No description available.

Professional standards require the auditor to change the nature, extent, and timing of testing and/or use more skilled labor as the risk of misstatements increases. This study investigates whether auditors adjust audit programs (detection) and/or the thresholds to record and require correction of detected misstatements in response to increases in audit risk and client size. Prior research from several countries indicates that audit programs are too static and are not risk adjusted (Mock and Wright 1993; Quadackers et al. 1996; Mock and Wright 1999). In addition, a key concern is that economic dependence on the client may cause the audit firm to refrain from recording and requiring correction of detected misstatements for larger clients. Archival records from 10 Chinese audit firms are examined to assess audit procedures, audit labor and the audit posting thresholds used. Results of the study indicate that when audit risk or client size increases, the audit firm does not change its audit procedures or use more skilled labor, nor does it detect audit differences in different types of accounts. The audit firm detects a larger number of audit differences for larger clients. The audit firm also uses lower thresholds to record and require correction of detected misstatements in response to increases in audit risk and client size. / Accounting

No description available.

Published Article / This paper synthesises, as its primary aim, through an integrative literature review, a new perspective on two major implications of the proposed legalisation of internet casinos in South Africa, which is: the effect on the auditor's business risk as well as the effect on audit risk. As its secondary aim the paper argues that legalisation of internet casinos in South Africa is imminent and that relative to other business, heavy reliance will be placed on the external auditor to ensure the internet casinos' compliance with various laws. The relevance and application of an integrative literature review is motivated. International perspectives are applied to the South African context. The paper demonstrates the relationship between the concepts of the auditor's business risk and audit risk by establishing that the auditor's business risk flows from possible accountability that may stem from significant audit risk that is not addressed during the audit engagement. The paper argues that the operational context of an internet casino in South Africa will be relatively unique and that three interrelating factors will create significant audit risk. The three significant factors are shown to be going concern, regulatory and information technology impacts. Failure by the auditor to recognise and respond appropriately to this audit risk may lead to serious consequences for the practitioner which may include regulatory intervention, reputational based losses or litigation. The impact of the International Standards on Auditing in this context is explored throughout and it is concluded that adherence to these standards will sufficiently mitigate significant audit risk as well as the auditor's business risk.

This research was designed to investigate the relationship between audit risk and the conduct of the audit engagement in the specific context of an oil and gas audit. Because reserve estimates are in the financial reports of oil and gas entities (in the depreciation, depletion and amortization calculation, the limitation on capitalized costs for companies using the full-cost method, and the required supplementary disclosure for companies subject to Securities and Exchange Commission requirements) and because the reserve estimation process is considerably affected by numerous factors, there is a chance that a material error could be incorporated into the financial statement representations with which the auditor is associated. The objective of the research was to (1) identify conditions which are important in an assessment of audit risk in associating with reserve estimates, and (2) determine the impact of some of these conditions on the conduct of the audit.

This study examines the "off-the-job" behavior of individuals in office-level leadership positions across the Big 4 audit firms in the U.S. In their leadership role, the managing partner is responsible for setting the tone at the top of an office through formal communication of firm-wide policies and an informal example through their behavior and preferences. Given this role, I predict that engagements conducted within offices led by individuals who are willing to break the rules will exhibit characteristics synonymous with increased audit risks. Relying on their history of legal infractions to identify rule-breaking behavior, I find managing partners with prior infractions are associated with engagements that reflect increased misstatement risk and detection risk (i.e., lower auditor effort). Additional tests reveal that the results are concentrated in offices that are located further away from alternative governance mechanisms within the same audit firm. Importantly, after controlling for the risk of misstatement, I find the pricing of misstatement risk declines significantly on engagements in offices with infraction managing partners. The results are robust to alternative measures of managing partners' prior infractions and the use of entropy balancing techniques, along with several other robustness tests. Collectively, my study contributes to our limited knowledge of the quality control structures in place at large audit firms and provides a potential mechanism for tone at the Big 4 audit firms to vary across offices. / Doctor of Philosophy / In their leadership role, office managing partners are the "top executive" appointed to lead the Big 4 audit offices across the U.S. While audit firms have reputation and litigation incentives to provide high quality audits, these incentives do not necessarily apply to individual auditors. Therefore, audit firms are required to formalize a system of quality controls—including leadership and tone at the top—to ensure promote professional skepticism, stress quality service, and reduce overall audit risk on engagements. Relatedly, during inspections, the PCAOB examines whether the actions and communications by managing partners in local leadership positions demonstrate a commitment to audit quality and compliance with applicable regulations and professional standards. Grounded in revealed preference theory, I rely on a managing partner's history of legal infractions to identify offices led by partners with impulsive, risk-taking, and present-oriented personalities. Criminology and psychology research empirically validate the cross-situational consistency of individual behavior and decisions over time and in different settings. In other words, individuals who commit legal infractions—including less severe traffic violations such as parking tickets—exhibit a preference or propensity to break the rules. To the extent that an individual's leadership style is influenced by their personal ethics, values, and attitudes, I expect variation in a managing partner's history of legal infraction to reflect variation in their leadership style and office tone towards audit risk on engagements. Consistent with this prediction, I find managing partners with prior infractions are associated with engagements that reflect increased misstatement risk and detection risk (i.e., lower auditor effort). Additional tests reveal that the results are concentrated in offices that are located further away from alternative governance mechanisms within the same audit firm. Importantly, after controlling for the risk of misstatement, I find the pricing of misstatement risk declines significantly on engagements in offices with infraction managing partners. The results are robust to alternative measures of managing partners' prior infractions and the use of entropy balancing techniques, along with several other robustness tests. Collectively, my study contributes to our limited knowledge of the quality control structures in place at large audit firms and provides a potential mechanism for tone at the Big 4 audit firms to vary across offices.

This Diploma Thesis is about Internal Audit in Multinational Corporations in Energy Industry. The goal of this Diploma Thesis is to introduce Internal Audit in chosen Multinational Corporations. In each company is introduced emplacement of Internal Audit, process of Internal Audit and planning process of Internal Audit. Diploma Thesis also explores corrective actions, follow-up audits and fraud prevention program.

Background – As we live in a more digitized world, technological advancements have already taken place and have reshaped many different industries. One of these industries is the audit profession, which is a profession where the digitalization can contribute immensely. The digitalization is an on- going process within the field of audit and have resulted in improved tools and more efficient auditing. However, new emerging risks, such as IT-risks, have progressed along the digitalization. Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore how the digitalization affects the auditing in Sweden, and more precise, how it affects the audit process and the risk that emerges from the digitalization. Furthermore, the study will examine if there are any perceived differences among small and big audit firms in the concept of digitalization. Method – The Delphi method has been used to gather the primary data needed for the study. Practitioners from both the Big 4-firms and the smaller firms have been selected to take part of the study as experts by participating in a brainstorming session and by answering a questionnaire. This classification of the firms will be the two panels of experts within the study. Conclusion – The results indicates that the perception of digitalization of the audit process and the audit risks within the Big 4-firms and the smaller firms are somewhat alike but not ultimately. The two panels agree that the effects of the digitalization have been substantial and that the auditing in the future will be even more efficient. Regarding the risks the panels have more differentiated opinions, where the second panel, consisting of the smaller firms, believes that the digitalization has affected the risks to a larger extent than the first panel. As this thesis aimed to investigate, there is indeed a perceived difference among the Big 4-firms and the smaller firms regarding the digitalization effect on the audit process, although not a substantial one.

Digitalization is a fast-paced phenomenon that is recognized to be of importance for the auditing profession. Research whether digitalization affects the auditor’s work process and what further impacts it has on the audit risk, is in a national context explored within a limited area. That contributed to identify the study's research question: How does digitalization affect the auditor's work process during the audit process and how does it impact the audit risk? In order to answer the research question, a qualitative study consisting of interviews with auditors at audit firms within the Big Four, was conducted. The findings of this study show that the digital progress has a positive impact on the work process due to increased efficiency where accessibility to information has increased and the need for the physical meeting with the client while gathering information has decreased. The audit process can also be carried out with safer samples by using various digital tools, which can reduce the audit risk due improved priority systems. Furthermore, the result shows that the ongoing digitalization has increased the requirements of auditor’s IT knowledge. It also enables a more automated process, which leads to a reduction of certain tasks. Automatized processes tend on the one hand lead to reduced understanding of the work, which may affect the audit risk negative if significant deviations may not be detected and on the other hand, an easier identification of deviations by using automated systems which can contribute to a reduced risk. / Revisionsyrket har under de senaste åren genomgått stora förändringar vilket har inneburit en omstrukturering av revisorns arbete. En av de betydande faktorer som bidragit till denna förändring, är den digitala utveckling som har tagit fart och i framtiden förutspås accelerera ytterligare. Forskning om huruvida digitaliseringen påverkar revision och vilka vidare effekter detta får för revisionsrisken, är nationellt sett utforskat inom ett begränsat område. Med detta som utgångspunkt, formulerades studiens forskningsfråga enligt följande: Hur påverkar digitaliseringen revisorns arbetsmetodik vid revisionsprocessen och vilka effekter får det för revisionsrisken? För att besvara studiens frågeställning, genomfördes en kvalitativ studie bestående av intervjuer med dels auktoriserade revisorer och dels revisorsassistenter på revisionsbyråer inom Big Four. Studiens slutsatser visar att den digitala utvecklingen har bidragit till en mer effektiviserad arbetsmetodik där tillgängligheten till information har ökat och behovet av det fysiska mötet mellan revisor och klient vid informationsinhämtning har minskat. Revisorns granskningsarbete kan enligt studien, med hjälp av olika digitala verktyg, genomföras med säkrare stickprov vilket kan ge en minskad revisionsrisk där väsentliga avvikelser enklare upptäcks till följd av förbättrade prioriteringssystem. Studien visar även att det i takt med digitaliseringen ställs högre krav på revisorernas IT-kompetens vid utförandet av arbetet och att revisorns arbetsmetodik blir alltmer automatiserad. En mer automatiserad arbetsmetodik tenderar däremot att leda till en minskad förståelse för arbetet vilket kan få effekter för revisionsrisken då väsentliga felaktigheter riskerar att inte upptäckas.

Introduktion Kritik har riktats mot utformningen av revisionsriskmodellenoch trots det är den en viktig del förbedömningen av revisionsrisken i planeringsfasen. Ioch med detta är det relevant att studera användarnas,det vill säga revisorernas, syn på revisionsriskmodellenoch dess användning. Syfte Uppsatsens syfte är att förklara revisorers uppfattningom användningen av de olika riskerna i revisionsriskmodellen. Metod Studien använder sig av en kvantitativ metod. Vigenomför en enkätundersökning med auktoriseraderevisorer. Data samlas in med hjälp av SurveyMonkeyoch analyseras med SPSS. Slutsatser Våra resultat visar att revisorer som medverkat iundersökningen upplever att inneboende risk varviktigast följt av kontrollrisk och därefter upptäcktsrisk.Vi ser dock att bedömningen av inneboende riskoch kontrollrisk sker sammanvägt och att de påverkasav varandra vilket stärker ett flertal tidigare studier. / Introduction Criticism has been leveled at the design of theaudit risk model, even though it is an importantpart of the assessment of audit risk in the planningphase. As a result of this, it is relevant to studyusers’, namely auditors’, approach to the audit riskmodel and its use. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explain auditors'interpretation of the use of the various risks in theaudit risk model. Method The study uses a quantitative approach. The datahas been collected through a survey usingSurveyMonkey and then analyzed with SPSS. Conclusions Our results show that the auditors who participatedin the survey felt that inherent risk was mostimportant, followed by control risk, and thereafterdetection risk. However, we see that theassessment of inherent and control risks iscombined and that they are influenced by eachother, which strengthens several previous studies.