Reference no: EM132701035

Question - You are part of the audit team planning the 30 June 2020 audit for the client, AWARE Clothing Ltd (ACL), a distributor of sporting clothing and accessories, based in Brisbane. This is the third year that your firm has performed the audit for ACL. As part of the planning of the current audit you have determined the following:

As a result of COVID-19, ACL required all staff to work remotely from home from 23rd March 2020. The CEO was very concerned about the business being able to continue to operate efficiently and competently under these circumstances. Consequently, ACL invited staff to provide ongoing feedback of any issues that they encountered.

To facilitate the move to working remotely, ACL decided to adopt 'Trello' as an all-in-one communication software that allows the continued use of business phone numbers on personal computers and devices. Unfortunately, there were some problems associated with the implementation of this software. Notably, many staff did not make use of this platform to begin with but appeared to rely on emails and personal mobile numbers, where these were known. Concerned that this may have resulted in a loss of sales, or delays in responding to inquiries from customers and processing orders, you asked the Communications Manager about these problems. She indicated that she was not aware that there had been any 'serious' problems with the crossover, and that any staff that may have been a laggard in using the platform had 'figured it out eventually'.

Some executives were concerned that staff would take advantage of working from home by utilising business hours to undertake personal, non-business activities, at the expense of completing assigned tasks in the usual timeframes. As a result, line managers were required to set up weekly virtual meetings on Monday mornings to discuss what each staff member had on their agendas for the week and to provide progress reports on work completed in the previous week. Also, new policies were drafted that were appropriate for staff working from home. This included for instance requiring that staff remain cordial in communications and that they try as far as possible to restrict work communications to business hours.

Required - Identify and briefly discuss four (4) strengths and/or weaknesses in the entity level internal controls at ACL.