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.     

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…     

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。     

会计师事务所开展咨询业务的实践和思考

一、 事务所开展咨询业务的三大困惑国际知名事务所都将咨询业务列为核心业务,在其所有业务中占有举足轻重的地位.虽然我国本土事务所中也有部分事务所较早涉足咨询领域但发展过程中遇到了些共性的司题.总体来说,可以总结为“三大困惑”.1品牌认知的困惑.众所周知,企业寻找管理咨询机构都比较重视品牌效应,很多大型事务所虽然具有一定知名度但却是会计、审计、财务领域的知名度,对于管理等其他更为广泛的领域,这些寻找咨询机构的潜在客户并不认同事务所.     

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 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.

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 empirical relationship between ownership characteristics and audit fees

The present study examines the empirical relationship between ownership characteristics and audit fees. The basic premise is that the level of ownership sophistication and the extent to which ownership is large and substantial impact the effectiveness of stockholder monitoring on corporate affairs including the financial reporting process. Furthermore, high managerial ownership firms may experience a decline in agency problems in financial reporting due to a decrease in managerial propensity to misreport financial results. By employing a cross-sectional least squares regression analysis for a sample of 358 New York Stock Exchange-listed firms audited by the Big Five auditors, we find evidence of a significantly positive relationship between diffused institutional stock ownership (i.e., having less than 5% individual shareholding) and audit fees, and a significantly negative relationship between institutional blockholder ownership (i.e., having 5% or more individual shareholding) and audit fees. Finally, we document that managerial stock ownership is negatively associated with audit fees. We do not, however, find evidence of any relationship between noninstitutional blockholder ownership (with at least 5% individual stock ownership) and audit fees. The study's main results hold in various specification tests including when the effects of board-related and audit committee variables are factored in the analysis. Based on the observed relationship between the ownership variables and audit fees, we suggest that the ownership characteristics of a firm as a part of its governance mechanism constitute an important determinant of audit fees.

The association between municipal disclosure practices and audit quality

This study examines the impact of two proxies for audit quality on a model of public sector disclosure for a sample of municipal governments. I argue that more complete disclosures enhance the reputation of an independent auditing firm and that independent auditors, seeking to maintain a reputation of higher quality, positively influence the level of financial disclosures appearing in their clients' financial statements.Specifically, a variable indicating the presence of a (then) Big Eight auditor and regression residuals from a model of audit fees were used as surrogates of audit quality. These were included in a model designed to explain variation in an index representing financial disclosures required under generally accepted accounting principles for local governments. The results provide evidence in support of the hypothesized relationship between audit quality and disclosure.     

The association between characteristics of audit committee accounting experts,audit committee chairs,and financial reporting timeliness

We investigate the association between audit committee (AC) members' financial expertise and financial reporting timeliness, and extend the discussion by investigating how the source of accounting expertise (e.g., public accounting or CFO) differentially influences financial reporting timeliness. We predict and find that AC accounting financial expertise is associated with timelier accounting information. Further, we find that accounting expertise gained from public accounting experience is associated with timelier financial reporting; however, accounting expertise gained from CFO experience is not. We also find that AC chairs (ACCs) with accounting expertise from public accounting experience are significantly associated with timelier financial reporting while ACCs with CFO-sourced accounting expertise are not. Our results are important for two reasons. First, our results suggest that AC accounting financial expertise contributes to AC effectiveness by improving the timeliness of financial information. Second, our findings highlight how personal characteristics of accounting financial experts influence contributions toward AC effectiveness.     

The effect of audit firm size on audit prices: A study of the Australian Market

The effect of audit firm size on prizes is a complex function of competition in the market for audit services, product differentiation, and scale economics to large firms. In this study, a competitive market is supported in Australia with product differentiation to Bif Eight accounting firms. Specially, Big Eight accounting firms have significantly higher audit prices than non-Big Eight firms. This results holds for ‘large’ and ‘small’ auditees. A test is also made of price cutting in the Australian market. Price cutting is defined as lower initial audit fees than continuing engagement fees for a comparable audit. Test results do not evidence price-cutting behavior by accounting firms. There is in fact weak evidence that initial audit fees are higher than continuing engagement fee levels. Higher initial fees suggest that accounting firms may recover at least some of the audit start-up costs immediately.