As the in-charge senior auditor on the audit engagement for JA Tire Manufacturing for the year ended December 31, 2019, you are responsible for performing risk assessment procedures related to the sales cycle. JA Tire has four sales divisions within the U.S. and sells primarily to large tire companies with regional warehouses that subsequently distribute to local retailers. Based on some of the risk assessment procedures already performed, you identified risks related to the fact that salespersons receive a commission on sales to distributors and the commission is calculated on a monthly basis. Your manager has asked you to perform analytical procedures as a part of audit planning to review sales information by sales division and by month to identify potential risk areas that might warrant further audit procedures related to sales. 

Required:

1. Visit the textbook website to download the file “JATireSales.xls” provided to your audit firm by the company. This file contains sales transaction information for the year ended December 31, 2019. If you have not already done so, read the JA Tire Manufacturing system description provided on the first tab of the Excel file before attempting this assignment to familiarize yourself with the sales process and the relevant worksheets and terminology. Using the “Invoices” and “Sales Order” tabs in the Excel spreadsheet, perform the procedures in requirements 2 through 4 using either Excel, Tableau, or audit software such as ACL or IDEA. 

2. Summarize sales by month and sales division using a pivot table in Excel (put divisions in columns, months in rows) or using a graph or chart in Tableau. If you are using Excel to summarize, you will first need to add a column to the Excel worksheet and extract the “month” portion of the shipping date in order to summarize by month. If you are using Excel, use the “graph” feature to graph the pivot table data. Identify any divisions or months that you believe should be examined further, and document your rationale. 

3. For any divisions identified in step 2 for follow-up, summarize sales by customer and month using a pivot table in Excel or graph or chart in Tableau. You can use a “filter” in Excel or Tableau to limit the analysis to one or more divisions. Identify any months that you want to examine further, and document your rationale. 

4. Summarize your findings in a brief memo to the manager and include the charts or graphs generated in steps 2 and 3 above as support for your findings. Discuss your recommendations for performing further audit procedures.