谈谈注册会计师执业风险

注册会计师的执业风险客观存在。审计业务事前、事中、事后都存在不同程度的风险隐患。我国注册会计师事业正处于发展阶段,执业人员对其执业风险的认识还不足,对风险的心态也不尽一致:一是创收至上,对风险的认识处于盲目的、麻木不仁的状态;二是侥幸过关,在会计报表验证项目上表现尤为突出;三是无所适从,大有祸将临头之感。特别是近年来,在涉及注册会计师法律诉讼案件接连出现的情况下,许多执业者,怕出事故,怕受指控的心理压力愈来愈大。究其原因,主要有以下几个方面:（一）社会执业环境与行业准则反差较大。（１）社会人士对注册会计师的认…     

注册会计师执业风险刍议

注册会计师审计风险的产生有主客观的原因：一方面是委托审计单位可能存在重大错报或漏报而产生的审计风险;另一方面由于注册会计师本身受业务素质所限,未能发现上述错漏,发表了不恰当审计意见而产生了审计风险。我们研究执业风险,就是要努力避免和防范这种风险,将风险尽量降低到可接受的水平。审计业务中的执业风险一般认为,审计项目的风险比验资项目低些,其实并非如此。目前,一些企业在利益驱动下,常想方设法在帐面数字上动脑筋、做手脚,审计风险也不断升高。通常见到在帐面上做文章的方法有：１．少转成本：少提各种基金和费用…     

浅析注册会计师执业风险

在我国注册会计师行业不断做大做强的同时,涉及注册会计师的诉讼案件呈日益上升的趋势,注册会计师执业风险已成为制约注册会计师行业发展的最主要问题。本文讨论了注册会计师执业风险的成因,以及避免或降低执业风险的思考和建议。     

新形势下注册会计师执业风险防范

席卷全球的金融风暴,让我们每个人都感到前所未有的心惊与胆颤,金融危机正以波涛云涌之势继续在全球蔓延,对全球经济造成了巨大的冲击,对我国的经济发展也产生了巨大的影响,面对这一切让我们不得不沉静下来思考,该如何看这场来势迅猛的全球金融危机尤其是注册会计师行业该如何在执业过程中积极做好风险应对呢?本文拟就此作些探讨。     

注册会计师执业质量的问题与对策

作为我国社会审计主要力量的注册会计师执业审计,突出存在风险控制不力、审计重心偏位等问题,注册会计师执业质量问题受到社会普遍关注。本文通过对注册会计师执业质量问题产生原因的剖析,提出了提高注册会计师执业质量的建议和加强注册会计师行政监管的措施。     

注册会计师执业质量的问题与对策

作为我国社会审计主要力量的注册会计师执业审计，突出存在风险控制不力、审计重心偏位等问题，注册会计师执业质量问题受到社会普遍关注。本文通过对注册会计师执业质量问题产生原因的剖析，提出了提高注册会计师执业质量的建议和加强注册会计师行政监管的措施。     

浅析注册会计师审计风险

注册会计师行业是一个高风险行业,审计风险已成为审计理论界和职业界密切关注的问题.本文首先阐述审计风险的含义和风险导向审计下的审计风险模型,然后分析审计风险形成的原因,进而针对原因提出相应的防范审计风险的方法.     

浅谈注册会计师审计风险

审计风险可能出现于审计过程的各个层面和环节,本文主要是旨在讨论风险评估程序中可能存在的审计风险的几个方面.     

浅析注册会计师审计风险

注册会计师行业是一个高风险行业,审计风险已成为审计理论界和职业界密切关注的问题。本文首先阐述审计风险的含义和风险导向审计下的审计风险模型,然后分析审计风险形成的原因,进而针对原因提出相应的防范审计风险的方法。     

Audit personnel salaries and audit quality

This study examines the relation between audit personnel salaries and office-level audit quality. We measure audit personnel salaries at the associate, senior, and manager ranks for Big 4 audit offices from 2004 to 2013, using unique individual-auditor-level data obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor. We find that offices that pay lower salaries have a higher percentage of clients that experience restatements. In related analyses, we also find lower levels of audit quality when audit employees are paid less, relative to other lines of service in accounting firms. Finally, we document positive and significant associations between salary and fees, suggesting that audit offices pass some of the cost of higher labor onto their clients. Overall, our findings provide important initial evidence on the role of audit salary and its relation to audit quality and audit fees.     

Audit quality indicators: Perspectives from Non-Big Four audit firms and small company audit committees

Through a combined study, we explore the professional perspectives of two distinct PCAOB constituent groups related to the PCAOB's proposed regulatory approach for audit quality indicators. First, we examine the comment letters of Non-Big Four audit firms and find that this specific constituent group views most of the PCAOB's proposed audit quality indicators as infeasible and redundant. Further, Non-Big Four audit firms contend that the indicators require greater clarification from the regulator as well as substantial accompanying qualitative context to avoid misinterpretation that may lead to unintended consequences. Second, we survey a collection of audit committee members from small, publicly-traded companies regarding the current evaluation and perceived effectiveness of eleven specific PCAOB audit quality indicators, each of which is well-established in the extant audit quality literature. We find indicators related to auditor personnel with specialized skill and knowledge, experience of audit personnel, and the timely reporting of internal control issues are perceived to possess the highest level of effectiveness in the evaluation of audit quality.     

Audit market concentration,audit fees,and audit quality: A cross-country analysis of complex audit clients

Regulators around the world are concerned about the potentially harmful effects of high audit market concentration on audit pricing and quality. However, results in the overall literature have failed to reach consensus on this issue. We contribute to this debate by arguing that the audit market is segmented and that concentration in the Big 4 segment of the market leads to higher audit pricing. Accordingly, our analyses use international data and focus on concentration within the Big 4 group of firms across countries. We find that audit fees are increasing in our concentration measure for clients where the barriers to entry by competing auditors are higher, as proxied by client size, international operations, and IFRS use. Finally, we find evidence that audit quality is decreasing in Big 4 market concentration for these types of engagements. This indicates a wealth transfer from shareholders to audit firms when auditor concentration is high because these complex clients are charged more, but receive audits that are of lower quality.     

Audit office size,audit quality and audit pricing: evidence from small- and medium-sized enterprises

Using Swedish data, we investigate how audit quality and audit pricing vary with audit firm and office size. In contrast to prior studies, we use disciplinary sanctions issued against auditors not meeting the quality requirement as the measure of audit quality. We find no significant differences in the likelihood of sanctions between Big 4 audit firms and the fifth and sixth largest audit firms in Sweden (Grant Thornton and BDO). We refer to these collectively as ‘Top 6’. However, we find that the probabilities of warnings or exclusions from the profession are much higher for non-Top 6 auditors in Sweden than for Top 6 auditors. Furthermore, we find a strong negative association between the likelihood of sanctions and audit office size for non-Top 6 auditors. This association is insignificant for Top 6 audit firms. Audit fees follow a similar pattern and indicate that larger audit firms and offices put in more effort or have greater expertise. These results suggest that audit quality is differentiated in the private segment market. However, contrary to prior studies, our results suggest that the important dimensions are Top 6 versus non-Top 6 and the office size of non-Top 6 audit firms.     

Audit fee lowballing: Determinants,recovery, and future audit quality

Prior research on the link between lowballing (LB) of audit fees and audit quality is inconclusive. Using more recent data and an innovative design, we define LB engagements as those where the audit fee discount is at least 30 percent. We consider three research questions to understand the possible link between LB and audit quality. First, we investigate whether the two variables that are often associated with auditor independence in the literature—non-audit fees and client importance—are related to LB. Second, we test whether lowballing auditors recoup initial audit fee discounts in the future period. Lastly, we investigate the relation between recovery of audit fees and future audit quality. We find that non-audit fees in the first year of engagement are negatively related to the propensity to LB. LB is significantly positively related to client importance for client firms switching from a non-Big N to another non-Big N auditor while the relation is insignificant for client firms switching from a Big N to another Big N auditor. The results of non-audit fees and client importance indicate that economic dependence does not motivate audit firms to lowball. Further, lowballing auditors tend to recoup their initial fee discounts in subsequent periods via increases in audit fees. Using multiple measures of audit quality, we do not find a significant relation between recovery of audit fees and future audit quality. Overall, contrary to regulators’ concerns, our results suggest that LB does not impair audit quality.     

Audit firm, corporate governance, and audit quality: Evidence from Bahrain

The aim of this research is to document the perceptions of credit and financial analysts with regard to the relationship between the effectiveness of audit committee, size of the auditing firm and audit quality in the context of Bahrain, which is characterized by a developed financial sector, low-liquidity stock market, low turnover in board of directors of listed firms, an inactive merger and acquisitions market and almost non-extent litigation. A survey of 300 credit and financial analysts shows that analysts considered auditors' opinion useful. Both credit and financial analysts see the credibility of financial statements to be a function of the size of the auditing firm. Both groups assume that the characteristics of Big-Four firms allow them to produce better-quality reports than non-Big firms. Non-audit services were found to affect auditor's independence and hence impair audit quality. Both the groups of analysts believe that effective audit committee enhances the quality of audit reports. Financial analysts perceive financial statements to be more credible than do credit analysts.     

Place attachment,audit pricing and audit quality

Place attachment is an affective bond whereby people interact with and describe themselves as belonging to specific places. This study investigates the presence of place attachment in the auditing process. Using a large sample of listed clients in China, the findings reveal that auditors are likely to charge higher fees if their colleges are located in the same cities or provinces as their clients, supporting the familiarity bias hypothesis. This effect is more concentrated among smaller auditors, non-state-owned clients, and clients who switch auditors between years. In addition, a negative relationship is found between audit quality and geographical connections between auditors and clients. Overall, the results indicate the existence of place attachment in the auditing process.     

Audit committee diligence around initial audit engagement

Studies focusing on governance mechanisms argue that auditor monitoring is one of several governance mechanisms that exist in the firm, and these mechanisms supplement each other. Extending this argument, I examine whether firms support auditor monitoring with audit committee monitoring when auditor oversight is deemed to be weak. Prior auditing literature argues that audit quality is affected by auditors' lack of familiarity with their clients' activities. Since lack of auditor–client familiarity exists in the first year of auditor–client tenure, I examine whether firms increase their audit committee monitoring during the year of auditor change. For a sample of firms that changed auditors between 2006 and 2012, the findings show that audit committees meet more frequently in the first year of audit engagement. Further tests show that firms' past reporting behavior play a significant role in the demand for more audit committee meetings and the increase in the audit committee meetings in the initial year of auditor engagement positively affects reporting quality.     

How audit effort affects audit quality: An audit process and audit output perspective

Using a unique dataset of audit days in China from 2006 to 2011, this paper examines the relationship between audit effort and audit quality from the perspective of audit process and audit output. The results show that audit effort significantly increases the probability of audit adjustments, which inhibits positive earnings management and improves the quality of audited financial statements. We also find that audit effort does not have a significant effect on the issuance of modified audit opinions overall, but that a modified audit opinion is more likely to be issued in the absence of an audit adjustment. Furthermore, we find that the impact of audit effort on audit quality is attenuated when clients are more complex and when audit firms are larger. Collectively, our evidence suggests that audit effort plays an important role in improving audit quality by influencing audit process and audit output. Our study extends the literature on the impact of audit effort on audit quality in emerging markets, and the conclusions have important implications for the improvement of China’s audit market efficiency.     

Audit mode change,corporate governance and audit effort

This study investigates changes in audit strategy in China following the introduction of risk-based auditing standards rather than an internal control-based aud...