***

Question 1: Business risks, justify why 3 areas had significant ROMM, procedures around impairment and auditor responsibilities around NOCLAR

Was it Noclar of a fraud? I think it was a donation pep

Hi, did anyone get the football club as Q1? Then I got due diligence report Q2, and going concern and impact on auditors report Q3. It was a tough one I thought - and my 2nd attempt

I felt confident when I left the exam room but now not so much - wasn’t a fan of justifying the ROMMs of an oil company having spent all week revising accounting standards to apply for an audit risk question. Business risks was the only saving grace there. Resit highly likely on this one.

I agree with u both about the oil company question. This is my second paper also. It was meaty and hard. Luckily I heard one expert Ben Wilson say start on q3 and q4 first. They were easier than q1 this time. The last paper it was q1 that was easy lol. Why can’t they all be easy

I agree. I felt the same with the whole paper. Q1 too much to read, Q3 was hard too asking about ethics and safeguards of being with a company 7 years for 10 marks. The paper was nothing like any of the past papers or questions. My second attempt too and feel like I should continue studying to prepare for a resit in June!

Yeah it is frustrating when they throw in curveballs. This is my last exam. I struggled with SBR also and now this one! Wouldn’t think they would go as deep on the standards in an audit paper. They went really deep today on that oil question. I left them. Put down basic standard knowledge, did the business risks and spent more time on q3 and q4 which were much easier this paper

Q3 about Subsidiary held for sale threw me off completely. Not a nice paper, ended up talking absolute rubbish in Q1 and Q2 My 3rd attempt, soon it will be number 4 by the sounds of it

I got the the football club Dune Co. in Question 1. I was mostly satisfied with that one (especially the audit risk part), a little less confident with the due diligence report in Question 2 and very worried about the going concern in Question 3.

Anyone had a issue with Question 1 where they mentioned use exhibit 5 ? but it was actually exhibit 4?

Yes! I had this - really threw me. As the question above it also said to use exhibits 2, 3 & 4 - but 4 was the email (related to the last exhibit 5 question) so think it was a typo - hope anyway!

Yes i had the same typo in Q1 with exhibit 5 and the top requirement said exhibit 2,3,4 which is not the case usually plus i also felt the name of audit client was wrong? it was Magenta inside and Purple on main page? It got me so confused that i started mixing up names i invested quite much time on q1 and didnt have a lot remaining for q2 and q3 ended up writing vague and rubbish like straight things that there will be familiarity threat etc and also the bribery question there was so much less time remaining that i couldnt say more about it :( I just hope I pass this was my 2nd :( Can we apply for mitigating based on the confusion caused by typo?

I got the football club Dune Co, what audit risks did you writes?

I don't remember fully but: 1.creative accounting (revenue increases even though attendance and profits decline), 2.brand goodwill impairment (poor team performances, attendances), 3.IAS 2 Inventory (lower merchandise sales), 4.theft of cash (70% of foods and drink sales in cash), 5.Operating segments (more than 10%- need to be reported separately), 6.something about IFRS 16 Leases, 7 New client (Detection risk) and a couple more. I think I wrote 9 overall.

The biggest risks I found were the stadium recognised as a sale - profit was included but it shouldn’t have been recognised as the control of the asset was still there. The refunds from the tickets due to the stadium being closed, inventory for the football shirts now a player has left, cash sales etc etc. I can’t remember much of what I wrote for the intangible asset impairments of the player contracts - can anyone else? What did you all write for the audit committee considerations of due diligence and the going concern?

I asked 1. if the audit firm has experience? they have other clients in the industry 2. If they have sufficient staff and resources? They do. 3. Deadline= If they will be able to perform the PFI within 1 month 4. The firm seemed to be charging very high fees for the audit. Would they accept only 40,000 for the PFI especially with the deadline? They might even need to hire more people from outside to meet the deadline

AMN-Irl, I had the other option of the exam so I am not sure what exactly was the question but when there are extraordinary situations partner can stay for another year after the 7 has passed, and then additionally for 5 more but it needed special permission.

For Q1 I struggled to identify the business risks. I also couldn't address the last part of question due to time.... For Question 2 was tough as I couldn't find any other threat apart from familiarity one...and the safeguards, I couldnt easily find the related one... I ended up not finishing that question too... How does ACCA expect one to finish all of those questions in 3 hours please? Still more, comparing with the December paper, this was a bit better for me.

Is there anyone who wrote the AAA alternative paper today. Overall materiality was to be based on PBT, yet there was no PBT given on elements to calculate PBT. It would be really helpful if anyone else could confirm this as this is tasting my sanity now. Thanks

I suffer same issue with MrsTaylor1. And further issue with next question, it stated that "further updates of audit completion", but I saw no update. 2 question takes me a lot of time, and I dont know what should I do with ACCA.

I only answered 2 questions as I spent a lot of time in q1

Did you contact ACCA for this problem

I will contact ACCA, I wanted to 1st confirm that I wasn’t the only person who came across this issue

will we be credited any marks for the fact that PBT was missing in ques 1?

Hi all. I am contacting ACCA regarding these AAA paper issues so can as many as possible please confirm that the below is what happened, as there seems to be some confusion: - in a question, an entity called Purple was later referred to with a different name Magenta? - a requirement of Q1 referred to using exhibits 2,3,4 but in fact there was an exhibit 5 which clearly needed to be used as well - or alternatively, the question referred to an Exhibit 5 that did not exist - Q1 said do materiality based on PBT but no PBT figures were given Anything else?