Costs and benefits of auditors' disclosure of critical audit matters: Initial evidence from the United States

In an effort to make audit reports more informative to financial statement users, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requires an expanded audit report in which auditors are required to disclose critical audit matters (CAMs). The new standard (AS 3101) became effective for audits of financial statements of large accelerated filers for fiscal years ending on or after June 30, 2019. Using a sample of annual reports of large accelerated filers with and without CAM disclosures, we examine the costs and benefits of the mandatory disclosure of CAMs in auditors' reports. Our evidence suggests that compared to auditor reports reporting no CAMs, the presence of a single CAM disclosure in the auditor's report provides incremental information to equity investors without a significant increase in audit costs. However, using the benchmark of a single CAM disclosure, multiple CAMs in an auditor's report results in higher audit fees and longer audit delays.     

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     

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.     

Auditors as modern pharmakoi: Legitimacy paradoxes and the production of economic order

Despite a continuous flow of audit failure episodes the auditing profession keeps on being seen as technically and morally legitimate. This paper seeks to better understand how the paradox that surrounds the legitimacy of financial auditing develops. Relying on René Girard's theoretical developments on scapegoating, sacrificial rituals and mythification, we argue that auditors are often (but not always) selected as sacrificial victims in the wake of major corporate scandals. Rationalized mythologies are mobilized in the process by which auditors are morally and/or legally condemned, in a way which maintains or strengthens the legitimacy of the financial audit function. Fundamentally speaking, we contend that financial auditors can be conceived of as modern pharmakoi, constituting a reservoir of victims to sacrifice whenever fraudulent financial statements surfacing in the public arena threaten to severely disrupt the credibility and smooth-functioning of capital markets. We confront our theoretical translation of Girardian theory to the empirical domain through an analysis of the breakdown of accounting firm Arthur Andersen, in which we examine how the legitimacy paradox surrounding the financial audit function is produced and reproduced. One of our key conclusions is as follows: despite claims which commonly celebrate the rationality of capital markets, the latter's functioning and the sustaining of economic order are predicated on the production and reproduction of mythologies.     

The Effect of Auditor Style on Reporting Quality: Evidence from Germany

This paper examines whether the ‘style’ of individual auditors influences financial reporting quality in Germany. Audit quality in Germany should be uniformly high, because of strong reputational needs, strict controls on operating procedures, and quality enforcement mechanisms. An audit partner's style should not affect this quality level. However, our results do not support this expectation. Exploiting a unique dataset comprising the names of the audit engagement and review partners of listed German companies, we find that audit engagement partners in Germany have a significant influence on audit quality, beyond firm‐ and office‐level factors. In contrast, audit review partners do not have a consistent significant influence on audit quality. We measure audit quality by the level of a firm's abnormal accruals and its propensity to meet or beat an earnings target. We also find that the 2005 adoption of a new audit quality enforcement system that includes ‘naming and shaming’ does not reduce the influence of audit partner style on financial reporting quality.     

Towards a conceptual model of whistle-blowing intentions among external auditors

Whistle-blowing has received considerable attention in the ethics literature. However, following the collapse of Arthur Andersen in the Enron debacle, whistle-blowing within audit firms has taken on greater importance. Given the profession's requirements to be confidential, independent and to act in the public interest (e.g. Sarbanes–Oxley Act, 2002), there is a need for a model that is specific to the audit profession (e.g. Louwers, Ponemon, & Radtke, 1997), and in particular, that addresses auditors' whistle-blowing intentions. This paper presents a conceptual model on whistle-blowing intentions among external auditors where an auditor's individual factors (attitudes toward whistle-blowing, perceived behavioural control, independence commitment, personal responsibility for reporting and personal cost of reporting) have a direct influence on his or her intentions to whistle-blow, but are moderated by isomorphic factors (perceived organisational support and team norms) and issue-specific factors (perceived moral intensity). Using justice and institutional theories, the proposed model anticipates that whistle-blowing within an audit firm produces both positive and negative consequences to society, the audit firm and the individual whistle-blower. However, where audit firms have adequate formal supporting mechanisms for reporting wrongdoings to internal and external parties, the negative effects and personal costs of reporting will be minimised.     

Corporate reporting on the Internet and the expectations gap: new face of an old problem

While the practice of Internet financial reporting (IFR) has evolved rapidly, research has questioned the corresponding responsiveness of the auditing profession. This study investigates the existence and nature of an expectations gap that may have arisen in relation to the auditor's role and responsibilities with respect to IFR. Based on a questionnaire survey in New Zealand, results confirm the existence of an expectations gap between auditors and stakeholder groups. Specific responsibilities contributing to deficient performance, deficient standards, and unreasonable expectations components of this gap are identified. The principal pronouncement dealing with auditors’ relevant responsibilities in New Zealand is AGS 1003 Audit Issues Relating to the Electronic Presentation of Financial Statements and Related Auditor's Reports. AGS 1003 discusses, inter alia, the auditor's role and responsibilities in relation to electronic financial statements before and after online publication, and the implications of IFR for the auditor's report and other audit communications. The study argues that the authoritative status of such guidance statements may contribute to a perpetuation of the gap. Furthermore, the profession is urged to avoid ‘standard’ professional responses to the issues, which risk being labelled insufficient and/or strategically motivated. The findings have policy implications for standard-setters internationally.     

审计师更换时机对年报及时性和审计质量的影响

上市公司出于不同的动机,选择在不同的时间进行审计师更换,因而对年报的及时性和审计质量产生了不同影响。本研究发现,较晚更换审计师的上市公司,相对于较早更换审计师的上市公司,不仅其财务报告的及时性显著较差,而且审计质量也明显较低。     

A study of whistleblowing among trainee auditors

Over the last number of years whistleblowers have been gaining prominence. This paper investigates some of the factors that influence the propensity or willingness to blow the whistle among trainee auditors. Three categories of factors are examined: audit firm organisational structures, personal characteristics of whistleblowers and situational variables.A survey of 240 final year students of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland was undertaken. Trainee auditors (just about to sit their finals) were asked about their confidence in internal and external reporting structures in their firms. Using four scenarios, audit trainees were questioned on their willingness to challenge an audit partner's inappropriate response to concerns raised during the audit. Finally, audit trainees were asked about the influence of legal protection on their likelihood of whistleblowing.Results indicate that where firms have adequate formal structures for reporting wrongdoing, trainee auditors are more likely to report wrongdoing and have greater confidence that this will not adversely affect their careers. Training increases this confidence. Trainee auditors also express a willingness to challenge an audit partner's unsatisfactory response to wrongdoing. Significant differences were found in attitudes depending on whether the reports of wrongdoing were internal or external. The willingness to report wrongdoing externally reduces for older (aged over 25) trainees.     

The Communicative Value of the Auditor's Report

Communicating the results of the audit is a crucial part of the audit process. This potentially enables the users of financial reports to assess the quality of the audit, which will in turn contribute to their assessments of financial reporting quality. This research reports the results of a verbal protocol study of 16 financial analysts to assess how they use an auditor's report as part of a company evaluation. Auditors’ reports perse are found to be important to analysts in that they signal a level of reliability in the financial statements. However, the content of the auditor's report, including the additional content of the recently issued longer form auditor's report (ISA 700, ASA 700), generally was not attended to by the analysts. This suggests the communicative value of the auditor's report is minimal beyond signalling the elevated reliability of the financial statements.     

Are Audit Committees Red Herrings?

The common expectation of committees established in the wake of the corporate debacles during 1980s in the English-speaking world is that the audit committee device will raise the standards of corporate accountability and governance by improving the quality of financial reporting. That expectation is based on the prevalent belief that by strengthening the independence of auditors and non-executive directors audit committee members will monitor the financial reporting process in an independent manner. Unless accounting practices are reformed so that financial statements can be authenticated by recourse to reliable commercial evidence, audit committees are red herrings. Such reforms are essential if audit committee members are to keep under vigilant appraisal matters pertaining to the financial governance of, and reporting by, firms: the raison d'être of their appointment.     

Is the objectivity of internal audit compromised when the internal audit function is a management training ground?

We conduct an experiment with 74 internal auditors to examine the effects of using the internal audit function as a training ground for future senior managers. Specifically, we investigate internal auditors' willingness to resist current management's aggressive revenue recognition policies, assuming that internal auditors expect to move into senior management positions in the future. We also examine whether increasing the power of the board of directors can reduce threats to internal auditors' objectivity. This is the first study to empirically examine whether training grounds influence internal auditors objectivity. Results of our study indicate that internal auditors are less objective (i.e. they are more likely to side with management's aggressive revenue recognition policies) when they expect to move into senior management positions, relative to when internal auditing is not used as a training ground. We also find that empowering the audit committee further decreases the objectivity of internal auditors. These results suggest that board power can have unintended consequences on the behaviour of internal auditors and that board empowerment does not guarantee improved governance or improved oversight of financial reporting.     

The effect of external audits of internal control over financial reporting on financial reporting for clients of Big 4, Second-tier,and small audit firms

The external audit of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) is a very expensive and contentious aspect of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX). Larger public firms were first required to file a management report on and have an external audit of ICFR in 2004. Smaller public firms were first required to file a management report on ICFR in 2007 but are exempt from the audit requirement. Whereas most related prior research investigates the combined effect of management and auditor reports on financial reporting, this study examines the distinct effect of auditor reports on reporting quality. For companies audited by small auditors, we find evidence that financial reporting quality improves with an auditor report on ICFR. We find no evidence that auditor ICFR reports improve reporting quality for clients of Big 4 or Second-tier audit firms. Our study adds to the debate on the applicability of SOX Section 404 to smaller firms.     

Information Quality of Interim Financial Statements

Expressing concern about the Canadian capital market environment, Boritz (2006) suggested that the accounting and auditing profession may be paying limited attention to quarterly reports. This study investigates whether fourth‐quarter adjustments are significantly different from the previous three, thereby limiting the reliability or faithful representation of the firms' results for each quarter. This study includes four years (2003–2006) of quarterly financial information of 353 Canadian public companies. Our results indicate that the volatility of net income in each of the first three quarters is considerably lower than in the final quarter. While lower volatility can improve predictability, the resulting relevance may be limited. The low volatility of reported earnings in the first three quarters suggests that either earnings management is taking place or that management may not be exercising sufficient care at the end of each of the first three quarters on the measurements that generally accepted accounting principles call for and readers of financial statements expect. This could result in quarterly financial statements that do not faithfully represent the underlying resources and obligations of the reporting firms at the end of the quarter, or the firm's performance during the quarter. Our findings support Boritz's proposition for increased audit requirements for interim reports and changes in the approach to the annual audit to integrate it more closely with interim financial reporting.     

Determinants of going concern opinions and audit fees for development stage enterprises

Startup entities have been the focus of much political and academic interest recently. Development stage enterprises (DSEs), as defined by SFAS 7, are startup entities for which some publicly available information exists. New accounting standards have removed the DSE designation and related extra reporting requirements, and placed more responsibility on owners and managers to assess the ability of entities to continue as a going concern. We examined information from financial statements and audit reports of companies previously reporting as DSEs to investigate what increases the likelihood of receiving a going concern modification in auditors' opinions (GCO) and what affects audit fees. Our overall analyses indicate that the asset size of DSEs, negative working capital, and prior-year going concern modifications consistently influence going concern modifications to auditors' opinions. Managers should clearly consider these conditions when making their assessment of their companies' future going concern status. Our results indicate that the size of the audit firm did not influence the going concern modification decision, but Big4 auditors charge significantly higher fees than other auditors. Thus, managers/owners of DSEs should weigh the benefits of having a Big4 firm audit on their financial statements against the higher fees charged by those firms.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Interface Between Internal and External Auditors

Professional standards place specific responsibilities on auditors for the discovery of material mis-statements in reports of corporate financial performance. Certain factors have been shown to increase the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting. One warning sign is the potentially pervasive effect of a weak internal control environment consistent with a weak internal audit group. This study investigates the impact of internal audit department quality differences on auditors ‘willingness to place reliance on the work performed by internal auditors. The study also gives consideration to auditors’ recent experiences with material errors and irregularities and examines the influence of two previously untested individual auditor differences on audit judgment decisions: (1) conflict management style and (2) perception of internal/external auditor communication barriers. The results indicate that auditors attend to internal audit department quality differences and that individual auditor differences exhibit significant influence over auditor judgments. Implications for audit practice are considered and directions for future research are suggested.     

Management letter comments: Their determinants and their association with financial reporting quality in local government

The issuance of management letters (MLs) as part of financial statement audits is a long-standing practice; however, previous studies of MLs are few and no previous research has tested the utility of MLs empirically. This paper reports a study of MLs issued by independent CPA firms pursuant to audits of Florida general purpose local governments. We investigate the determinants of ML comments, finding that such comments are influenced by auditee characteristics and auditor tenure but not by auditor specialization, a proxy for audit quality. Further, we explore the relationship between MLs and financial reporting quality. We observe a negative relationship between first-year ML comments and assessed financial reporting quality. When lagged one year, first-year ML comments bear a positive relationship with financial reporting quality. The absence of ML comments is positively associated with financial reporting quality. Our results suggest that MLs are beneficial to auditees. As such, our study should be interesting to policymakers, users of financial reports, auditees, and auditors.     

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.     

The necessary characteristics of environmental auditors: a review of the contribution of the financial auditing profession

The business community faces many pressures from the green consumer, environmental groups, employees and investors to accept its environmental accountabilities and to provide information about its environmental performance. This information is becoming increasingly important to a broad range of corporate stakeholders because it is a key resource in managing a business’s response to the issue of environmental accountability. Businesses need to ascertain whether potential responsibilities for environmental implications on business are considered within their companies. A number of arguments have emerged concerning the relevance of the financial auditing profession in contributing to this area of environmental concerns. The paper is principally concerned with (1) reviewing the literature in an attempt to answer the questions: (i) can the financial audit profession make a contribution in the area of environmental audits? (ii) are financial auditors in a position to assess environmental implications for business and take part in environmental auditing? (2) The paper goes on to suggest a general framework of the necessary characteristics of environmental auditors.