会计师事务所审计风险成因与防范控制

正随着我国社会经济的高速发展,注册会计师队伍与业务范围的扩展、壮大和社会公众对审计报告的关注日益提高,审计职业的责任越来越大。由于注册会计师本身审计方法的局限性及各方面因素的影响与制约,注册会计师有时很难对企业做出客观、公允的评价,从而导致审计风险的     

缩小期望差在新审计报告准则中的体现

实际上,自审计产生至今,审计能力始终处于一种被动状态,即始终在为满足社会需求而努力,但始终无法完全满足社会需求。这是因为当旧的审计需求满足了,新的审计需求又产生了。作为以社会公众为服务对象的审计活动,必须以满足社会公众的期望要求为惟一的和最高的目标。为此,审计界不断在最大限度地及时地满足这些期望要求、缩小审计期望差。这种积极的态度在新审计准则的审计报告要素中有着集中的体现。本文就《注册会计师审计准则第1501号——审计报告》与原《独立审计具体准则第7号——审计报告》进行了比较,认为新审计准则集中体现了审计界正在积极地规范、完善审计报告来缩小特别是与第三者之间的审计期望差。     

我国注册会计师行业发展主要问题及成因研究——基于审计报告提供者和需求者的问卷调查分析

本文采用问卷调查研究方法,对审计报告提供者的会计师事务所和审计报告的主要需求者被审计单位、机构投资者与个人投资者进行了问卷调研,研究发现,约七成调查对象认为我国审计质量在不断提高,但审计报告提供者和需求者之间对现有审计质量的认知存在较大差异。我国注册会计师行业发展也面临相应的问题,具体表现为审计质量与社会公众的审计期望差距较大、注册会计师同业和供需之间市场竞争环境存在矛盾、注册会计师行业数字化建设落后以及注册会计师行业人才供给不足。     

审计职业道德规范的结构选择——基于规则型和框架型的比较分析

审计职业的特点是审计人员利用自身的专业知识和专业技能为社会公众提供专业服务,社会公众之所以能够信赖审计职业提供的服务成果是基于对审计职业专业胜任能力和职业道德水准的信任。毋庸置疑,审计职业来自社会公众的信任的源泉是完善的审计职业道德规范。如果缺失审     

公共危机审计报告研究

在公共危机管理中，政府审计发挥着监督和评价政府职责履行情况的作用，最终通过向社会公众公开审计管辖范围内的重要审计事项的审计结果（简称“审计公告”），体现政府的公共危机管理水平，满足社会公众的信息需求。本文主要将我国汶川地震抗震救灾资金物资审计公告、美国国际开发署／巴基斯坦地震审计报告和加拿大地震预防审计报告进行比较，就同一类公共危机事件的审计分别从报告形式、报告内容包括审计目标和范围、审计依据、审计风险、审计建议等方面分析差异，积极借鉴国外先进审计经验，丰富和完善我国公共危机审计报告，提高审计结果的利用程度，促进公共危机审计的顺利开展。     

试论审计责任与会计责任

审计责任和会计责任是我国独立审计中两个关系非常密切的概念。明确这两个概念的相互关系有利于强化注册会计师的责任意识，保证审计质量，提高职业声誉；有利于促进被审计单位加强内部管理，提高会计核算和监督水平；有利于社会各界正确理解审计工作，合理运用审计报告，恰当追究注册会计师的法律责任，保护注册会计师的合法权益，充分发挥独立审计的重要作用。审计责任是指注册会计师应按照独立审计准则的要求出具审计报告，保证审计报告的真实性、合法性。它包括两个方面的内容：一是注册会计师应对审计报告的真实性负责。审计报告的真实…     

刍议期望审计差距

一、期望差距的产生 审计期望差距表示审计人自己认可的审计职责与社会公众期望的审计职责之间存在距离.公众从自身的信息需求出发认为,审计界除了保证审计报告的真实合法,还必须保证财务报告的正确公允,披露所有重大差错和舞弊,认为审计报告应承诺被审计单位的存续能力.     

备战新审计报告

重振审计报告的重要性 回想一下审计报告的内容,多数人很可能只记得审计意见.目前,准则制定者、监管机构、审计师、财务报告编制者及投资者已共同在全球范围内开启了一场变革之旅,旨在重新唤起社会公众对审计报告的兴趣.     

政府审计的独立性和客观性

对于审计报告来说,独立性和客观性是十分重要的。政府审计报告需要提交至中国政府,国家审计署在审计过程中使用了谨慎的方法,进而加强了审计报告的独立性和客观性。这对于政府和审计人员而言都有益处。本文引用了国家审计署发布的6篇审计进行研究。     

对会计人员诚信的几点要求

一、从会计人员个人素质来说(1)增加职业道德修养。《会计法》明确要求会计人员遵守职业道德,树立良好的职业品质,严谨的工作作风、严守工作纪律,按照会计法律、法规和国家统一会计制度规定的程序和要求进行会计工作,保证所提供的会计信息合法、真实、准确、及时、完整。而注册会计师更应遵循职业操守,不得故意出具虚假的审计报告,发表不恰当的审计意见。(2)强化风险意识,提高综合素质。对注册会计师来说,风险意识的淡薄和缺乏必要的谨慎性容易给被审单位钻空子,导致不实审计报告。因此,注册会计师在承接审计业务后,应对出具审计报告的每一个环节都保持应有的职业谨慎和高度警觉。特别是对一些上市公司钻准则漏洞的"会计创新"更应保持清醒的头脑。二、从社会环境来说(1)加强法制监管和惩处。历史经验表明,法令     

Quis Auditoret Ipsos Auditores? Can Auditors Be Trusted?

This article explores the extent to which the audit profession and its practices promote public trust in audits. Differences between auditors and non‐auditors as to beliefs about the role of a financial report audit have long been discussed under the term ‘expectations gap’. However, this prior debate has tended to focus on non‐auditors’ alleged misunderstanding of audit processes without a corresponding understanding on the part of the profession as to why the public might place its trust in auditors. The study explores the nature of trust in an auditing context and notes that like any profession, auditing faces practical limitations but the inability to directly observe the conduct of audits combined with professional status create an ‘over trust’ expectation in the public. Changes in audit practices and culture have also exposed the profession to criticism. The article seeks to offer one approach by which the auditing profession can restore public confidence; namely, evidence‐based practice, which has proven effective in improving the quality of practice in medicine. Adoption of a reflective evidence‐based approach to audit practice offers the promise of greater audit quality and an improvement in the profession's accountability and public confidence.     

Effect of audit report disclosure on auditor litigation risk

Internationally, the escalating number of cases levelled against auditors and the costs of defending such actions has led to the auditing profession calling for measures to reduce their liability burden. Relatively few measures have been taken by the auditing profession by way of adapting the disclosure contained in the audit report to mitigate their litigation risk. This study examines whether the issuance of an audit opinion with a going concern related ‘emphasis of matter’ paragraph or work practices disclosure has any effect on potential litigants' likelihood of pursuing litigation against the auditor. An analysis of 69 responses from advanced law students and 18 practitioners working in corporate liquidation demonstrate that a modified (but not qualified) audit report effectively acts as a ‘red flag’ and reduces potential litigants' propensity to initiate litigation. However, work practices disclosure did not significantly alter potential litigants' inclination to recommend litigation. Despite this finding, respondents (particularly liquidators) indicated that work practices disclosure was an important factor in their litigation decision. These results suggest that further investigation into how to effectively disclose the work done on audit and assurance engagements is needed. This has implications for standard setters and the auditing profession, especially considering recent changes in the disclosure contained in audit and assurance reports.     

The Effect of Alternative Judicial Systems and Settlement on Auditing

The accounting profession claims that the substantial litigation costs incurred to defend against negligence claims are used by plaintiffs to coerce settlement. We examine a model of auditing and settlement under the U.S. and British systems of allocating litigation costs between a plaintiff and defendant and compare the level of equilibrium auditing and audit pricing across the two regimes.If the unit cost of auditing is sufficiently high, then the system in the U.K. induces more auditing than does the U.S. system. Second, for some parameters, the system in the U.K. achieves this result while inducing lower audit prices.     

Internalization versus externalization of the internal audit function: an examination of professional and organizational imperatives

This paper examines the recent trend towards the outsourcing of internal audit services to the public accounting profession. Here we draw from two dominant literature perspectives (the sociology of professions literature and the outsourcing literature) to examine this clash between the public accounting profession and the internal auditing profession over the provision of internal audit services. Two major research propositions are postulated from which to consider these issues. These propositions concern themselves with the efforts of both the public accounting profession and the internal audit profession in this outsourcing debate. We examine these professions both in terms of volitional professional behavior (as espoused in the sociology of professions literature) and organizational arguments (inherent advantages and disadvantages of the externalization of work as typically espoused by the outsourcing literature).     

Responsiveness of Auditors to the Audit Risk Standards: Unique Evidence from Big 4 Audit Firms

We examine the effect of changes in audit risk standards on the conduct of financial statement audits in a European setting. We investigate this by analysing the audit hours and audit fees for clients of Big 4 audit firms in Finland in 1996 and 2010. Our results show that audit firms became more sensitive to clients’ business risk due to the introduction of the new audit risk standards, with more audit hours allocated to owner-managed companies in 2010 than in 1996, and fewer audit hours allocated to low-risk clients in 2010 than in 1996. Also, the labour mix in the audit team changed for owner-managed companies, with a greater work load carried by junior auditors in 2010 than in 1996. Regarding the price of audit, we find an increase in audit fees for clients with high business risk, while audit fees remained at roughly the same level for low-risk clients. These findings should be of interest to the auditing profession and those involved in the development of auditing regulations.     

Class-action privileges and contingent legal fees: Investor and lawyer incentives to litigate and the effect on audit quality

The Cohen Commission recognized the importance of litigation incentives and recommended that research based upon an economic approach be conducted into the effects that litigation incentives can have on the auditing profession. By extending Simon (1981), an economic analysis of an auditing environment is presented wherein audit firms issue reports, representative investors make decisions based upon audit reports, and lawyers (as well as representative investors) play an active role in determining whether or not to initiate litigation against audit firms. The influence that alternative litigation privileges (i.e., class-action privileges with contingent legal fees and no class-action privileges with fixed legal fees) have on representative investor and lawyer incentives to litigate and on the equilibrium characteristics of this audit market are analyzed.     

The CLERP 9 Audit Reforms: Benefits and Costs Through the Eyes of Regulators,Standard Setters and Audit Service Suppliers

Over the past decade or more Australia amongst other jurisdictions has experienced substantial reforms to auditing regulation in an effort to boost public confidence in the auditing profession. This paper aims to examine whether these changes in the Australian regulatory environment for audits have (a) provided enhanced confidence in reported financial data, (b) impacted audit costs and (c) not limited competition in the market for audit services. Using qualitative interview data, this study reports on the perceptions of auditors, auditing standard setters and regulators in relation to the CLERP 9 reforms to the Australian auditing regime in the later part of the 2000s. A theoretical framework is developed to evaluate whether these reforms are substantive enough in nature to effect public confidence in reported financial data and market competition in audits.     

The Accuracy and Incremental Information Content of Audit Reports in Predicting Bankruptcy

A series of corporate failures in which auditors failed to warn about impending bankruptcy led to widespread criticism of the UK auditing profession during the last recession. For a sample of 976 quoted companies (1987–94), this paper shows that there are two reasons why audit reports were not accurate or informative indicators of bankruptcy. First, audit reports poorly reflected publicly available information about the probability of bankruptcy. Secondly, strong persistence in audit reporting reduced the accuracy of audit reports     

Great Expectations: Public Perceptions Of The Auditor's Role

The professional accounting bodies in Australia have undertaken a study of the "expectation gap" in perceptions of the auditing role and concluded that the public's image of the auditing profession will be enhanced if the differences in attitudes can be minimised. This paper analyses the views of auditors and financial report users about what the role of the auditor and the nature of an audit should be. The most significant differences between the auditors and the user groups relate to whether the auditor should be responsible for preventing and detecting fraud, detecting illegal acts, reporting whether the company is a reliable debtor or loan prospect and reporting the degree of confidence he or she has that the correct audit opinion has been issued. Where the differences represent "deficient standards" or "unreasonable expectations", the professional bodies should consider changing auditor responsibilities or attempting to change users' attitudes.     

Internal control audits: Judges' perceptions of the credibility of the financial reporting process and likely auditor liability

This paper reports the results of a study in which fifty-seven sitting United States judges participated in a behavioral experiment to assess the perceived credibility of the financial reporting process and the legal risk auditors bear under conditions where they provide an internal control audit report (vs. no report) under two corporate governance environments. We find that participating judges believe internal control audits provide enhanced assurance that intentional misstatements do not exist and also serve to provide elevated protection to the public, but only under conditions of a strong corporate governance environment beyond current regulatory requirements. We also find that, after being informed of an undetected material fraud, judges who currently have high expectations of the auditing profession find auditors more liable when an internal control audit report has been issued (as compared to when no such report has been issued).