You are a senior manager with Stewart and Kathy and you have been approached to undertake the audit of Double Ink Printers Ltd (DIPL). 2017DIPL print books, magazines and advertising materials for the publishing, educational and advertising industries on a print-on- demand basis. Printing on demand means that publishers can print the exact quantities ordered by retail outlets, rather than estimating in advance how many books are required and often printing too few or too many. The average printing turnaround time for DIPL is two business days for small orders and five to ten business days for large orders. In addition, five years ago, DIPL further expanded its earnings base by having publisher’s titles available as searchable ‘e-books’ that could be downloaded directly by readers from DIPL’s website.

Purchase and Inventory

DIPL purchases 50% of its inventory requirements of paper, ink and binding materials from Australian sources and 50% from Asian countries. When inventory received at DIPL’s warehouse (whether it is purchased from Australia or Asia), the accounts payable clerk, Bill Jimmy, records the arrival of the inventory and also its value and quantity in the accounts payable system. Inventory is paid for the relevant currency of the country from which it is purchased. Raw materials have been valued at average cost and an allowance for inventory obsolescence has existed in previous years to cover the estimated decline in value from the effects of storage hazards. Work in progress is immaterial due to the quick turn- around time of printing jobs. Any work in progress is assessed at the cost of raw materials and labour and proportion of manufacturing overheads based on normal capacity. At year end, the warehouse is closed from 28 to 30 June for stocktake, so sales must be invoiced in the system by close of business on 27 June. The stock must have been sent to the customer (that is, it must either be on track, ship or plane on its way to the customer, or it must already have arrived at the customer; it must no longer be in DIPL’s warehouse).

‘Print on Demand’ revenue and receivables

Each time a publisher wants to add a book to DIPL’s ‘digital library’ (a server storing all of the publisher’s books in a digital format, ready to print), it emails the book to DIPL in PDF format. The digital library is backed up at the close of business every day, with the backup tapes kept off site. Once the book is stored in the digital library, the publishers can order copies to be printed as required.

When the publishers confirm the order, the accounting system automatically retrieves details of the publisher’s credit record and stops any orders from publishers that have exceeded their credit terms and limits. A printout of the transactions history of the publishers is generated and must be signed by both Helena Keng, the head of publishing, and Jane Roger, the head of accounts at DIPL, before the order can continue, after the transaction history has been signed and dated, accounts receivable staff file it.

If there are no credit problems with the order, it is processed and printed by casual staff in the relevant warehouse, who then load the books onto pallets for shipping. When printing is finished, the sales clerk, Brown Pall, prepares an invoice and dispatch docket and forwards them to the accounts receivable department. The accounts receivable clerk Gay Chan, checks the prices and arithmetic accuracy of the invoices and signs the invoice as evidence of her check. Gay records the sales both the accounts receivables subsidiary ledger and the general ledger and books are shipped to the publisher’s nominated destination (or the publisher will arrange pick up at the warehouse if has its own distributors). The client accepts liability for the goods when they are received in accordance with the purchase order, and signs the dispatch docket as proof of delivery.

‘E-book’ Revenue

The proceeds from each e-book sale are paid to the publisher’s net of a 5% commission. Proceeds are sent to publishers automatically upon download (the commission is withheld by DIPL). Revenue from the commission is recognised when is withheld from payment to the publishers.

DIPL also charge publishers an annual “storage fee” payable 12 months in advance, for keeping the e-book on DIPL’s website. Publishers are invoiced on the date the first download of a title occurs. As new books are downloaded on an ongoing basis, the storage fee is invoiced at different times of the year. Revenue from storage fees has been recognised in the month the fees are invoiced, notwithstanding the fact that the fees are charged 12 months in advance.

In September 2016, DIPL acquired Nuclear Publishing Ltd (NPL). The main rationale behind the lay in the value of the copyright NPL held over a large range of specialised medical textbooks. Although the potential print run for the textbook was not large, each textbook had a high profit margin and had been used in universities across the world for many years. DIPL acquired the business operation of NPL (not the shares), paying net assets (including the right to the copyright). However, in June 2017 an article was published in a medical journal about a new theory that could result in NPL’s medical textbooks becoming obsolete. If the new theory is valid, the textbooks are unlikely to be reprinted or used as textbooks at universities in the future, effectively making them unviable as e-books.

Cash Receipts

Some Payments from accounts receivables are received by cheque through the mail, and the cashier, Judy Bones, record these in an inwards remittance register when the mail is opened. She then banks the cheques and forwards the payment advices to Gay Chan for posting ton the accounts receivable ledger. Most payments, however, are received by electronic funds transfer (EFT). Each day, Judy downloaded the previous day’s receipts from online banking and provides a copy to Gary for posting. Judy then reconciles the total of the batch postings to accounts receivable to the amount banked for the day. The assistant accountant, Bobby Fong, prepares a bank reconciliation at the end of each month.

Fixed Assets

Since DIPL’s incorporation, depreciation on assets has been calculated using the straight-line method to allocate their cost over their estimated useful lives, as follows:

•   Printing presses up to 20 years
•   Other production equipment up to 15 years
•   Other equipment up to 10 years

Finance

During 2017, DIPL has entered into a 7.5 million loan from BDO Finance Ltd (BDO Finance). The loan has debt covenant’s requiring DIPL to maintain a current ratio of at least 1.5 and a debt to equity ratio of less than 1. Failure to maintain these key financial ratios under the specified benchmarks would result in BDO Finance having the right to recall the loan.

Appointment of New CEO and internal Audit

William Jackson was appointed the new chief executive officer (CEO) of DIPL in January 2017. William has extensive experience in the printing business. The previous CEO, Rebecca Styles, who is now semi- retired, will remain on the board as a non-executive director. A component of William’s remuneration package is a performance bonus based DIPL achieving an annual growth of 10% in total revenue and 10% in net profit after tax. Based on William’s recommendation, the board also established a new internal audit department headed up by Cody Baines, an ex-audit manager with a Big Four audit firm and two other recently qualified chartered accountants. Cody reports directly to the board.

New IT System

During 2017, DIPL decided to invest in a new IT system that would fully computerised and integrate all the current accounting processes across the organisation, including integration into the general ledger system.

Under extreme pressure from the board, the IT department at DIPL managed to get the new accounting system installed in June, although IT manager, Andy Law, complained several times about how the installation was handled. Andy claimed that excess pressure had been placed on staff to get the system installed and that there was simply not enough staff to do the proper reconciliation’s and testing before the new system went live prior to year-end.

Andy preliminary testing showed that some transactions conducted around year-end were not being allocated to the correct period. The problem appeared to be the interface between the new accounting system and one of the existing software systems. A software ‘patch’ had to be written to fix the problem.

Board year-end reporting discussions

As a board meeting held in June 2017, issues relating to the forthcoming year end were discussed. William stated that he believed that the valuation of raw materials inventories at average cost was no longer appropriate as the current cost of paper was substantially above the average cost. Further, he argued that the allowance for obsolescence of inventory to cover the estimated decline in value from the effects of storage hazards was necessary, as such a loss was unlikely. William also stated that based on his experience in the printing industry he believed that DIPL’s printing presses had a potential maximum life of 30 years, although he noted that another leading entity in the printing industry adopted the policy of depreciating its printing presses over a 20-year period on a straight-line basis, similar to what DIPL had done in the past. After much discussion, the board resolved that the allowance for obsolescence of inventory be written back and that raw materials be valued based on a first- in, first-out (FIFO) basis. In addition, following a review of the e-book facilities by internal audit, Cody recommended that in a report to the board that DIPL change the method it used to account for its revenue from e-book publication to ensure compliance with the applicable accounting standard. The board agreed that the revenue from e-book would be recognised in accordance with the stage of completion of each transaction (i.e. percentage of completion method).

Double Ink Printers Ltd Statement of Financial Position