Revisionsyrket präglas av hög personalomsättning där ett väsentligt antal anställda slutar redan efter några år och innan de skrivit auktorisationsprovet. Några bakomliggande skäl till yngre revisorers val att stanna kvar i yrket är materiella belöningar och bekräftelse på utfört arbete. Bland erfarna revisorers val att sluta framkommer en oförmåga att balansera arbetsliv med familjeliv som ett skäl. Det föreligger dock en avsaknad kring vilka faktorer revisorer med familj värderar för att fortsätta inom branschen. Studiens syfte är därav att bidra med kunskap kring vad som motiverar revisorer med familj att stanna kvar i branschen trots hög arbetsbelastning. I studien presenteras faktorer som revisorer med familj värderar och som får dem att stanna kvar i branschen. Detta har undersökts genom tio kvalitativa intervjuer med revisorer som arbetat i minst tre år och som innehar familj. Respondenter från både Big 4-byråer och mindre byråer har deltagit för att även se huruvida deras perspektiv skiljer sig åt beroende på byråstorlek. Studien visar att faktorer som revisorer med familj värderar framförallt är deras kollegor, att de har utmanande arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsmöjligheter samt flexibilitet. Flexibilitet är vidare en faktor som är viktig för att möjliggöra ett fungerande familjeliv. Det framkommer vidare att lön är en faktor som revisorer med familj värderar, men i lägre utsträckning. Revisionsyrkets höga arbetsbelastning under högsäsongen uppskattas bland revisorer med familj, då de föredrar när det är intensivt och mycket att göra snarare än lågsäsongen. Under det senaste årtiondet uppges även att revisionsbyråerna och ledarna har förändrats till att främja en balans mellan arbetsliv och familjeliv ytterligare. Revisionsbyråerna har främjat en sådan balans genom mailutskick och aktiviteter som uppmuntrar anställdas familjeliv, medan ledarna främjat detta genom att under personliga möten med medarbetarna diskutera deras familjeliv. För att ytterligare möjliggöra en balans mellan arbetsliv och familjeliv bland de anställda bör revisionsbyråerna främja detta tillsammans med ledarna. Detta då det framkommer att ledarna kan påverka och motivera de anställda, varpå det får en större effekt än om enbart revisionsbyråerna försöker främja en sådan balans. / The audit profession is characterized by high staff turnover, where a significant number of employees quit after a few years and before they have written the authorization test. Some of the reasons as to why young auditors choose to remain are materialistic rewards and recognition on performed tasks. Among experienced auditors’ choices to quit, there is the inability for work-life balance. Prior research has been conducted on what motivates younger auditors. However, there is a lack of what factors auditors with family value to remain in the profession. The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge about what motivates auditors with family to remain in auditing despite high workload. In the study, factors are presented that auditors with family value and that makes them stay within the profession. Ten qualitative interviews were conducted with auditors who have worked for at least three years and have family. Respondents from both Big 4-firms and smaller firms have participated to find out whether their perspectives differ depending on agency size. The study shows that factors that auditors with family primarily value are their colleagues, that they have challenging tasks, responsibilities and flexibility. Furthermore, flexibility is a factor that is important for enabling a functioning family life. Salary is another factor that auditors with family value, however to a lesser extent. The high workload of the audit profession during busy season is appreciated among auditors with family, as they prefer the intensity and when there are multiple things to do rather than during the low season. In the past decade, the audit firms and managers have changed towards further promoting work-life balance. The audit firms have promoted such a balance through mail and activities that focus on family life, while the managers have promoted this by discussing the family life of the employees during personal meetings with them. In order to further enable work-life balance among the employees, the audit firms should promote this together with the managers. This since the study shows that the managers can influence and motivate the employees, upon which it has a greater effect rather than if only the audit firms try to promote such a balance.

The aspect of the audit expectation gap continues to be an issue and detrimental to the auditing profession especially as auditors and the public continues to hold different beliefs about the auditors’ duties and responsibilities, and the messages conveyed by audit reports. This phenomenon has long been investigated in several Western and Asian countries with numerous studies that empirically confirmed the existence of this phenomenon between auditors and non-auditors (audit stakeholders). However, it appears paradoxical that only few studies have been conducted empirically in establishing the existence of this gap, in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the public sector. Meaning, there is a dearth of research regarding an AEG in the public sector. Besides, regarding The Gambia, it appears that no study has ever been conducted to establish the existence of an AEG.  Hence, this thesis aims to investigate the existence of AEG in The Gambia public sector from the viewpoints of public auditors and non-auditing professionals to establish the existence and nature of the audit expectations gap and how this phenomenon can be bridged to uphold the credibility of the auditing profession. A purposive sampling was used to select 13 participants with a structured interview data collection approach. The results of the study shows that the non-auditing professionals perceived ‘detection and prevention of fraud and corruption’, and ‘assurance on the effectiveness of internal controls’ to include auditors’ roles and responsibilities, and faithfully expect them to perform these tasks; and also associate absolute assurance to audit opinions, thus resulting in naive or an unreasonable expectations gap.

Företag ska i de finansiella rapporterna delge en rättvisande bild. Bokföringsnämnden bestämde sig för att förändra de redovisningsregelverk som gällde för att förenkla för de svenska företagen samt för att uppnå en bättre redovisning. Denna skiftning i normgivningen kom att kallas K-projektet. Ett utav regelverken K3 innehåller en praktiskt ny värderingsmetod i Sverige, vilket är komponentavskrivning. Komponentavskrivning ska resultera i att företag redovisar på ett tydligare sätt vad som händer i verksamheten och på så vis ska den uppnå en mer rättvisande bild. Metoden har blivit väl omdiskuterad och kritiserad, främst för att kostnaden är väldigt stor till en så liten nytta. Komponentavskrivning anses heller inte bidra till en förbättrad redovisning, enligt kritikerna. Fastighetsbranschen är den mest utsatta branschen då de har många fastigheter att beakta, vilket resulterar i en stor mängd komponenter.Syftet med denna studie är att studera om komponentavskrivning som tillgångsvärderingsmetod har bidragit till en mer rättvisande bild av verkligheten. För att kunna mäta detta har vi valt att genomföra intervjuer där vi har samlat in åsikter om metoden. Vi har intervjuat fem allmännyttiga fastighetsbolag och fem revisorer om vad de tycker om komponentavskrivning.De resultat vi fått fram är att åsikterna skiljer sig åt. Samtliga är överens om att komponentavskrivning rent teoretiskt bidrar till en mer rättvisande bild, men inte i praktiken i lika stor utsträckning. Vi kan uttyda ett mönster i att de fastighetsbolag som från början har gjort en grundlig och välarbetad övergång och som har kommit längre i processen idag, ser värdet med metoden. För revisorerna är det svårt att uttyda något mönster, mer än att revisorernas åsikter kan tänkas vara påverkade av omgivningen. / Businesses should communicate a true and fair view in their financial statements. The Board of Accounting decided to change the accounting rules, which was made to simplify for Swedish companies and to achieve a better accounting. This shift in accounting norms was called the K-project. One of the regulations, K3, contains a practically new valuation method in Sweden, which is the component depreciation. Component depreciation will result in that companies report in a clearer way what is happening in the business. In this way it achieves a more accurate picture. The method has been well debated and criticized, mainly because the cost is very high for such a small benefit, but also because component depreciation does not seem to contribute to an improved reporting. The real estate industry is the most vulnerable sector, as they have many properties to consider which will result in even more components.The purpose of this study is to investigate if the component depreciation as an asset valuation method has contributed to a more accurate picture of reality. To measure this, we have chosen to conduct interviews in which we collect opinions about the method. We interviewed five public real estate management companies and five auditors about what they think about the component depreciation.The results we have produced are that opinions differ. All respondents agree that the component depreciation theoretically contribute to a more accurate picture, but not always practically. We can interpret a pattern. If real estate management companies from the beginning has made a thorough and well-made transition and has come further in the process today, they also sees the value of the method. For auditors, it is difficult to interpret any pattern, more than that the auditors opinions may be influenced by the environment.

In this study, I use Section 404(b) of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act as an exogenous shock to examine the effect of auditors’ assessment of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) on audit fees, cost of debt, and net value of compliance between 2002 and 2010. Using firms themselves as their own control, this study conducts firm-fixed effects analyses to explore the close causal effect of SOX 404(b) on compliance costs (proxied by audit fees), compliance benefit (proxied by cost of debt) and net compliance benefit (proxied by Tobin’s q). Through analyzing how SOX 404(b) affects firms’ compliance cost, compliance benefit, and net compliance benefit, the results suggest that SOX 404(b) decreases firms’ cost of debt, but also imposes compliance costs. Overall, SOX 404(b) increases firm value premium by around 8.63%. The study also examines whether the 2007 reforms have achieved their purpose by comparing audit fees before and after the 2007 reforms.

Revisionsplikten har under en längre tid varit ett väldiskuterat ämne i Europa där störst fokus har legat på huruvida revisionen ska vara frivillig eller inte. Idag har det gått mer än två år sedan lagen om avskaffad revisionsplikt trädde i kraft vilket gör det möjligt att studera avskaffandets effekter ur olika perspektiv som till exempel de små aktiebolagens perspektiv, skatteverkets perspektiv och kreditgivarnas perspektiv. Fokus för denna studie är revisorernas perspektiv och hur de har påverkats av lagändringen. Syftet med vårt examensarbete är att beskriva och analysera revisorers förväntningar kring avskaffandet av revisionsplikten för att sedan kunna jämföra hur dessa förväntningar stämmer överens med utfallet efter att lagen trätt i kraft. Syftet med uppsatsen är även att beskriva och analysera vilka faktorer som påverkar effekterna av utfallet. För att nå fram till ett resultat har en abduktiv ansats med en kvalitativ metod använts för denna studie. Studien utgår ifrån befintlig teori och vetenskapliga studier. Teorier som har använts är agentteorin, professionsteorin, komfortteorin, legitimitetsteorin och den institutionella teorin samt förväntningsgapet. Det empiriska materialet grundar sig på åtta intervjuer med revisorer från olika revisionsbyråer i Kristianstadsområdet med omnejd. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats utifrån en jämförelse mellan förväntningar och utfall av revisionspliktens avskaffande. Analysen påvisade att påverkansfaktorn byråstorlek hade den största påverkan på förväntningarna i förhållande till utfallet samt att endast en del av förväntningar stämde överens med det faktiska utfallet. / Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze auditors' expectations about the elimination of the audit requirement and then be able to compare how these expectations are consistent with the results after the law came into force. The purpose of this paper is also to describe and analyze the factors that influence the effects of outcome Methodology In order to reach a result, an abductive approach with a qualitative method have been used in this study Theoretical framework The study is based on existing theories and scientific studies. Theories that have been used are the agency theory, professional theory, comfort theory, legitimacy theory and institutional theory together with the expectation gap Empirical analysis The empirical material is based on eight interviews with auditors from various auditing firms in the Kristianstad area and vicinity. The empirical data were analyzed by means of a comparison between expectations and outcomes of the audit elimination Conclusion The analysis showed that the influencing factor firm size had the greatest impact on the expectations in relation to the outcome and that only some of the expectations were in line with the actual outcome

The new accounting standard IFRS 13 had its mandatory implementation January 1 st 2013. The main reason for the implementation was to eliminate inconsistencies and reduce complexities in fair value measurements. The new disclosure would therefore enable public real estate companies to be more transparent towards investors, who base their financial decision on the information that is presented in the financial report. Since the market value of investment properties is important for investors when making their financial decisions, this study focuses on the disclosure requirements of IFRS 13 in Sweden. The aim of this research was to study how well Swedish real estate companies follow the new disclosure requirements and how this may affect the investors’ financial decisions. In order to conduct the study a mixed method approach was undertaken. The study consisted of a sampled of 90 financial reports from 15 public real estate companies in Sweden before and after IFRS 13. The disclosure requirements were later calculated in accordance to an unweighted disclosure index and then tested against a hypothesis with the help of the Wilcoxon matched pair test. The comparison of the financial reports during the period 2010- 2015, that is before and after IFRS 13, enabled us to see how well the new requirements were followed. If a certain disclosure requirement was not followed an analysis of the audit reports was made in order to conclude if a modified opinion had been left by the auditor or not. In order to strengthen this specific part of the study a qualitative method was undertaken to get an expert’s point of view regarding the new requirement as well how the investors may be affected. Four auditors were interviewed in order to acquire this information but also to get a better insight regarding the investors’ point of view. After the data collection and analysis, our findings reveal that the overall compliance of public real estate companies in Sweden was high and that the disclosure quality had increased after the implementation of IFRS 13. However, not all disclosure requirements were fulfilled and none of the company’s auditors chose to give a modified statement. The results from the qualitative part of the study showed that all participants consider auditors to have sufficient knowledge of IFRS 13. Furthermore, the participants’ also claimed that the change of disclosure requirements has little impact on investors’ financial decisions.

It is the purpose of this study to examine the underlying nature of the relative risk associated with an audit engagement.

This research is motivated by the interest in understanding the usage of the Generalised Audit Software (GAS) by external auditors within public accounting firms. GAS is a tool used by auditors to automate various audit tasks. It helps auditors to analyse accounting data electronically where it is quite impossible to do so manually. GAS is claimed to be the most influential Computer Assisted Audit Tools and Technique (CAATTs) that can facilitate the audit objective. However, research has found that there is little evidence that auditors have extensively adopted GAS. Even greater benefits have been promoted since the existence of GAS, but auditors do not really seem to be interested in this tool. Most previous studies have focused on either internal auditors, large accounting firms, other countries or merely adopters of GAS. However, there is little evidence that the study of GAS has been conducted on external auditors, especially in small and medium sized accounting firms in the United Kingdom (UK). This study helps to fill this gap by exploring the use of GAS among them, and covers both adopters and non-adopters of GAS. Through an online survey using both close and open-ended questions, this issue has been investigated among registered statutory auditors. The primary aim of this study is to explore the current usage of GAS and to understand the factors that influence the use of GAS as well as the perceptions and expectations of using GAS. The views are gathered from both auditors who are already implementing GAS and those who are not using GAS. A framework was developed to identify a range of relevant factors which are important when considering the application of GAS. Responses from 205 statutory auditors across the UK were then mapped against the framework. Of the 14 variables used to test the factors that influence the use of GAS, only six of them are found to be significant from logistic regression analysis. These are firm size, experience of auditors in computerised auditing, organisational influence, client factor, audit engagement allocation and perceived usefulness. The findings show that the utilisations of GAS is unusually low among audit firms in the UK. Almost 73% of external auditors make no use of GAS, due to the limited perceived benefit of using GAS for auditing small clients. While some respondents recognised the advantages of GAS, they were put off by what they believed to be high implementation costs; the significant learning curve and adoption process; and lack of ease of use. Some auditors expressed their awareness of GAS, but most of them showed a preference for using traditional auditing methods instead. A few problems have also been identified in causing the limitation of GAS usage. This study contributes to the literature on suggestions to improve the use of GAS that can be used by small and medium sized public accounting firm, which is lacking in existing research related to this group. In sum, this study has deepened current understanding of the GAS usage among small and medium sized audit firms in the UK, and has provided useful insights for audit professionals, software developers, vendors, standards setters, academicians and researchers. This study has also opened up the possibilities for further study on GAS or related areas either in the UK or other places in the world.

The thesis focuses on the problematic of financial statements auditing. In the first chapter historical development on auditing in highly developed countries in Europe and in the Czech Republic is characterized. The second part describes legal and ethical auditing requirements in the Czech Republic. In the third chapter auditors' procedures and techniques which are in progress from accepted contracts to issued auditors' report are explicated. The final part is focused on concrete auditors' procedures by verifying accounts receivables and inventories in a practical application in the case of two real companies.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:46:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NADIA REZENDE FARIA.pdf: 1688866 bytes, checksum: 1cdca3ea1ec0b3df7a80dcfaab02700d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-04 / Social control is an essential instrument in the democratic state of law, because it can make possible the exercise of fundamental principles, such as citizen participation and public patrimony defense. The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 assigned many instruments of popular participation in order to ensure public control by society itself, including denunciation before the Court of Auditors, which can be held by any citizen, political party, association or syndicate, according to art. 74, §2º of the Constitution of 1988. This constitutional institute opens a prolific way for the discussion about the role of Court of Auditors, not only as an auxiliary organ of Legislative power, but also as an organ which defends constitutional principles, fundamental rights, and democracy itself. Then, this work is an investigative bibliographic research which principal aim is to analyze if the Brazilian Court of Auditors should be considered, after the Constitution of 1988, also an instrument of vertical accountability, although within the term of Political Science it is only presented as an instrument of horizontal accountability. Also, this study is due to analyze, beyond the formal aspect, some actions and programs hold by the Courts around Brazil in order to present the social efficacy of the control undertaken by society and the Courts of Auditors together. / O controle social é instrumento essencial no Estado democrático de direito, pois seu exercício possibilita a concreção de direitos fundamentais, tais como a participação cidadã nos assuntos públicos e a defesa do patrimônio público. No Brasil, a Constituição de 1988 tratou de delinear vários instrumentos de participação cidadã para garantir o controle do agir estatal pela própria sociedade, dentre os quais se insere a denúncia perante Tribunais de Contas, que pode ser oferecida por qualquer cidadão, partido político, associação ou sindicato (art. 74, § 2º, CF/1988). O instituto da denúncia abre caminho para uma fértil discussão acerca do papel da Corte de Contas no cenário brasileiro, não só como órgão auxiliar do Legislativo no controle técnico e burocrático das contas públicas, mas também como órgão defensor de princípios constitucionais, direitos fundamentais e da própria democracia. Nesse sentido, esta pesquisa tem a forma investigativa e objetiva verificar se os Tribunais de Contas do Brasil, embora apontados pela ciência política como instrumentos de accountability horizontal, devam ser considerados, a partir da vigência da Constituição de 1988, instrumentos também de accountability vertical. Para tanto, analisa-se, além do elemento formal, igualmente as ações práticas desses Tribunais a fim de apresentar algumas considerações acerca da eficácia social do controle exercido na parceria entre essas cortes e a sociedade civil.