You were in the final stages of your audit of the financial statements of Ozine Corporation for the year ended December 31, 2011, when you were consulted by the corporation’s president, who believes there is no point to your examining the year 2012 acquisitions journal and testing data in support of year 2012 entries. He stated that (a) bills pertaining to 2011 that were received too late to be included in the December acquisitions journal were recorded as of the year-end by the corporation by journal entry, (b) the internal auditor made tests after the year-end, and (c) he will furnish you with a letter certifying that there were no unrecorded liabilities.

Required
a. Should a CPA’s test for unrecorded liabilities be affected by the fact that the client made a journal entry to record 2011 bills that were received late? Explain.
b. Should a CPA’s test for unrecorded liabilities be affected by the fact that a letter is obtained in which a responsible management official certifies that to the best of his or her knowledge all liabilities have been recorded? Explain.
c. Should a CPA’s test for unrecorded liabilities be eliminated or reduced because of the internal audit tests? Explain.
d. Assume that the corporation, which handled some government contracts, had no internal auditor but that an auditor for a federal agency spent 3 weeks auditing the records and was just completing his work at this time. How will the CPA’s unrecorded liability test be affected by the work of the auditor for a federal agency?
e. What sources in addition to the year 2012 acquisitions journal should the CPA consider to locate possible unrecorded liabilities?*
*AICPA adapted.