You have been assigned to the audit of the financial statements of Office Moving and Storage Limited (OMS) for its year ending December 31, 20X2. The company started 10 years ago and is in the business of moving furniture and equipment for company offices across Canada, and also providing storage for companies requiring that service. The company is owned by three shareholders who are all involved in operating the company.
OMS owns four properties outside of major urban centres; this is where it has warehouse buildings for storing customers’ furniture and garages for parking its own moving trucks. OMS has a force of salespeople who follow commercial real estate construction and leasing reports to identify sales prospects: large and medium companies that are planning to move offices. The prospects are assigned to salespeople who then follow up and try to sell a moving and storage contract to the company, along with other services to facilitate the office move. The salespeople prepare a cost quote for doing the move, and this must be approved by the regional sales manager prior to giving it to the prospect company. The regional sales managers have the authority to lower the quoted price if a competing moving company undercuts OMS’s quote. Once a move has been started, in many cases the customer requires extra services beyond those contracted for (such as extra boxes, packing, disassembling furniture, removal of trash, etc.), and these are billed as extra charges. The moving employees on the job record the types of extra services provided in a Customer Moving Job Report. These extras are then priced by the assistance sales managers, and added to the amount billed to the customer.
Customers with approved credit ratings are required to pay 25% of the contracted price as a deposit, and are billed for the remaining contract cost and any extras after the move is completed. They have 10 days to pay in full. Customers without approved credit ratings are