preparing p7

"is it appropriate to ask to get an idea about the topics more to be focused on" - I suppose it's appropriate but you're not going to get a lot of help from this quarter! Opentuition have taken the decision not to become involved in publishing guesses about forthcoming exams. Given that we don't know what topics came up in half the exams since the move to 4 exams per year, it would be an exercise carried out without full relevant knowledge being available to us So we no longer do it My best advice would be to look at the examiner's tried and tested formula for the format of the exams There is often a response to a partner's email that your received shortly after the partner had a meeting with the client There's a "What evidence would you expect to find ...." or "What further audit procedures would you ...." There's often a report to comment on There's often ....... Well, you can find out for yourself what there is often :-)

hmmm, well thanks ..i actually wanted to ask the same excercise that open tuition use to provide a guess for exams ....but i didnt know how to ask directly ask ethically... so thanks

No worries - if you had asked openly - it would still have been ethical. there's nothing unethical about the site - I believe that we're totally transparent Keep posting if you come across a problem

I came across a construction contract q's in the exam kit but treated it as the current IFRS 15. Is that appropriate to do so? I done P2 exactly 1 year ago and at that time there wasn't any changes to standards.

Your examiners are well on top of what's still current and what has now disappeared. You answer according to current editions (so long as they're included within the syllabus) and IFRS 15 is certainly IN and IAS 11 is certainly OUT

IFRS 15 is now applicable? or it will be applicable in future????

IFRS 15 IS applicable now for the June 2016 exam and will be applicable for the foreseeable future What ISN'T applicable is IAS 11 and IAS 18

hello,, actually i asked this topic before,, about current issues ..which current issues are most topical for this june 16 session .and i am reffered to techniocal articles about performance in public sector.......ethics.....laws and regulation .....also internal auditors work. i read all ..once .i just want to know if i should read some other topics for current issues particularly ...i read all technical articles once thoroughly ..the concepts are in there my mind .and will revise in last 5 days ... please help

It would do you no harm to read them again. Have you ever noticed that when you read a novel for the second time you see a lot more of the detail that you could very well have missed on the first time through? Read the technical articles again just to be certain

well thanks and what about other topics other than articles ,should i focus more as current issues.. sir ,there is one query that internal control systems is brief in p7 ,test of controls is least done in most of the case scenarios ..are we going to always get case for doing substantive testing . other than the control environment ,risk assessmentt ,i hardly read about test of controls in this subject ..can u please clarify my confusion on this thanks for all help

You could be asked anything at all from across the entire syllabus and I'm certainly not going to start trying to predict what may or may not come up next month However, you sound like you've gone through the past exams pretty thoroughly and you're aware of the sort of questions that you may expect. It sounds to me that you are well prepared I've always said that there are essentially two types of student doing these exams and those two types are almost totally coincidental with the two genders. The first type is the student that scores 90%+ in exams and focusses on the fact that they didn't know enough - the proof is there! They dropped 10 marks. They know before the exam all those topics that they are not totally confident with and they worry about them The second type is the student that scores 50% (maybe as many as 55%!) and has no idea how they managed that! They have no idea about many topics and therefore are not aware of just how much they don't know. They're just so happy to get 50%+ and maybe a bit disappointed that those marks above 50 represent excessive effort spent by them "should i focus more as current issues.." - just keep it ticking over. Nothing too strenuous. Read current issues (are there any?) and re-read the technical articles Are you the student that realises just how much you don't know (10%) and you're worried? Or are you the student that has no idea how much you don't know so you don't worry? I know which one I believe you are :-)

well thanks for enhancing the motivation of studying this course for rest of the few days left. it would be my dream come true to score a good passing mark; and my focus right now is to atleast achieve a level of study to score atleast a pass mark. but for the time being i would like to share that there is one page on acca website named technical resources where we could choose the year ,country ,category of topic and format of a technical resource to see current topics . so i went through recent year 2015 ,while reading i realised that its quite practical and real things and in exams ,we are given specific scenarios to relate ..so i thought not to read them so much in depth and i stopped it coming back to my exam questions., have a nice day

P1 examiner bases many of his 50 mark question 1s on recent historical events (Fukushima, BP Deepwater Horizon, Zeebrugge Ferry disaster, .....) There's no reason to think that the P7 examiner doesn't also do the same At this stage just read anything at all that is audit related .... or even not audit related. When you hear a news item on the radio or watch a programme on the television, be aware of underlying ethics, morality, corruption, controls, risks, safeguards ...... It's at this stage that life starts to be really interesting as you begin sub-consciously to apply principles learned during your ACCA journey to events that are happening around you

what strategy can i use to enable me completing all the question that can earn me a pass. Not completing is really costly.

Buy a watch! Do a bit of research on the P1 and P7 pages where I have spelt out how to discipline yourself to stick to time allocation. You won't have to go far back in time to find long posts from me to explain how to maximise the time within the exam room Come back to me if you need to

hello, good day i need to ask about two things firstly, i was re-reading an article on using the work of internal auditors as direct assistance to external auditors,i met one point while reading that ,in the UK AND IRELAND THE Financial reporting council prohibits external auditors from using internal auditors as direct assistance members of the audit team in order to enhance the principal of auditor independence. the point of confusion is above that in the UK its prohibited.in an exam question we would apply ISAs which explains certain circumstances external auditors can take direct assistance considering their competence and objectivity, so for uk businesses we need to take into account that FRC prohibits that use !! please could you simplify the definition of performance materiality ,i read from book many times but cant regurgitate thank you

"the point of confusion is above that in the UK its prohibited.in an exam question we would apply ISAs which explains certain circumstances external auditors can take direct assistance considering their competence and objectivity, so for uk businesses we need to take into account that FRC prohibits that use !!" - I see no question here for me to answer Performance materiality is a level established to address the issue that a number of errors / adjustments to be made in aggregate exceed the overall financial statement materiality level If materiality level is set at $7,000 and the auditor finds 2 errors of $5,000, in aggregate that could represent a $10,000 error (or $zero!) So performance materiality could be, for example, $3,000 Two of those? Still below the overall level of $7,000 But 3 such errors could be an aggregate of $9,000 OK?

sorry , i actually meant to ask that why still the uk prohibits the use of internal auditors ,,where isa 610 allows it ...am i rightly asking it ?/

I don't think it's an issue, is it? If you're attempting the P7 International stream, you'll apply ISAs and if you're attempting the P7 UK stream you'll apply UK standards As to the question "Why" - I have no idea, sorry

ok thank you .

You're welcome

hello, i have three concerns to ask can u please define tipping off with a short example ..sir i want to ask that if the member of the audit team has a direct financial interest in client ..is it a related party ? ..can u please write audit procedures for holiday pay accrual .. thank u

"tipping off" is when someone, who is aware that Geoffrey is the subject of an investigation into his share dealings, tells Geoffrey that his share dealing activities are being scrutinised That gives Geoffrey the opportunity to disappear, think of excuses, or take some sort of action to put himself out of reach or to paint himself as totally innocent "..sir i want to ask that if the member of the audit team has a direct financial interest in client ..is it a related party ?" simply, that can't happen! And employee of the audit firm must exclude themselves from the audit and (with only extremely rare exceptions) either divest themselves of that financial interest or leave the audit firm "..can u please write audit procedures for holiday pay accrual .." You're a P7 student, for Heaven's sake! You're within a few days of becoming equally as well qualified to audit the holiday pay accrual of Microsoft as the World senior audit partners of all the Big 4 firms added together! Let me ask you .... how would YOU begin to think about confirming the accuracy, completeness, legality, presentation, validity of ANY figure in the statement of financial position? No, I really do not want to do this! It will finish up with me insulting you! First of all, check the figure given to you by management for materiality. Measure it against profits and against net assets It's most likely to be immaterial in which case, I need go no further But, if it IS material: - obtain a schedule from the client supporting their calculation - re-perform a selection of those calculations to confirm arithmetical accuracy - add up the schedule to confirm that it is correctly cast - compare the employee names on the schedule with names on the payroll to confirm that these employees are not fictitious - obtain a copy of the client's standard employment contract - consider the contents of this standard contract with any statutory elements concerning levels and entitlements of holiday pay and confirm legality of client's terms - compare this copy with the copy obtained in previous years held on the permanent file and note any changes particularly in the area of holiday pay entitlements - confirm that the entitlements shown on the schedule are consistent with the contractual entitlements - confirm that any lapsed entitlements are correctly excluded from the schedule - determine by review whether there is any directors' board minute that may be relevant to the topic of holiday pay (there should be proper authority for any amendments to employee entitlements) - discuss with management individual cases of unusual entitlements to determine the reason why those employees have been allowed to build up such long periods - consider whether the fact that an employee appears not to have taken their entitlement could indicate the possibility that that represents an increased risk for that employee to perpetrate a fraud (no rotation of responsibilities, no internal check) - compare this year's schedule with the equivalent schedule from last year to determine reasonable comparability and enquire of management about reasons for large variation (much quicker and easier to decide early on that the amounts involved are immaterial)

well thanks for helping, i think i asked a silly question on audit procedures ,i should have atleast tried to come up on my own at this stage .thats very sad on my part . i dont want to give any reasons except that i saw this area and asked about it without thinking.and for me its already very dissappointing that i could not come up with my own ideas,simply because my basics are still weak .. its actually not only the matter of passing this exam ;but also the real understanding of auditing in real world. i realize

It leaves no room for me to ask any such further questions on these areas. its disappointing to know that we act like kids ,and want to be spoon -feeded all the time

adurich - don't beat yourself up about it! I remember that the period before the exams is extremely stressful and we all do stupid things - we wouldn't be human if that were not the case There's still plenty of room for you to ask more questions, stupid or not, so don't worry about it. Our combined aim (yours and mine) is to get you through this P7 exam next week .... and then you're out of my hair!!!! :-) Keep smiling and remember, it'll all be over before you know it and you'll be walking out of that exam room looking forward to getting your life back

yeah thanks

Next post on a new thread please - 29 is surely enough for one thread