3102AFE Department Of Accounting Finance Economics Assignment

CASE STUDY: ANTON HAYDEN & PARTNERS 

The external auditors: Anton Hayden & Partners (AHP) 

Anton Hayden & Partners (AHP), is a medium-sized audit firm providing audit, advisory  and taxation services to an array of clients, many of whom are in the hospitality & tourism  sector. Jessica Anton and Chris Hayden are the founding partners, and twelve other partners  have been admitted to the entity since its inception in 2002. This year, the partners celebrated  the opening of the third office in Southport. They now have offices in Southport, Cairns and  Caloundra which support their growing clientele across the tourism hotspots of Queensland.  

Jessica and Chris originally met when they were both interns at KPMG in the 1990’s.  After working together for several years and qualifying as Chartered Accountants they found  that they shared a common work ethic. Finding themselves increasingly frustrated with being  just another audit senior in an extremely large international audit firm, they decided to go out  on their own. Their plan was to establish a progressive audit firm but with a strong sense of  community, believing that staff that felt both challenged and a sense of belonging would  enhance productivity. Over its 20 years life, AHP has developed a reputation for conducting  quality audits and enabling professional accountants to rapidly develop strong professional  acumen. This is achieved through having a culture that encourages collaboration and  teamwork, but still requires staff to assume ownership for assigned tasks and responsibilities.  The partners believe that this approach encourages staff to consult with each other and the  more experienced personnel when faced with challenges, enhancing accountability and  professional judgment. This approach has paid off with AHP becoming a desirable firm for  new interns to launch their professional accounting careers. Six of these interns have never  left, ultimately attaining partnership level.  

When asked what set AHP apart, in a recent interview for the CPA magazine  ‘IntheBlack’, Jessica answered “I think we seem to have struck a good balance between  teamwork and the pursuit of excellence, you know. The partners have set high expectations  

for staff to keep improving their audit practice and skills. For instance, aside from regular  formal in-house training, staff are eager to participate in global online workshops that are  focused on developing particular areas of expertise. Just last month several of our staff joined  some of our partners in an online workshop held by a California-based PWC-sponsored  workshop on Data Analytics, Ethics and Tourism. It was about 3 am, so the staff  had a bit of fun and we all dressed up in all formal executive dress from the waist up and pajamas  and slippers waist down, met in the boardroom and ordered pizza and popcorn. After the workshop we had a big brainstorming session with everyone that was there, and it was good  to hear some of the ‘young guns’ and trainees sharing their thoughts. They bring a different  perspective, you know? Maybe they don’t have the wisdom of professional experience yet, but  they bring valuable insights to the table. It was great! Good thing it was a Saturday though!  (laughs). So yeah, that’s a good example of how we integrate our strong ethos of excellence  and teamwork. And you know, from that we have reviewed our business strategy, and been  able to incorporate some of the learnings from that workshop, and specifically what was  discussed afterwards into our plans for the next three years. We have some really exciting  stuff that we will be launching over the next six months that will strategically enhance our  tourism industry specialization, and also cater for some new services that we will be  launching. And everyone is excited about this, especially those who attended the session  because it also shows that they all have a voice and that they are heard. And that’s important  these days, I think.”  

The client: Outback Safaris Limited 

Outback Safaris Pty Ltd (‘Outback’) is an Australian listed hospitality company that  owns several bush camp properties in key tourism hotspots, such as Fraser Island and the Red  Centre. Services provided include holiday tour packages that operate from the bush camp  locations. The founding directors of Outback are Harry Jones (CEO), Ben Binder, Orlando  Cooper (CFO) and Katy Bradley, each holding a 25% ownership in the private company. The  financial year of Outback ends on 31 December each year.  

The directors have prepared detailed growth strategies to expand their tour  operations to include other areas within Oceania and have set a goal to list the company in two  years’ time. As the company has not met the criteria to be classified as a large proprietary  company in terms of the Corporations Act, Outback’s annual financial statements were neither  audited nor independently reviewed previously. However, in view of their need for capital  financing to fund their expansion projects, they now require audited financial statements and  have resolved to be audited from FY2022 onwards. Hence, they have approached Anton  Hayden & Partners (AHP) to be appointed as the company’s external auditors. 

AHP have accepted the engagement and have penciled in Pat Connors as the audit  manager, Ashley Rates as the audit senior and assigned two trainee accountants as the  engagement team for the 2022 financial report audit. Chris Hayden is to act as Engagement  Partner as he has the most experience auditing private companies. 

Pat Connors and State of Origin Evening 

Pat Connors is mad about rugby league, and he dreamed about being a professional  player. He represented his school in the NRL Schoolboy Cup and was selected to play for the  Wynnum-Manly Seagulls, whilst at university. In his second year however, he sustained a  nasty knee injury and he reluctantly hung up his boots. He completed his accounting  traineeship at Deloittes and joined AHP in February 2022. Outback invited Jessica & Chris to  watch the third State of Origin match in Brisbane in July 2022, however they decided that it  was not appropriate for them to attend. Instead, they suggested that Pat (given his history with  NRL) and another staff member, Jean, who was not on the engagement team go in their place. The evening at Outback’s corporate suite at Suncorp Stadium did not disappoint. During half 

Jean and Pat were introduced to Harry Jones and several other Outback staff, and they  talked about Pat’s brief sporting career, and his transition to the accounting profession. Jean  let slip that Pat would be the audit manager on the upcoming Outback audit. Later in the  evening before leaving, Harry called Pat aside and whispered that he would be able to secure  Gold Membership at Suncorp Stadium for Pat, “especially if things go well with the upcoming  audit” he added. Pat thanked him and said he’d give it some thought. On the train home that  evening, Pat decided that he wouldn’t mention the offer to anyone at work, because at about  $2000 a year, Gold Membership was very enticing