审计业务的延伸与管理系统设计咨询业务的开展

会计师事务所在各类鉴证业务中,越来越重视对企业管理系统和内部控制的测试与评价,以期发现由于企业管理系统和内部控制缺陷带来的系统风险或固有风险。本文认为,注册会计师从企业治理结构和内部管理系统、业务流程方面,延伸分析和归纳企业管理系统、业务流程本身存在的主要缺陷,可以启发和强化企业管理层对管理系统和流程设计咨询的需求,具有延伸进行企业管理系统设计咨询的"先天"条件。本文还从咨询的角度探讨了企业管理系统咨询的目标和设计思路,管理系统咨询的阶段和各阶段的内容,以便注册会计师了解和掌握企业管理系统咨询的基本要点,并在传统审计业务基础上,运用这些知识敏锐地发现"商机"、说服客户、顺利签下合同并开展新的咨询业务,为提高企业管理水平和顺利发展作出贡献。     

集团公司内部往来业务审计的启示

现在,在许多较大的集团公司内部,都经常设置"内部往来"科目来核算公司内部以及和子公司的交易、往来.而且,较多的集团公司似乎都"热衷"于通过内部往来业务进行一些"特别的会计处理"达到企业自身不可告人的目的.笔者针对自己所审计过的上市公司中内部往来会计处理中存在的问题,结合审计业务的实际情况,来剖析企业集团内部往来的种种奥秘.     

审计专家系统的发展及其启示

作为审计判断辅助工具的审计专家系统是一个能够效仿人类专家决策能力的计算机系统,不但可以减少审计判断的主观性,提高审计判断的一致性进而提高审计判断的质量,而且可以提高审计效率。20世纪80年代以来,专家系统引起了几乎所有科学领域的关注,并在许多领域得到了应用,审计专家系统则受到了各大国际会计公司的重视本文拟就此作简要介绍。审计专家系统的发展情况审计是一个专业性非常强的领域。在审计人员作出审计判断的过程中,既需要审计人员具有扎实的专业知识,也要求其具有丰富的实践经验,符合上述要求的专业人员我们称之为专家。一般认…     

浅析注册会计师审计和咨询的互动关系

会计师事务所发展战略的一个重要内容是服务产品组合问题.以"五大"为代表的国际大型会计师事务所已经形成了以审计和咨询为主的服务产品组合.     

审计署国库履职审计对国库业务检查的启示

审计署国库履职审计所采用的追踪检查、过滤筛查、延伸检查、实地调查等方法,对国库内部业务检查有借鉴意义。应当完善相关制度法规,赋予国库对税款解缴全过程的监督权限和对纳税人的调查取证权限,同时加强部门之间的协调和联动,共促预算收入及时入库。     

中央银行外汇管理业务审计重点和审计方式

中央银行对外汇管理业务的审计，较之本币业务有其不同的审计方式。     

Relation between external audit fees, audit committee characteristics and internal audit

This study examines whether the existence of an audit committee, audit committee characteristics and the use of internal audit are associated with higher external audit fees. Higher audit fees imply increased audit testing and higher audit quality. We find that the existence of an audit committee, more frequent committee meetings and increased use of internal audit are related to higher audit fees. The expertise of audit committee members is associated with higher audit fees when meeting frequency and independence are low. These findings are consistent with an increased demand for higher quality auditing by audit committees, and by firms that make greater use of internal audit.     

The association between audit committee effectiveness and audit risk

Audit committees (ACs) are expected to play a key role in improving financial statement integrity and as a consequence reduce audit risk. Companies reporting conformity with regulations can have an AC that appears effective but is not actually effective in substance. We surveyed audit partners and managers to identify their indicators of actual AC effectiveness (auditor‐chosen list). We hypothesize a negative association between AC effectiveness and audit risk, only when an auditor‐chosen list, rather than extent of conformity with regulations, is used to measure effectiveness. Results support our expectations.     

The effect of political visibility on audit effort and audit pricing

This study examines whether auditors adjust their effort and pricing decisions for political visibility. We argue, from the behavioural literature, that political visibility will create the need for more justification by auditors. Using data on actual audit fees, hours and billing rates for a sample of New Zealand public sector companies, we find that total audit fees are positively related to the number of press mentions (our proxy for political visibility). Consistent with our expectations we find that audit fees are monotonically related to audit fees. We also find that auditors increase the hours spent on the audit but not billing rates, which further suggests defensive bolstering by auditors.     

The effect of audit market structure on audit quality and audit pricing in the private-client market

This study examines whether audit market structure affects audit quality and audit pricing. We analyze two conceptually distinct dimensions of market structure: audit market concentration and client mobility. Focusing on the private-client segment of the Belgian audit market, we compare the pricing and quality effects of market structure between the segment of small and medium-sized (SME) clients and the segment of large clients to test how audit complexity moderates such effects. We find that market concentration impairs price and quality competition in the SME-client segment. Market concentration is unrelated to audit quality in the large-client segment, where we argue that concentration is endogenous to audit complexity. Furthermore, we find that client mobility stimulates price competition in both segments but improves audit quality only in the large-client segment. We interpret our findings as evidence that (a) audit market concentration impairs competition especially when audits have low complexity and that (b) the large-client market segment, characterized by higher audit complexity and higher market concentration, can also be price and quality competitive if clients are sufficiently mobile, and change auditors relatively frequently.     

The association between audit committees,compensation incentives,and corporate audit fees

This study uses audit fee data from the 2001–2003 reporting periods to examine the relationship between measures of audit committee effectiveness and compensation incentives with corporate audit fees. Our results suggest that audit committee size, committee member expertise, and committee member independence are positively associated to audit fee levels, consistent with the notion that audit committees serve as a complement to external auditors in monitoring management. In contrast, CEO long-term pay and insider ownership are inversely related to audit fee levels, substituting for external audit effort in motivating management. Notwithstanding results on the full sample of firm-years, we uncover significant differences in the determinants of audit fees between the years examined. An important implication of these results is that explaining the intra-firm variation in audit fees over time is clearly necessary in order to understand the antecedents and consequences of audit fees.

Credit rationing and the relationship between family businesses and banks in Italy

We investigate whether family businesses (FBs) suffer stiffer credit rationing in the post-crisis Italian economy. FBs are, in fact, typically more opaque than other firms, possibly deterring bank lending to them. Moreover, regulatory changes may lead many banks to abandon relationship lending, weakening their ability to evaluate opaque firms. Using detailed firm data, our estimates reach nuanced conclusions. First, credit rationing is not more intense at FBs. However, it systematically intensifies if FBs engage in firm-bank arrangements less able to overcome information asymmetries either coupling with a main bank that uses transactional lending or diluting relationships across various banking partners.     

Relationships between leader behaviors and audit team performance

This study considers the nature and importance of leadership in the audit process. The relationships between audit team performance and leader behaviors, which are practised by in-charge auditors to supervise staff assistants, are examined in a field experiment. The results identify a number of leader behaviors which relate, either directly or through some intermediary factors, to audit team performance. For example, high performing audit teams tended to be supervised by in-charge auditors who allowed staff innovation, were considerate to the staff's personal needs, administered frequent positive reinforcement, relied heavily on time budgets, assigned a small number of tasks per staff member and administered negative reinforcement infrequently. These and other results appear to have implications for practicing auditors as well as future research in the area.     

The effect of large audit firm mergers on audit pricing in the UK

This paper examines the effects on UK audit market concentration and pricing of mergers between the large audit firms and the demise of Andersen. Based on data over the period 1985–2002, it appears that mergers contributed to a rise in concentration ratios to levels that suggest concern about the potential for monopoly pricing. The high concentration ratios have not improved the level of price competition in the UK audit market. Our pooled models suggest that concentration ratios are associated with higher audit fees. The evidence suggests that the effects of mergers between big firms on brand name fee premium and on price competition vary depending on the particular circumstances. The brand name premium is strongest for the largest quartile of companies prior to the mergers. After the Big Six mergers, the premium increases for average‐sized companies but falls for the smallest and largest companies. Following the PricewaterhouseCoopers merger, the premium increases for below median‐sized clients but decreases for above‐median sized clients. For the Deloitte‐Andersen transaction, the premium falls for the smallest and largest companies but increases for those in the second quartile. Our results provide evidence that auditees are likely to pay higher fees if their auditor merges with a larger counterpart. We attribute merger‐related fee hikes to product differentiation, rather than anti‐competitive pricing.     

The effect of seasonal variations in auditor workload on local government audit fees and audit delay

Prior studies of government audit fees and audit delay (elapsed time from fiscal year end (FYE) to date of the audit report) employ a dichotomous variable to control for seasonality. However, a single variable does not appear to fully capture the effects of seasonality on audit fees or audit delay in the US local government sector. We compare the effects of FYEs commonly observed by US local governments (i.e., June 30, September 30, and December 31) on the audit fees and audit delay of 302 cities and counties for fiscal 1993. Our findings indicate that governments with June FYEs incur lower fees than do governments with either September or December FYEs. We also find that June and December governments sustain equivalent (and maximal) audit delay, and that September governments experience minimal delay. The results show that, in terms of fees and delay, December 31 is the least desirable of the FYE dates commonly found in the US local government arena. Our findings further suggest that audit fees may influence audit delay, when considered in a seasonal context.