Audit Education for Future Professionals: Perceptions of New Zealand Auditors

Audit professionals are charged with gathering evidence and expressing their opinions on the financial claims made by others. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, these opinions are relied upon for a myriad of decisions as to the economic position and operations of an organisation. The educational experience that future professionals receive in their tertiary study is important because it lays the pedagogical foundation for this role. The aim of this study is to evaluate those teaching practices, subjects and techniques that might be of value to future audit professionals. The analysis is uniquely from the perspective of the professional members who are most likely to benefit from students' experiences. The literature is used to identify relevant questions, and a survey of 360 professional auditors in New Zealand yielded a 36.4% response rate. A triangulated analysis of comments and scaled questions reveals that these professionals are concerned with communication, small business engagements and the relationships between, for example, risk and planning and independence and ethics. Findings also confirm the value of experiential and practice-informed learning and direct us to a few topics that may accommodate non-traditional teaching methods. Conclusions consider implications for teaching and future research.     

Making Management Auditable: The Implementation of Best Value in Local Government

This article examines the implementation of Best Value—an audit tool of the U.K. government's modernization policy—in local government, specifically in Scotland. This is a study of the impact of this key concept, primarily on the management of these public services. The aim of Best Value Audit is to enhance transparency and accountability of management actions in local government. The article draws on Power's (1997 ) Audit Society thesis to inform this research. The Best Value approach has been heavily influenced by audit processes and oversight bodies both in its design and implementation. This article supports the Power thesis of the Audit Society: It reveals the manner in which audit practices are deployed by agencies of central government with the intent to shape the management of local government.     

The Development of a Conceptual Framework for the Design,Delivery, and Assessment of a Typical Management Accounting Syllabus

This article identifies common issues relating to management accounting education in order to determine whether using a competency‐based approach would assist educators in the design, delivery, and assessment of syllabi at educational institutions. A conceptual framework is developed and discussed with regard to the critical success factors methodology to design syllabi that assist educators in attaining the main outcomes in the delivery and assessment of the curriculum. This framework is applied to a typical management accounting curriculum to demonstrate how this approach will enable educators to design, deliver, and assess their syllabi in line with the critical outcomes required. In following this approach, lecturers would constantly have to focus on the knowledge and issues that are relevant and critical for students to understand and apply in order to achieve the aim of the syllabi.     

Value relevance and timeliness of transitional goodwill-impairment losses: Evidence from Canada

Focusing on transitional goodwill-impairment losses (losses) recorded by Canadian firms following the adoption of revised standards on purchased goodwill, we investigate the value relevance and timeliness of mandatory changes in accounting principles accounted for using the retroactive method. We find a negative relationship between reported losses and share price. Such a finding is consistent with investors perceiving losses as being sufficiently reliable measurements of a reduction in the value of goodwill to incorporate them in their valuation assessments. We find also that investors put a higher valuation weight on losses reported by firms that are expected to record a loss. In addition, we show that investors perceive that there are reduced opportunities for managerial discretion when there is a more effective audit committee. Finally, our results show that returns lead losses, i.e., that losses represent a catch-up adjustment to reflect the cumulative effect of using the impairment approach for the first time. Overall, our evidence supports U.S. standard setters' decision, through SFAS 154, to favour enhanced comparability and consistency over the potential costs of frequent restatements. Our results also show that fair-value measurements can be relevant even when the financial statement elements of interest are inherently bound to measurement error and subject to significant managerial discretion. They support the notion that reliability is about faithful representation, not precision.     

Where were the auditors? Using AAERs in introductory or advanced auditing courses

I provide instructions for use of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Release (AAER) assignment by instructors in Introductory or Advanced Audit Courses. The assignment gives students an opportunity to use the knowledge they have gained from their auditing and other accounting courses. Students analyze what was done by individuals in a company to cause the SEC to issue an AAER and what the external auditors could have done to prevent the AAER from happening. A secondary feature of the assignment is that students are able to practice their presentation skills by presenting their analysis to their class members and instructor. The assignment can also lead to class discussion on ethics and what ethical dilemmas practicing auditors are faced with.     

Priorities for the development of vocational skills in management accountants: A European perspective

In recent years there have been many calls for a re-orientation of accounting education in order to include the development of competencies such as communication, group working, and problem solving skills. However, concern has been expressed that the proposed changes are possibly biased towards the interests of public accounting employers. This paper presents and compares the opinions of the employers of management accountants in Spain and the UK, and then by using a weighted importance indicator determines vocational skills development priorities. The factors that the Spanish and UK employers identified as major constraints to the development of vocational skills are also compared.     

New development: Governmental accounting reforms in Latin America. The case of the municipality of Medellín,Colombia

ABSTRACT

Government accounting reforms in Medellín (Colombia) were promoted with the adoption of New Public Management principles. The reforms began by introducing accrual accounting, using this financial information for decision-making and, finally, adopting international standardization and comparability. This article shows how and why the government of Medellín modernized its public financial management systems to achieve transparency, accountability and efficiency.     

Educating digital natives for the future: accounting educators’ evaluation of the accounting curriculum

The global digital revolution has irrevocably transformed societies and industries. The accounting profession is predicted to experience a significant change in the future, due to technological developments. Practices will be automated and related positions obsolete, thus accounting graduates need to be educated for new and different tasks and positions. The current study focussed on these expected changes and how accounting profession, practice and, consequently, education will be affected and adjusted to these new technologies in an evaluation approach. A qualitative methodology was employed, investigating accounting educators’ perceptions of these developments. Semi-structured interview data and online accessible empirical data, such as podcasts, were analysed in two coding cycles. The findings illustrate that while significant changes are expected, participants’ opinions vary regarding the necessity of adjusting the accounting curriculum. Supportive changes include amending respective courses to emphasise classic skills, such as problem-solving, and contemporary skills, such as new technologies, to illustrate developments practically.     

Do students’ perceptions matter? A study of the effect of students’ perceptions on academic performance

Prior accounting education literature documents that students typically associate accounting subjects with negative perceptions, but there are also recent suggestions that the stereotype of the accountant has positive associations. These perceptions of accounting are likely to affect students’ attitudes towards learning and, consequently, influence their performance. We examine the relationship between students’ perceptions and students’ performance. The present study involved undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in management accounting subjects. Our findings indicate that students’ performance is negatively affected by the negative perceptions of accounting that students bring to the subject. Our findings also suggest that positive perceptions of accounting held by students at the end of the semester have a positive impact on students’ performance.     

Spacek's Contributions to Accounting Thought Revisited

While he was managing partner and chair of Arthur Andersen in the l950s and 1960s, Leonard Spacek was an outspoken critic of public accounting, complaining about its failure to establish a coherent set of objectives for financial statements, its illogical principles and methods, and its principle-setting process. He was the conscience of the public accounting community during this time period, a critic from within. As far as Spacek was concerned, 'fairness' was the central objective of financial reporting, though he never specifically defined the term. In light of the recent high-profile corporate and accounting scandals, including Enron and World.com, both of which were audited by Arthur Andersen, it is useful to analyse Spacek's ideas on the public role of accounting from his speeches and writings with emphasis on the theme of fairness. Given the firm's long-term commitment to quality audits, it was ironic that Andersen fell victim to these scandals.     

Organizing information into useful management reports: Short cases to illustrate reporting principles and coding

The accounting information systems course snatches students from their comfort zone of debits and credits and drops them into the position of czar of information needed by managers to make decisions and manage their day-to-day operations. Instructors of this course have the daunting task of teaching students how to report information in a way that it is meaningful to managers. These reports must adhere to principles not necessarily pertinent to the financial statements with which students are already familiar. These principles of management reports include concise and timely reports, inclusion of physical as well as monetary data, and exception reporting. The authors have developed and used three different teaching cases that resemble real-world experience to help students understand and apply these reporting principles. These cases can be used individually, and instructors might choose to use more than one of them in their AIS course. In addition, these cases challenge students to develop data coding methods that must be used to enable the generation of reports adhering to these principles. Learning objectives, implementation guidance, and teaching notes are provided. Feedback from students on the use of these cases has been overwhelmingly positive. The cases were administered at two universities (the authors’ university and another university) during the fall 2013 semester. The questionnaires administered to the instructor and the students are provided. Results included in this paper suggest that both the students and the instructors found the cases interesting and useful.     

战略管理会计概念和实务研究

战略管理会计是建立在企业战略管理有关理论基础上 ,以管理会计手段 ,运用会计信息有效地服务于企业战略的新领域。对战略管理会计定义内涵的研究的主要目的在于界定归属于战略管理会计的实务范围 ,并寻求战略管理会计的整体框架和运行规律。研究表明 ,凡是体现战略性属性方法和举措 ,均可列入战略管理会计实务的范畴。目前 ,在实际应用中常见的战略管理会计实务主要包括三大类 :战略性成本计算和定价、竞争对手会计和品牌价值会计。随着我国市场经济的发展以及我国进入国际市场的步伐的加快 ,战略管理会计的应用前景将会十分广阔     

Insights into accounting choice from the adoption timing of International Financial Reporting Standards

This paper collects survey evidence on the costs and benefits of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). It also examines the motivations for the timing of IFRS adoption. Significant differences exist between early and late adopters for three of nine benefits and for one of six cost measures. No significant differences exist in terms of firm size or the impact of IFRS on contracts. Early adopters perceive themselves as market leaders. They are more certain about the manageability of implementing IFRS and are more specific with regard to the impact of IFRS adoption. Late adoption decisions are motivated by adverse consequences and uncertainty.