Auditing with technology: using generalized audit software in the classroom

Over the past decade, improvements in generalized audit software have created a situation in which auditing “through” the computer may be both more effective and more efficient than in the past. This paper describes a series of assignments that allow an instructor to bring a meaningful application of generalized audit software to the undergraduate auditing classroom. The assignments we have developed are meant to supplement traditional audit coursework by providing students an experience of applying audit procedures electronically.     

A microcomputer application for attribute sampling

A microcomputer application for applying attribute sampling to internal control and the audit process is explained and illustrated. The application allows the auditing student to design an attribute sampling plan, create a unique sample for each application and evaluate the results in terms of deviations from desirable internal control procedures. The application is constructed through a software package that enhances students' learning of attribute sampling and its relationship to the entire audit process.     

A Rejoinder to Commentaries on ‘Integrated Reporting: A Review of Developments and their Implications for the Accounting Curriculum’

This auditing case study focuses on a company presenting significant audit risk for an incoming audit firm. By presenting a variety of audit risks, hence audit implications, the case demonstrates the holistic approach to audit required in order to avoid an inappropriate audit opinion. The case is aimed at undergraduate students of auditing in the final year of their studies and students of the ACCA Paper 6 or equivalent. The case provides an efficient and original vehicle for instruction in auditing and can be used to complement other teaching aids.     

Alternatives for addressing major challenges in teaching introductory auditing courses

Due to the numerous and extensive recent changes in business, regulatory, and auditing environments, instructors are faced with difficult choices when designing an introductory auditing course that sufficiently meets the needs of students and the firms that will employ them. Instructors whose students are primarily hired by firms that audit SEC registered companies, for example, might allocate significant class time to PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 5 [Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (2007). Board proposes new standard on internal control over financial reporting. www.pcaob.com]. On the other hand, instructors whose students are primarily hired by firms that audit non-SEC registered companies, might allocate significant class time to reviews and agreed-upon procedure services. This paper presents four alternatives for designing introductory auditing courses, and discusses some of the major issues and constraints that instructors should consider in choosing which alternative best suits their needs. Finally, the paper provides an example that illustrates the differences among the four alternatives by discussing how each might incorporate one such specific regulatory change—PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 5.     

Some Economics of Audit Market Reform

The purpose of audit market reforms since 2001 is to restore public confidence in the institution of auditing based on two considerations: (1) ensuring audit quality; and (2) controlling the ‘adverse effect of competition’ in audit supply. Market reforms for audit quality are delivered through a package of prescribed actions motivated by an analytical relationship between audit quality and its possible determinants: (1) limiting audit tenure through a combination of mandatory firm rotation, partner rotation and re‐tendering; (2) limiting provision of non‐audit services (NAS) by the incumbent auditor; and (3) joint auditing and empowering the audit committee to enhance audit quality. This paper examines the competing independence hypothesis and expertise hypothesis that produce ambiguous theoretical relationships for audit quality–audit tenure and the independence‐provision of NAS. We then review whether the empirical literature resolves these conundrums. We also review the usefulness of joint auditing and empowering the audit committee to improve audit quality in the context of audit market reform.     

Computer assisted analytical procedures using Benford's Law

This case introduces students to Benford's Law and Digital Analysis, which can be used as an analytical procedure and fraud detection tool. Digital Analysis (DA) is the analysis of digit and number patterns of a data set. Actual digit frequencies in a data set are compared to the expected frequencies according to Benford's Law [Benford, F. (1938). The law of the anomolous numbers, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 78, 551–572.]. Minor differences suggest that the data have passed a reasonableness test, while major differences signal possible financial statement mis-statements. After describing Benford's Law and the basic DA tests, the case requires auditing students to download DA software and the actual accounts payable file of a software company from a designated Internet site. Students then, (1) analyse the data using three DA tests as an analytical procedure in an external audit context, and (2) graph and a report the results and audit-related conclusions. The teaching note includes the actual findings from the audit of that data set and guidance on using the case in an auditing course.     

THE EFFECT OF EDUCATION ON THE AUDIT EXPECTATION GAP

This paper examines the effect of education on students' perceptions of the meaning of audit reports and the responsibilities and duties of auditors. A research instrument, utilising semantic differential scales designed to measure the messages communicated through audit reports, was administered to two groups of undergraduate students at the beginning and end of a semester and to auditors. The experimental group consisted of final year undergraduate accounting students enrolled in their first auditing unit. The control group consisted of final year undergraduate marketing students not enrolled in the auditing unit. The results of the study suggest that education may be an effective approach to narrowing or eliminating the audit expectation gap.     

The Strategic Options of Supreme Audit Institutions: The Case of Four Nordic Countries

Based on the theory of professional competition, this paper identifies and investigates four strategic options of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) through a case study of four Nordic national audit offices: a performance auditing strategy; a financial auditing strategy; a portfolio strategy; and a hybrid strategy. The analysis of the Nordic SAIs shows that while one SAI appears to have adopted a hybrid strategy, the portfolio strategy has been chosen by the three other SAIs, although with some variations in the portfolio. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these strategic options for public sector auditing.     

An approach to learning risk-based auditing

This paper presents a discussion of a risk-based auditing project that can be used in an undergraduate or graduate auditing course. The project gives students an opportunity to apply the concepts learned in their auditing class about risk-based auditing to a real world company. A number of companies are selected from a particular industry. Each student team is assigned a company and performs business risk analysis related to the entity and its environment using a structured questionnaire (template). The students are required to perform analytical procedures (ratio analysis) on the company and compare it to industry data or a competitor. Student evaluations of the project indicate that it helped them apply their audit knowledge, and was relevant to the auditing class.     

SCAD: Something new in auditing education

The Simulated Case for Audit Decisions (SCAD) exposes students to audit planning and execution decisions in a realistic environment. Students plan, perform, evaluate, and document a variety of auditing procedures for a hypothetical firm whose records are generated by computer simulation. SCAD experience at 15 Universities has indicated that both instructors and students find it a worthwhile addition to the auditing curriculum.     

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.     

非审计业务对审计市场绩效的影响——基于会计师事务所业务结构的角度

以审计质量和审计收费作为审计市场绩效的衡量指标,从会计师事务所业务结构角度来考察我国注册会计师行业拓展非审计业务对审计市场所带来的影响。实证检验发现,相对于其他事务所而言,非审计业务规模越大和当年非审计业务规模较上年扩大的事务所,其审计质量越好,审计收费也越高。这说明在目前审计服务市场容量有限,竞争过于激烈的环境下,拓展非审计业务有利于增强审计独立性和提高审计收费,是改善行业执业环境的一个重要途径。     

Bayesian Inference in Auditing: Evidence on the Most Appropriate Assessment Techniques

Interest in the use of the Bayesian statistical method in auditing has been increasing over the past few years. To use this method, however, appropriate prior probability assessment techniques (PPAT) need to be identified. This study uses three evaluation criteria, acceptability, accuracy and concordance, to compare four PPATs in auditing. The four PPATs compared are cumulative distribution function (CDF), probability density function (PDF), equivalent prior sample information (EPS), and hypothetical future samples (HFS). Seventy-three practising auditors were trained to use these four PPATs in their task of compliance error quantification in an audit case study. Results indicate that PDF is the most appropriate PPAT and EPS the least appropriate PPAT for use in practical audit situations. CDF and HFS were in the middle with no clear difference between them. Implications for audit practice and research are discussed.     

审计取证的思维流程与思维要素研究

审计思想方法是从事审计实践活动不可或缺的重要工具,因此研究审计思想方法具有重要的理论意义和实践意义。审计取证作为审计工作中的重要一环,直接决定审计质量,关乎国家审计的免疫系统功能发挥,最终影响国家审计服务于国家治理的效用程度。基于此,本文以审计取证为研究对象,运用文献研究、访谈和归纳演绎等方法,在深入分析审计证据要满足条件的基础上,提出了审计取证的思维五步:合理怀疑——发现问题——证实问题——力求达成共识——解决问题。同时从肯定性取证、中性取证和否定性取证入手,深入分析了行为、结果、现象、主客观、主客体、原因、影响和责任主体等思维要素。旨在通过本研究,进一步丰富审计相关理论,并为审计人员改善思维方式提供一定参考。     

AE Briefings — Statement of Intent

This paper seeks to address the perceived failure of university teaching to foster critical understanding of audit practice and to identify a potential remedy. It contributes to the debate (Maltby, 2001, “Second thoughts about ‘Cases in Auditing’,” Accounting Education: an international journal, 10(4), 421–428) by investigating the double-faceted nature of auditing: as a sub-set of the academic discipline of accounting and as professional practice. Although case studies are helpful for students of auditing, they tend to be artificial, or at best, retrospective. This paper introduces a different type of case study for audit education using corporate failure stories from the media as an example, proposing and explaining the notion of the ‘living case’ in order to foster critical appraisal of audit practice. It contributes to the literature on audit education by describing how this different type of case can address both the technical activities and the social practice of audit through Kolb's (1984, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall) experiential learning theory and thus concludes that there is a place for the practical nature of auditing in academic study, in order to fully appreciate the social aspects.     

Teaching audit reports: A flowchart approach

The effective and efficient communication of audit report material for historical generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)-based financial statements is a challenging task for auditing educators. A sizable number of auditing standards focus on this subject matter. Moreover, several recent expectation-gap standards, notably Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 58, impact directly on the reporting issue. Two instructional issues are of concern with regard to audit report materials. They are (a) the complexity of the material and (b) timing-when this material should be presented. With respect to the complexity issue, SAS No. 58 and related standards are so complex that many auditing students are overwhelmed by the topic. With regard to timing, some instructors feel a need to communicate an overview of the reporting process when the topic is first introduced and then deliver a more detailed discussion later in the course. To address the complexity and timing issues, this paper illustrates two different levels of flowcharts. These materials may be used in the classroom by accounting educators to effectively communicate the set of reporting conditions and the related audit report responses.     

An empirical study of audit expectation-performance gap: The case of Libya

The purpose of this research is to empirically examine the causes of the audit expectation gap in Libya. The study builds on the frameworks developed by Porter (1993) and Porter & Gowthorpe (2004) to investigate the influence of the audit expectation gap to the auditing profession in the case of Libya. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey randomly selected members of four broad interest groups including auditors, auditees and audit beneficiaries both inside and outside the financial community were followed by in-depth interviews. A total of 988 questionnaires were distributed from which 431 questionnaires with usable responses were received from four groups. The overall usable response rate was 44%, ranging from 47% for the financial community audit beneficiaries to 41% for the auditors group. The findings of the study revealed that there exists audit expectation-performance gap and that the gap is as result of the following factors in different levels of percentages. Deficiency standards and deficient performance gaps constitute 49% and 15%, respectively, of the audit expectation-performance gap. The audit expectation-performance gap derives from society having unreasonable expectations of auditor’s significant proportion 36% of the gap. As result of the following interviews demonstrated that the objectives of auditing are not as clear to the financial statement users as they are to the auditors and the financial statement preparers in Libyan business environment. Further, we observe that reducing the expectations gap is to improve knowledge responsibilities between the auditors and user groups and understanding of the auditor’s role and responsibilities through the provision of auditing illegal acts.     

Audit committee characteristics and investment in internal auditing

Regulators and others recently highlighted the increasingly important role of internal auditing in supporting and interacting with the audit committee to ensure the integrity and quality of financial reporting. Likewise, one of the roles of the audit committee is to oversee the quality of monitoring mechanisms implemented by the firm, which includes the internal audit function. However, our understanding of the relationship between the audit committee and internal auditing is limited. We fill this void by providing the first empirical evidence of the association between audit committee characteristics and the investment in internal auditing. Our analyses, from a sample of 181 SEC registrants, suggest that the investment in internal auditing (internal audit budget) is negatively related to the presence of auditing experts on the committee and the average tenure of audit committee members, but positively related to the number of audit committee meetings (a proxy for audit committee diligence). These observations suggest potential complementary and substitution effects between the audit committee and internal auditing, and thus raise important implications for future research.     

国家治理框架下的中国国家审计理论体系构建研究

国家审计是国家治理必不可少的组成部分,对国民经济社会健康运行发挥"免疫系统"功能。国家审计理论是通过对国家审计实践中客观的、合乎逻辑的规律加以概括、抽象而形成的完整的知识体系,用以指导国家审计实践,并在审计实践中加以修正和完善。文章在回顾与评述现有审计理论体系研究的基础上,以国家治理为框架,系统分析构筑了包括国家审计基础理论、国家审计应用理论和国家审计发展理论为内容的国家审计理论体系,以在理论上归纳中国国家审计实践发展经验,并提供未来国家审计理论的研究方向,以期更好地为指导国家审计实践开展服务。     

效益审计标准的选择和确定--以某单位国家建设项目设备效益审计为案例研究

在效益审计中,选择和确定合适的审计(评价)标准是非常重要的环节。它是保证效益审计质量的一个必要条件,也是审计人员提出审计意见、做出恰当审计结论的基本依据。本文以某单位国家建设项目设备效益审计作为案例,结合《世界审计组织效益审计指南》,对审计标准问题进行了分析和探讨。最后,就我国政府审计机关在效益审计中如何选择和确定“合适的”审计标准提出几条建议,以期抛砖引玉。