Short Term investments

I don’t wish to be silly here but surely a short term investment is an investment made by an entity with the intention of disposing of that investment in the short term

Say the entity has access to a fund of cash for a limited period – say 4 months and that 4 months straddles the financial period end

In late November the entity invests the substantial amount in a local government bond that carries a particularly attractive rate of interest

The bond matures in, say, 3 years’ time but our entity intends to sell the investment in mid March

that would be a short term investment

Now, how do you audit that investment that appears in the statement of financial position?

Think of the assertions … completeness, ownership, valuation, existence, disclosure

Now you need to gather sufficient relevant audit evidence to be satisfied that those assertions are all covered (assuming that the short term investment is material enough to justify any degree of audit work)

What evidence do you think you would need to audit short term investments and … how would you go about collecting that evidence?

Over to you!