Your audit firm has recently been engaged as the new auditor for Pinnacle Manufacturing effective for the audit of the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2013. Pinnacle is a medium sized corporation, with its headquarters located in Detroit, Michigan. The company is made up of three divisions. The first division, Welburn, has been in existence for 35 years and creates powerful diesel engines for boats, trucks, and commercial farming equipment. The second division, Solar Electro, was recently acquired from a high tech manufacturing firm based out of Dallas, Texas. Solar Electro produces state of the art, solar powered engines. The solar powered engine market is relatively new, and Pinnacle's top management believes that the Solar Electro division will be extremely profitable in the future as the focus on global climate change continues and when highly anticipated EPA regulations make solar powered engines mandatory for certain public transportation vehicles. Finally, the third division, Machine Tech, engages in a wide variety of machine service and repair operations. This division, also new to Pinnacle, is currently in its second year of operations. Pinnacle's board of directors has recently considered selling the Machine Tech division in order to focus more on core operations engine manufacturing. However, before any sale will be made, the board has agreed to evaluate this year's operating results. Excellent operating results may have the effect of keeping the division a part of Pinnacle for the next few years. The vice president for Machine Tech is committed to making it profitable.
The purpose of Part I is to perform preliminary analytical procedures as part of the audit planning process. You have be asked to focus your attention on two purposes of procedures: obtain an understanding about the client's business and indicate where there is an increased likelihood of misstatements.

Required:
a. Refer to the financial statement data in Figure 8 9 (p. 244) for the current year and prior two years. Analyze the year to year change in account balance for at least five financial statement line items. Document the trend analysis in a format similar to the following:

c. Based on the analytical procedures calculated in parts a. and b., summarize your observations about Pinnacle's business, including your assessment of the client's business risk.
d. Go to the Pinnacle link on the textbook Web site (www.pearsonhighered.com/arens) and open the Pinnacle income statement, which is located in the Pinnacle Income Statement worksheet of the Pinnacle_Financials Excel file. Use the income statement information to prepare a common size income statement for all three years. See Figure 8 7 (p. 227) for an example. Use the information to identify accounts for which you believe there is a concern about material misstatements. Use a format similar to the following:Estimate of S AmountAccount Balance of Potential Misstatement
e. Use the three divisional income statements in the Pinnacle_Financials Excel file on the Web site to prepare a common size income statement for each of the three divisions for all three years. Each division's income statement is in a separate worksheet in the Excel file. Use the information to identify accounts for which you believe there is a concern about material misstatements. Use a format similar to the one in requirement d.
f. Explain whether you believe the information in requirement d. or e. provides the most useful data for evaluating the potential for misstatements. Explain why.
g. Analyze the account balances for accounts receivable, inventory, and short/current long term debt. Describe any observations about those accounts and discuss additional information you want to consider during the current year audit.
h. Based on your calculations, assess the likelihood (high, medium, or low) that Pinnacle is likely to fail financially in the next 12months.