La thèse explore la question de l’efficacité des comités d’audit en France : les comités d’audit jouent-ils effectivement leur rôle ? La problématique de l’efficacité de ces comités dans le processus d’évaluation du gouvernement d’entreprise demeure importante dans le contexte français, où les textes (notamment les recommandations de la 8ème directive) restent très imprécis. Une première partie expose les critères d’efficacité et le fonctionnement général des comités d’audit à partir d’un état de la littérature et d’une étude empirique sur des données secondaires. Nous examinons de façon approfondie les principaux déterminants de la diligence d’un comité d’audit. Ce problème est examiné dans le cadre d’une relation d’agence et d’asymétrie d’information. Ainsi, notre étude dépasse le cadre de la simple existence d’un comité d’audit (purement formel), pour s’intéresser de plus près à la capacité de ces comités à protéger effectivement les intérêts des parties prenantes et ceci en renfonçant la qualité du contrôle interne et celle du processus de l’audit externe. / Corporate governance in France has developed considerably in recent years. The strengthening of governance procedures is illustrated by the creation of audit committees, which today exist in virtually all listed companies. However, the issue of the audit committee’s effectiveness in the corporate governance evaluation process remains significant in the French context, where the texts (particularly the recommendations of the 8th European Directive) continue to lack clarity. This thesis aims to contribute to our understanding of the “black box” of governance procedures by studying the way that the audit committee’s characteristics affect the extent of reporting on internal control and risk management procedures and on audit fees. It emphasizes that the mere existence of an audit committee is not sufficient; it also needs to be effective. To be effective it must have the necessary means (composition, diligence, and resources). This study therefore looks beyond the simple existence of the audit committee (purely formal) and focuses on attributes related to its composition, its diligence, and the diversity of its members in order to more closely examine the audit committee’s ability to protect stakeholder interests. To do this, we analyze 176 non-financial French listed companies during a period when establishing an audit committee was voluntary. The results obtained support previous works advocating that audit committees comply with best practice rules for expertise,independence, and diligence and be comprised of experienced and diverse members. Our results raise several questions on the scope of the transposition into French law of the 8th European Directive.

The thesis processes the auditor’s role and whether it can constrain possible earnings management in smaller Swedish private corporates. The removed auditing obligation that was abolished in Sweden 2010 with the reason to reduce the administrative burden faced by smaller corporates, contributed to an important discussion regarding the auditor’s actual importance. In addition, the corporate tax in Sweden was significantly reduced from 26.3 percent to 22 percent, which gave Swedish corporates incentives to reduce their earnings before the tax reduction, and therefore pay less taxes. This phenomenon is used in the thesis as an excellent opportunity to measure earnings management since there were significantly strong incentives for corporates to manipulate their earnings at that time. The thesis aims to increase understanding among these corporates accounting, and whether the auditor can strengthen the accounting- and audit quality, and therefore constrain earnings management. Through the use of a quantitative method where statistical tests have been performed on underlying data gathered from the corporates annual reports, the thesis research question has been answered. The formulation of the research questions is “Does the degree of earnings management differ between audited and unaudited corporates?”, which has been investigated by measuring the degree of earnings management through unexpected accruals, but also through SG&A cost stickiness. Furthermore, the thesis aims to provide the research area with arguments regarding the appropriateness of the audit exemption. The result obtained in the thesis indicates that audited corporates have less negative unexpected accruals, and hence a minor degree of earnings management in comparison with unaudited corporates. However, no significance is shown in the result, at a five percent significance level, which means that it’s not possible to say with certainty that there’s a difference between these two groups in terms of negative unexpected accruals. Instead, there is evidence that there’s a significant difference between audited and unaudited corporates in terms of cost stickiness, where unaudited corporates showed more cost stickiness and thus also a higher degree of earnings management. With an additional test the thesis also demonstrates that there are corporates that don’t follow the Swedish laws regarding audit exemption. This is when it’s discovered that there are corporates that aren’t covered by the audit exemption, and thus don’t meet the required limits, but still don’t provide an auditor. These corporates also prove to have a higher degree of earnings management since the thesis received a significant result in terms of negative unexpected accruals. To sum up, the thesis highlights that the auditor’s role is of great importance in several aspects, and for this reason there are motives for legislators to review the audit exemption in Sweden.

Revisorn anlitas för att ge ett oberoende yttrande som ska säkerställa pålitligheten i företagensfinansiella rapporter. Denna tilltrosskapandande effekt kan endast uppnås om revisorn görsina bedömningar och fattar beslut utan att låta sig påverkas av andra personers viljor ellerönskningar. Att revisorn är oberoende är särskilt viktigt i de fall revisorernas arbete påverkarintressenters beslutsfattande. Diskussionen kring revisorns oberoende i samband medtillhandahållandet av fristående rådgivning har debatterats flitigt. Vissa menar att denfristående rådgivningen medför positiva effekter på revisionen, medan andra anser att denborde förbjudas då den utgör ett hot mot revisorns oberoende och påverkar förtroendet förbranschen. Genom införandet av revisionspaketet står revisionsbranschen inför nyaregleringar av oberoendet och den fristående rådgivningen. Denna uppsats ämnar fördjupadiskussionen och undersöka varför det kan upplevas som ett problem när en revisionsbyrå, irollen som oberoende kontrollorgan, erbjuder både fristående rådgivning och revision.Frågeställningen besvaras med hjälp av relevanta teorier, modeller och intervjuer medrevisorer, intressenter samt normgivande organ. Den fristående rådgivningen kan medföra attrevisorn inte uppfattas som oberoende och kan utmana förtroendet hos allmänheten. Vidarekan det upplevas som ett problem när den fristående rådgivningen sker på revisionsklienter.Medias skildring av debatten, att det verkar föreligga ett förväntningsgap samt en bristandetransparens kan även det vara bidragande orsaker till problematiken. Revisionspaketet kankomma att öka transparensen, minska förväntningsgapet samt stärka förtroendet för branschenoch kan således komma att minska problematiken med att ett oberoende kontrollorganerbjuder både fristående rådgivning och revision. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

Inledning: Revisionsbranschen kan ses som en del av en profession med en tanke om att bidra till samhällsmässigt intresse genom att objektivt och oberoende förmedla ekonomisk information. En profession är beroende av kompetent och kvalificerad personal för att kunna upprätthålla god revisionskvalitet. För att utföra deras jobb ges stort utrymme för att själva bestämma över tillvägagångssättet för arbetet. Å andra sidan kan revisionsföretagens intressen ses som kommersiella med en tanke om att alla företag är vinstdrivna och styr för att uppnå affärsmässiga mål. Dessa två perspektiv kan ses som motstridiga och står i konflikt till varandra, men som båda måste tas hänsyn till och är viktiga för byråns överlevnad. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att få en förståelse för hur revisionsbyråer använder incitament för att hantera problematiken kring kommersialism och professionalism. Metod: En kvalitativ studie har genomförts på tre företag i revisionsbranschen. Empirin har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Slutsats: Studien visar att företagen fungerar som en hybrid och styr för både kommersialism och professionalism beroende på den givna situationen, genom både finansiella och icke-finansiella incitament. Vi kan även se att företagens starka socialiseringsprocess bidrar till ett community för att säkerställa att kommersialism och subjektiva intressen inte kan ta över. / Introduction: The auditing industry can be seen as part of a profession with the idea of contributing to societal interest by objectively and independently conveying financial information. A profession is dependent on competent and qualified employees in order to maintain good audit quality. In order to do their job, there is room for themselves to decide on the approach to the work. On the other hand, the interests of the audit firms can be seen as commercial, with the idea that all companies are profit-driven and govern to achieve business goals. These two perspectives can be seen as contrasts and in conflict with each other, but both must be taken into account and are important for the agency's survival. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to gain an understanding of how audit firms use incentives to handle the problems of commercialism and professionalism. Method: A qualitative study has been conducted on three companies in the auditing profession. The empirical data has been collected through semi structured interviews. Conclusions: The study shows that the companies work as a hybrid and control both commercialism and professionalism depending on the given situation, through both financial and non-financial incentives. We can also see that the companies' strong socialization process contributes to a society to ensure that commercialism and subjective interests cannot take over.

Digitaliseringen av revisionsbranschen har varit ett omdiskuterat ämne, vilket beror på att branschen har genomgått stora förändringar under de senaste åren. Digitaliseringen har påverkat hur uppgifter utförs och hur problem tas an, vilket har och kommer innebära en förändring av samhällets olika delar. Sedan tidigare har det forskats på vilka faktorer som påverkar användningen av revisionsverktyg bland revisionsbyråer och revisorer, däremot mindre ur en svensk synvinkel. Syftet med denna studie är således att identifiera och bekräfta eller dementera tidigare forsknings funna faktorer som påverkar användningen av revisionsverktyg, samt testa dessa faktorers tillämpbarhet i Sverige. För att undersöka studiens syfte har en kvantitativ ansats använts med hjälp av en webbaserad enkät som har skickats ut till svenska revisionsbyråer. Hypoteserna i studien är baserade på den redan existerande forskningen. Studien utgår från Technology-Organization-Environment ramverkets tre kontexter, den tekniska, organisatoriska och miljömässiga. Faktorerna som undersöktes under respektive kontext var IT-kunskap, uppmuntran och standarder. Resultatet indikerar att det finns faktorer som påverkar användningen av revisionsverktyg även i en svensk kontext. Studien kan påvisa att uppmuntran och standarder har en signifikant påverkan på användningen. Det finns emellertid ett fortsatt behov av att forska vidare på ämnet då följande studies förklaringsgrad visar på en liten variation i användningen av verktygen. / The digitalisation of the audit profession has been a discussed topic due to the major changes in the industry in recent years. The digitalisation has affected how tasks are performed and how problems are addressed, which has caused changes in different parts of society. Factors that influence the use of Computer Assisted Audit Tools (CAATs) have previously been researched, but less in a Swedish context. The purpose of this study is to identify and confirm or deny previous factors found to affect the use of CAATs as well as the applicability of those factors in Sweden. To examine the purpose of the study a quantitative approach was used with the help of a web-based survey, sent out to Swedish auditing firms. The hypotheses in this study are based on previous research in the field. The study is based on the three contexts of the Technology-Organization-Environment framework, the technical, organisational and environmental context. The factors that were examined under each context were IT-knowledge, encouragement and standards. The result indicates that there are factors that affect the use of CAATs in a Swedish context. The study proves that encouragement and standards have a significant impact on the use of the tools. However, there is a continuing need to research the subject further as the degree of explanation in the analysis shows a small variation in the use of the tools.

本研究的主要目的是探討會計師事務所審計人員對衍生性金融商品(DFI)的財務報導與查核能力，並分析可能影響此項能力的因素。另一目的則是希望探討審計人員對財務會計準則公報第二十七號的意見及看法，以及對這號公報的瞭解程度。本研究以問卷為蒐集資料的工具，在139份回收的問卷中，只有24位審計人員不知道什麼是DFI，約有九成的審計人員認為查核含有從事DFI交易公司之財務報表之審體審計風險較沒有從事此類交易的公司高。造成審計人員對DFI財務報導的認知程度差異的原因，經統計檢定後，有下列幾項： （1） 審計人員在事務所擔任的職位， （2） 審計人員認定衍生性金融商品的能力，以及 （3） 審計人員是否曾經查過衍生性金融商品。 造成審計人員對DFI財務報導查核能力差異的原因經統計檢定後，有下 列幾項： （1） 事務所的規模， （2） 審計人員之最高學歷， （3） 審計人員是否已取得會計師資格， （4） 審計人員在事務所擔任的職位， （5） 審計人員認定衍生性金融商品的能力， （6） 審計人員對衍生性金融商品的熟悉程度，以及 （7） 審計人員是否曾經查過衍生性金融商品。 審計人員是否曾查核過DFI並不會影響其對第二十七號公報的熟悉程度。此外，約三成的審計人員認為「各類商品之財務風險」與「商品之公平市價」是其依照此號公報查核DFI時最難決定之項目。至於審計人員如何驗證客戶在財務報表上所揭露關於DFI的公平價值，約各有三成的審計人員取得之方式為「採用公開市場之成交價」、「向銀行詢價」。 值得注意的是，在瞭解第二十七號公報的審計人員當中，只有約半數認為依照第二十七號公報揭露DFI，能幫助閱表者評估風險；同樣地，也只有半數的審計人員認為第二十七號公報能對他們在查核DFI時提供更明確的指引。審計人員是否曾經查核過DFI不會影響他們對這兩個問題的看法。 / In this study, the author investigated the degree of auditors' cognition and audit ability on derivative financial instruments (DFI) in Taiwan and he studied some factors that might affect these abilities. Besides, the author also investigated auditors' opinions of Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 27 in ROC. The author used questionnaire as a tool in gathering data. Factors that might affect auditors' cognition of DFI are as follows: (1) The current job position of auditors. (2) The auditors' abilities to recognize DFI. (3) The auditors' experiences of auditing DFI. Factors that might affect auditors' audit ability of DFI are as follows: (1) Firm size. (2) The highest education auditors received. (3) Whether they have got CPA license. (4) The current job position of auditors. (5) The auditors' abilities to recognize DFI. (6) The auditors' experiences of auditing DFI. (7) The extent of auditors' familiarity toward DFI. Auditors' opinions of Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 27 in ROC can be concluded as follows: (1) Only half of the auditors who understand this statement think it can help them to audit DFI related disclosures. (2) Whether auditors have audited DFI doesn't affect the extent of auditors' familiarity toward DFI. (3) "Financial risk" and " fair value of DFI" are two of the most difficult items to decide when auditors audit DFI.

本研究主要探討審計品質與盈餘反應係數之關係，擬回達下列之研究問題：接受高品質會計師事務所查核之公司，其盈餘反應係數是否較接受低品質會計師事務所查核之公司為高。 　　本論文以台灣股票市場民國70年至82年之更換會計師公司為樣本，首先採用未預期盈餘(UE)與股票市場累積異常報酬(CAR)的簡單迴歸分析，嘗試驗證盈餘資訊與股票報酬間之關係；採用盈餘反應係數決定因素的複迴歸分析探討審計品質是否會影響盈餘反應係數。實證結果顯示： 　　一、如以曾經由六大會計師事務所查核財務報表更換為非六大會計師事務所之上市公司，或曾經由非六大會計師事務所更換為六大會計師事務所查核簽證財務報表之上市公司為樣本公司，台灣股票市場之未預期盈餘與異常報酬間方向是一致的，但並不具統計顯著性。 　　二、審計品質是否會影響盈餘反應係數之實證結果：六大會計師事務所客戶之盈餘反應係數是大於非六大的客戶，但亦並不具顯著性。 　　換言之，以國內會計師事務所與美國六大結盟作為衡量高品質的審計品質，其與盈餘反應係數之關係並未如預期呈顯著的正相關。

近年來在會計師事務所積極擴張其專業服務版圖的情況下，會計師事務所逐漸發展成橫跨多項專業領域的多元化組織。為對企業營運問題提供完整的解決方案，會計師事務所聘用律師或與法律事務所進行策略聯盟，已是無可避免之趨勢。但會計師事務所對審計客戶提供法律服務則可能衍生出一些新問題，並使外部第三者對其適當性產生疑慮。因此本研究旨在探討當會計師事務所對審計客戶提供法律服務時，財務報表使用者對審計人員獨立性與財務報表可靠性之認知與判斷情形，而研究目的則是驗證法律服務類型、法律公費金額重大性與事務所職員分離程度對財務報表使用者反應的可能影響。 　　研究結果發現，當審計客戶之法律公費構成重大的財務關係時，將顯著影響報表使用者對審計人員獨立性及財務報表可靠性之認知與判斷；另外職員分離程度亦顯著影響報表使用者對審計人員獨立性及財報可靠性之認知情形；但法律服務類型對上述項目之影響則僅為部分顯著。其次，有效保障機制的設計與執行，包括「限制法律服務收入之金額重大性」、「對法律服務公費及服務內容設立強制揭露之規定」、「建立防火牆」與「簽署保密棄權書」等，應有助於維持審計人員之外觀獨立性，並且是財務報表使用者心目中最合理的規範方式。 / In recent years, CPA firms have continued to expand the types of professional services offered both to their audit and non-audit clients and become multidisciplinary organizations. In many cases, they found it necessary to employ lawyers or to enter into strategic alliances with law firms in order to provide complete solutions to business problems. The increase in such arrangements raised new questions and concerns regarding their propriety when legal services were provided to audit clients. This research assessed financial statement users’perceptions of auditor independence and financial statement reliability when a CPA firm offered legal services to its audit clients. The objective was to test financial statement users’reactions to different types of legal services that CPA firms offered to their audit clients, as well as the effects of the materiality of the engagement and the degree of staff separation involved in the provision of such services. 　　Results indicated that a financially material business relationship affected financial statement users’perceptions regarding independence and related judgments of financial statement reliability. The degree of staff separation between auditors and lawyers was also found to affect perceptions of independence and related judgments of financial statement reliability. The type of legal services offered had a lesser effect on responses. This study suggested that with certain mitigating/safeguarding procedures in place, e.g., legal fee magnitude restrictions, legal service disclosure requirements, firewalls, and client waivers, users’perceptions of auditor independence and financial statements reliability may not be impaired when CPA firms provide legal services to their audit clients.

過去研究說明具產業專長之會計師仍能在客戶財務資訊不完整情況下，利用其行業特定知識與較高技術能力執行完善的審計工作(Thibodeau 2003; Moroney 2007; Hammersley 2006)。本論文定義資訊不確定性為客戶之財務資訊無法幫助預測公司的價值(Zhang 2006; Autore et al. 2009)。本論文推論若公司的財務報表具有不確定性會需要聘請產業專長會計師以減緩資訊不確定性的程度，並進一步研究具資訊不確定性公司若由非產業專長更換為產業專長會計師是否能提升其審計品質。由於審計工作目的在於提供資訊品質的確認(Dye 1993; Knechel et al. 2008)，審計人員會依據審計客戶的環境，設計和執行適當的審計計劃以減輕資訊不確定性情況。本論文以會計師角度建立一資訊不確定性架構，進一步將資訊不確定性分為基本價值波動不確定性與資訊品質不確定性，並推論產業專長會計師比較能在資訊品質不確定性中發揮其價值。本論文分為兩部分：第一部分檢驗資訊不確定性是否會影響產業專長會計師之選任，第二部分則檢測具資訊不確定性之審計客戶若選擇產業專長會計師之後，其審計品質是否會提升。 / Previous studies establish that a specialist auditor has more industry-specific knowledge and higher technological capability that can pertinently benefit situations in which client financial information is incomplete (Thibodeau 2003; Moroney 2007; Hammersley 2006). In this paper, we define information uncertainty as the ambiguity with respect to the implications of new information concerning a firm’s value (Zhang 2006; Autore et al. 2009). Because some financial statements present information in uncertain terms, we infer that companies whose financial statements provide uncertain information demand specialist auditors to alleviate the extent of information uncertainty. We further examine the improvements on audit quality made by those companies under information uncertainty which chose to switch from non-specialist auditors to specialist ones. As an assurance of information quality (Dye 1993; Knechel et al. 2008), an auditor, based on his knowledge of the auditee and its environment, will alleviate the uncertainty level of the auditee’s financial information through designing and executing an appropriate audit plan. We build a framework of information uncertainty and develop comprehensive measurements of information uncertainty from the auditor’s point of view. Moreover, this study disentangles the information uncertainty effects into fundamental volatility uncertainty and information quality uncertainty, and proposes that specialist auditors manifest their merits more under information quality uncertainty than under fundamental volatility uncertainty. In the first part of this study, we examine the auditors chosen by companies whose financial statements are characterized by information uncertainty. Previous studies on auditor choice address many reasons why companies switch their auditors (Lennox 2000; Carcello and Neal 2003; Blouin et al. 2007). Information uncertainty makes stakeholders lower their reliance upon company financials and even downgrade the filers, triggering negative stock price reactions (Merton 1987; Beneish et al. 2005; Beneish et al. 2008; Hammersley et al. 2008). Based on prior research, we can infer that a company under information uncertainty chooses to hire a specialist auditor to signal the credibility of the financial statements and improve market perception. We hypothesize that companies suffering uncertainty demand specialist auditors to alleviate their information uncertainty. The auditor’s information role is to ensure the reliability of financial information, and a specialist auditor is equipped with superior audit knowledge and technology. Therefore, we further infer that a company whose specific information uncertainty is attributable to information quality issues (rather than fundamental volatility issues) is more inclined to choose a specialist auditor. This is because a specialist auditor improves the credibility of financial information instead of being involved with the client’s business decisions. We use an auditor switching sample of U.S. companies from 2001-2009 to examine whether the information uncertainty is an issue of auditor choice or not. Consistent with our conjecture, companies under information uncertainty prefer to hire specialist auditors. Evidence partially supports that relative to companies under fundamental volatility uncertainty, companies suffering information quality uncertainty are more inclined to choose specialist auditors. In the second part of this study, we find evidence for the economic consequences of upgrading switches to a specialist auditor when the company is experiencing information uncertainty. After the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (hereafter, SOX), many companies began to take the cost-effect issue into consideration; they ultimately decided to go private (Zhang 2006; Engel et al. 2007) in order to avoid the high-cost of Section 404 or switch to a non-Big N audit firm (Calderon et al. 2007). There's no such thing as free lunch; the specialist auditor usually has greater ability and concomitant higher charges (Craswell et al. 1995; DeFond et al. 2000; Francis et al. 2005; Cahan et al. 2008). It is natural to question whether every company needs to engage specialist auditors if it has to pay high audit fees. In this paper, we attempt to determine in which circumstances specialist auditors can make a significant difference in improving audit quality. We investigate the relationship between auditor specialization and audit quality in an information uncertainty setting using an auditor switching sample taken from 2001 to 2009 in the United States. We examine ex post facto whether (1) specialist auditors improve audit quality more than their non-specialist counterparts; and (2) specialist auditors manifest their merits more under information quality uncertainty than the fundamental volatility uncertainty. Since the value of auditor industry specialization is reflected by the perceived and actual audit quality (Balsam et al. 2003; Nagy 2005), we examine both earnings response coefficient (ERC) and accruals quality to proxy audit quality (DAC). In both models, the audit quality of companies that suffer fundamental volatility uncertainty along with comprehensive uncertainty is not enhanced substantially following upgrade switching to a specialist auditor. We find strong empirical results that demonstrate companies under information quality uncertainty show significant improvements in audit quality after switching to specialist auditors. However, specialist auditors are significantly more capable of mitigating the information quality uncertainty than the fundamental volatility uncertainty. That is, auditor specialization is a critical solution when companies encounter information quality uncertainty.

<p>Title: The engagement letter influence on the expectation gap – An empirical study on the expectation gap between auditors and small incorporated companies.</p><p>Keywords: Engagement letter, Expectation gap, Misunderstanding, Auditing, Audit, External Auditor, Client, Communication, Knowledge, General view</p><p>Problem: People outside the audit society have some mood points in what an external auditor is and what she/he does. Not everybody can understand an audit report and connect the auditor’s responsibility to it. These mood points mutually with ignorance about the auditor and its tasks can result in disagreement between auditors and interested parties, who have different needs and expectations on the auditor, which leaves the auditor-role with a built-in conflict in its role. The authors, in this essay, investigate whether, the relative new law, who request the auditors to establish an engagement letter with the clients, has decreased the misunderstandings between auditors and small limited companies.</p><p>Purpose: This essay is meant to investigate if the engagement letter has decreased the expectations gap between external auditors and clients.</p><p>Method: Facts has been gathered with the help of interviews with external auditors as well with clients. The questions that were asked during the interviews were half-structured, which gave the respondent the freedom to answer the questions freely but within the scope that was interesting for this essay.</p><p>Result: This study show that FAR through its new regulations in RS, in this particular essay, the engagement letter has not fulfilled its purpose to decrease misunderstandings between external auditors and clients, in this case, small firms. The engagement letter has been received as a contract as one of many. Our study shows that there have been no evident differences in knowledge-transfer between external auditors and clients. The engagement letter is designed by auditors with expertise which is not understood by the clients, which leads to a lack of interest by the clients that also reflects on the auditors. It seems though the engagement letter considers as insurance, above all by the auditors in situations when an actual misunderstanding, with legal actions as consequences, occurs.</p> / <p>Titel: Uppdragsbrevets påverkan på förväntningsgapet – En empirisk studie på förväntningsgapet mellan revisorer och små aktiebolag</p><p>Nyckelord: Uppdragsbrev, Missförstånd, Förväntningsgap, Revision, Små aktiebolag, Revisor, Klient, Kunskap, Kommunikation, Allmän syn</p><p>Problem: Det finns delade meningar bland människor utanför revisionskåren om vad en revisor är och vad han/hon gör. Långt ifrån alla kan läsa en revisionsberättelse eller koppla revisorns ansvar till den. Den delade mening och okunskap om revisorn och dennes arbete kan leda till meningsskiljningar och missförstånd mellan revisorn och intressenter som har olika behov och förväntningar på revisorn, vilket lämnar revisorn med en inbyggd konflikt i sin roll. Författarna undersöker i uppsatsen om lagen om införandet av uppdragsbrevet har lett till ett minskat missförstånd mellan revisorer och mindre aktiebolag.</p><p>Syfte: Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka om införandet av uppdragsbrevet har minskat förväntningsgapet mellan revisor och klienter.</p><p>Metod: Data har insamlats med hjälp av djupintervjuer med revisorer såväl som klienter. Frågorna som ställdes under intervjuerna var ostrukturerade där respondenterna kunde svara fritt på frågorna men där författarna styrde in diskussionen i områden som var aktuella för uppsatsen.</p><p>Resultat: Uppsatsen visar att FAR genom nya stadgarna i RS, i detta berörande fall, uppdragsbrevet, inte lyckats minska missförstånden mellan revisorer och klienter i småföretag på ett förebyggande sätt. Uppdragsbrevet har mottagits som ett avtal, bland många, där ingen märkbar skillnad kring kunskapsöverföringen mellan revisorer och klienter kan identifieras. Uppdragsbrevet utformas av revisorer vilka besitter expertkunskaper, inom revision, kunskaper som klienterna inte innehar, som i sin tur leder till ett ointresse bland klienterna, som även reflekteras på revisorerna. Däremot upplevs uppdragsbrevet som en trygghetsfaktor för framförallt revisorer vid eventuella fall där ett missförstånd, med rättsliga påföljder, skulle uppstå.</p>