Computer-assisted

An auditor is conducting an audit of
the financial statements of a wholesale cosmetics distributor with an inventory consisting
of thousands of individual items. The distributor keeps its inventory in its own distribution
center and two public warehouses. An inventory computer file is maintained on a computer
disk and at the end of each day the file is updated. Each record of the inventory file
contains the following data:
1. Item number
2. Location of item
3. Description of item
[792] PART 4 / AUDITING THE TRANSACTION CYCLES
4. Quantity on hand
5. Cost per item
6. Date of last purchase
7. Date of last sale
8. Quantity sold during year
The auditor is planning to observe the distributor’s physical count of inventories as of a
given date. The auditor will have available a computer tape of the data on the inventory
file on the date of the physical count and a general-purpose computer software package.