ACL Assignments Overview

ACL Assignments Overview

The ACL bundled software comes with a tutorial, which is a PDF file entitled, “ACL in Practice.” The tutorial contains 7 Chapters and utilizes the sample data files that are included with the ACL software. In addition to the exercises imbedded within the ACL in Practice, the Messier/Glover/Prawitt team has created ACL problems for each chapter. The problems associated with Chapters 1 and 2 relate to the tutorial data files. A new data set entitled Roger Company, created for Messier/Glover/Prawitt, is introduced in Chapter 3. The Roger Company data set is used to solve the ACL end-of-chapter problems for Chapters 3-21, which are more focused on auditing concepts than are the exercises included in the tutorial.

Each of the Chapters in the ACL in Practice file are matched with the Messier/Glover/Prawitt textbook Chapters 1 through 7. However, with a good understanding of ACL in Practice Chapters 1 – 4 (the PDF tutorial bundled with the software), students can successfully complete the ACL end-of-Chapter problems for Chapters 1 – 10 of the Messier/Glover/Prawitt textbook. The ACL in Practice Chapters 1-4 can be assigned independent of Messier/Glover/Prawitt textbook Chapters 1-4. For example, if an instructor would like to assign ACL end-of-Chapter problems for Chapter 6 of the Messier/Glover/Prawitt textbook, he or she would need to assign ACL in Practice Chapters 1-4 any time prior to assigning the ACL end-of-Chapter problems associated with Chapter 6 of the textbook. Students generally require between 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours to complete Chapters 1-4 of the ACL in Practice.

Certain ACL problems at the end of Chapters 11-21 require an understanding of the concepts and skills that are taught in ACL in Practice Chapters 5 – 7. The problems that require completion of tutorial(s) beyond ACL in Practice Chapter 4 are so indicated within the problems.

Jump to specific Chapter

(Hold down the CTRL key and click on a link below)

Chapter 1 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 15
Chapter 2 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 16
Chapter 3 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 17
Chapter 4 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 18
Chapter 5 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 19
Chapter 6 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 20
Chapter 7 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 21

Chapter 1 ACL Exercises and Problems Return to Menu

For technical assistance with ACL, please contact technical support: 604-669-4225; ;

http://www.acl.com/supportcenter/

Tutorial Assignment (Estimated time to complete tutorial Chapter 1 is 15-20 minutes)

Read Chapter 1: Introducing Metaphor Corporation of the ACL in Practice

(Note: ACL software is bundled with each copy of the textbook. Insert the ACL disk and follow the instructions to install the software.)

To access the ACL in Practice:

1. After installing ACL, open the Start Menu on your computer

2. Click All Programs

3. Find the “ACL Desktop Education Edition” folder icon

4. Single click or place your mouse on the “ACL Desktop Education Edition” folder icon to display the folder contents (i.e., ACL Desktop Education Edition, ACL Help, ACL in Practice, ACL Utility, Readme).

5. Click on “ACL in Practice” to open the tutorial

6. Alternatively, you can navigate directly to the file, ACL_in_Practice.pdf, in the folder where ACL data and the tutorial are saved on your hard drive (e.g., C:\ACL Data\Sample Data Files)

(Note: Unless otherwise instructed, please submit your answers to the following problems to your instructor in a word processing document.)

Messier/Glover/Prawitt End-of-Chapter 1, ACL Problems

Problem 1

Briefly describe Metaphor’s credit card policy.

Problem 2

Looking at Figure 1-3 in Chapter 1 of your auditing textbook, during which stages of the “financial statement audit process” might ACL be the most useful?

Problem 3

Go to the ACL internet website by opening ACL Desktop Education Edition and clicking on ACL Homepage under ACL Weblinks. While on the website, click on ACL Solutions under the Solutions tab. Read that page and explain how ACL can help in an audit.

Chapter 2 ACL Exercises and Problems Return to Menu

For technical assistance with ACL, please contact technical support: 604-669-4225; ;

http://www.acl.com/supportcenter/

Tutorial Assignment (Estimated time to complete is tutorial Chapter 2 is 20-30 minutes.)

Read and complete the tasks in Chapter 2: Examine Employee Data of the ACL in Practice file.

Hint: Staying actively involved while completing the tutorial assignment will help you to complete the ACL problems more efficiently. You may find it helpful to review the assigned problems before completing the ACL in Practice assignment.

To access the ACL in Practice:

After installing ACL, open the Start Menu on your computer
Click All Programs
Find the “ACL Desktop Education Edition” folder icon
Single click or place your mouse on the “ACL Desktop Education Edition” folder icon to display the folder contents (i.e., ACL Desktop Education Edition, ACL Help, ACL in Practice, ACL Utility, Readme).
Click on “ACL in Practice” to open the tutorial
Alternatively, you can navigate directly to the file, ACL_in_Practice.pdf, in the folder where ACL data and the tutorial are saved on your hard drive (e.g., C:\ACL Data\Sample Data Files)
Complete the tasks in the ACL in Practice, Chapter 2

(Note: Unless otherwise instructed, please submit your answers to the following exercises and problems to your instructor in a word processing document.)

Chapter 2 Tutorial Exercises: 1-5

There are five exercises at the end of the Chapter 2 tutorial from the ACL in Practice file (PDF file that is bundled with the software). Your instructor will inform you which, if any, of the exercises to complete and submit.

Messier/Glover/Prawitt End-of-Chapter 2, ACL Problems

Problem 1

Create a filter to display the employees at Metaphor Company that were hired after January 1, 2000 and who make $60,000 per year or more in salary. How many records result from the filter described? Include the expression you used to create the filter in your solution.

Problem 2

Use ACL to compute how much was paid in commissions to Metaphor Agents (Comm 2002 column, Agents_Metaphor table).

Problem 3

How does computing the amount paid in commissions to Metaphor agents in Problem 2 help an auditor verify the management assertion of completeness?

Chapter 3 ACL Exercises and Problems Return to Menu

For technical assistance with ACL, please contact technical support: 604-669-4225; ;

http://www.acl.com/supportcenter/

Tutorial Assignment (Estimated time to complete the Chapter 3 tutorial is 20-30 minutes.)

Read and complete the tasks in Chapter 3: Set up Your Project of the ACL in Practice file.

For instructions on accessing the ACL in Practice please see earlier assignments.

(Note: Unless otherwise instructed, please submit your answers to the following exercises and problems to your instructor in a word processing document.)

Chapter 3 Tutorial Exercises: 1-2

There are two exercises within the Chapter 3 tutorial from the ACL in Practice file (PDF file that is bundled with the software). Your instructor will inform you which, if any, of the exercises to complete and submit.

Messier/Glover/Prawitt End-of-Chapter 3, ACL Problems

Problem 1

Edit the layout of the Employee_List table to form a new column for total compensation (salary plus bonus). Now determine how many employees earned more than $85,000 in total compensation in 2002.

Problem 2

Roger Company is a mid-size company located in the Midwest that handles the distribution of various home and garden products. You are part of the engagement team assigned to audit the financial statements of Roger Company. Roger Company has been a client of your firm for many years, and your firm has rarely encountered any problems with them. However, the engagement partner has made it very clear to you that there is no room for mistakes. Your tasks as one of the auditors on the engagement are outlined below and in other problems of the remaining chapters.

Please download the Roger Company ACL files, found under Course-Wide Content on the Student Edition of your text’s Online Learning Center. The Roger Company files are already in ACL format; however the files must first be “unzipped.” After unzipping the files, click on FILE from the menu toolbar and use the OPEN PROJECT command to navigate to where you have saved the “Roger Company 8e” file and open the project.

Net income before taxes at Roger Company is stable, predictable, and representative of its size. Thus, the auditors at Roger Company calculate materiality to be 5 percent of net income before taxes. Net income before taxes at Roger Company for fiscal 2011 is $1,388,500. Determine materiality for the audit of Roger Company’s 2011 financial statements. Use ACL to determine if the reported AR account balance, $487,000, is materially different from the detailed files in Rogers_Company_AR table. Define tolerable misstatement as 60 percent of materiality. What might cause differences between the number reported in the financial statements and the details in the file?

Problem 3

As a quality control procedure, management at Roger Company reviews each approved vendor at least once a year. In the reviews, management compares pricing across vendors, retests products being purchased from vendors to ensure they meet quality control standards, and performs testing to ensure purchasing personnel are not inappropriately favoring a vendor or potentially colluding with vendors (e.g., receiving kickbacks from the vendors). Use ACL to check the Roger_Company_Vendors table to make sure each vendor has been reviewed sometime since January 1, 2011.

Open the Roger_Company_Vendors table
Click on the Edit View Filter button to open the Edit view filter dialogue box

In the Available Fields list, double-click on the Last_Review field
Click on the “” sign
Click on the Date button to display the date selector
Click on the down arrow, find January 1, 2011, click on it, and click OK
Click OK
Which vendors have not been reviewed since January 1, 2011? When was the last review for those vendors?

Chapter 4 ACL Exercises and Problems Return to Menu

For technical assistance with ACL, please contact technical support: 604-669-4225; ;

http://www.acl.com/supportcenter/

Tutorial Assignment (Estimated time to complete the Chapter 4 tutorials is 20-30 minutes.)

Read and complete the tasks in Chapter 4: Begin Your Analysis of the ACL in Practice file.

For instructions on accessing the ACL in Practice please see earlier assignments.

(Note: Unless otherwise instructed, please submit your answers to the following exercises and problems to your instructor in a word processing document.)

Chapter 4 Tutorial Exercises: 1-8

There are eight exercises at the end of the Chapter 4 tutorial from the ACL in Practice file (PDF file that is bundled with the software). Your instructor will inform you which, if any, of the exercises to complete and submit.

Messier/Glover/Prawitt End-of-Chapter 4, ACL Problems

As introduced above in the ACL problems for Chapter 3, Roger Company is a mid-size company located in the Midwest that handles the distribution of various home and garden products. You are part of the engagement team assigned to audit the financial statements of Roger Company. Roger Company has been a client of your firm for many years, and your firm has rarely encountered any problems with them. However, the engagement partner has made it very clear to you that there is no room for mistakes. Your tasks as one of the auditors on the engagement are outlined below and in other problems of the remaining chapters.

Please download the Roger Company ACL files, if you haven’t already. They are found under Course-Wide Content on the Student Edition of your text’s Online Learning Center. See instructions for opening the Roger Company files in the Chapter 3 assignment above.

Problem 1

Roger Company has a policy that their allowance for uncollectible accounts should be 50% of the amount in the 60-90 day past due category plus 75% of the amount in the >90 day past due category as of the reporting date (in this case December 31. Use the Roger Company AR table in ACL and the Analyze > Age command to re-compute the allowance for uncollectible accounts. In addition to re-computing the allowance for uncollectible accounts, report the results of the aging table that you are asked to complete.

Once in the Roger Company AR Table, click the Analyze drop down menu.
Click Age.
In the Age dialog box, click the Age On button and make sure Due_Date is the selected field. Click OK
Change the cutoff date to December 31, 2011.
In the Aging Periods box, delete the numbers 10000 and 120 so that your table will compute a >90 day past due total.
Highlight the Amount field under the Subtotal Fields column.
Click OK.

Problem 2

Assuming no cash is collected on past due accounts, how much will be more than 60 days past due as of January 31, 2012?

Chapter 5 ACL Exercises and Problems Return to Menu

For technical assistance with ACL, please contact technical support: 604-669-4225; ;

http://www.acl.com/supportcenter/

Tutorial Assignment (Estimated time to complete is 30-40 minutes.)

Read and complete the tasks in Chapter 5: Examine Expense Patterns of the ACL in Practice file.

For instructions on accessing the ACL in Practice please see earlier assignments.

(Note: Unless otherwise instructed, please submit your answers to the following exercises and problems to your instructor in a word processing document.)

Chapter 5 Tutorial Exercises: 1-6

There are six exercises (five within the chapter, one at the end) in the Chapter 5 tutorial from the ACL in Practice file (PDF file that is bundled with the software). Your instructor will inform you which, if any, of the exercises to complete and submit.