Auditor Characteristics and the Change of Accruals Quality due to Improvement of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-57
Author(s):  
Se-Chul Lee
2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrien Van de Poel ◽  
Ann Vanstraelen

SUMMARY Internal control regulation remains the subject of an ongoing global debate among academics, regulators, and practitioners in terms of costs and effectiveness. This is reflected by different internal control regulations in different countries, resulting in varying management's incentives across regulatory regimes. Prior research, however, has primarily focused on the U.S. rules-based setting to study the relationship between internal control regulation and financial reporting. The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between internal control reporting and accruals quality in an alternative internal control regime based on the “comply-or-explain principle” in The Netherlands. We show that in this setting accruals quality is not associated with the description of the internal control system, while there is evidence of a positive association with an unaudited statement of effective internal controls. Further, we find that the noncompliance rate of providing a statement of effective internal controls is relatively high, and that companies give generic explanations for noncompliance or no explanation at all. Overall, insights from different internal control regulatory regimes may further advance our knowledge on internal control regulation effectiveness. Data Availability: All data are publicly available.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marsha B. Keune ◽  
Timothy M. Keune

SUMMARY This study examines whether managers make voluntary changes in accounting principle in response to a material weakness (MW). We find that managers are more likely to report voluntary changes in the same year as and year following a MW disclosure, a result largely driven by companies with a greater number of MWs. Although MW companies with new CFOs are more likely to make voluntary changes in the same year, restatements and new auditors, CFOs, CEOs, and directors are not the primary drivers of these results. Managers of MW companies justify voluntary changes as improving accounting information, conforming internal policies, and providing administrative benefits. MW companies that report voluntary changes in the same year and justify the changes as improving accounting are more likely to remediate at least one MW in the following year. Further, entity-level MW companies with voluntary changes in the same year are associated with higher accruals quality than other entity-level MW companies, and a similar result holds for companies with more MWs. These results suggest that MW companies likely report voluntary changes as part of a strategy to improve financial reporting processes and policies. Our study informs both internal control policymakers and accounting standards setters. Data Availability: All data are publicly available from sources identified in the study.


2007 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 1141-1170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey T. Doyle ◽  
Weili Ge ◽  
Sarah McVay

We examine the relation between accruals quality and internal controls using 705 firms that disclosed at least one material weakness from August 2002 to November 2005 and find that weaknesses are generally associated with poorly estimated accruals that are not realized as cash flows. Further, we find that this relation between weak internal controls and lower accruals quality is driven by weakness disclosures that relate to overall company-level controls, which may be more difficult to “audit around.” We find no such relation for more auditable, account-specific weaknesses. We find similar results using four additional measures of accruals quality: discretionary accruals, average accruals quality, historical accounting restatements, and earnings persistence. Our results are robust to the inclusion of firm characteristics that proxy for difficulty in accrual estimation, known determinants of material weaknesses, and corrections for self-selection bias.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-143
Author(s):  
Marlinawati Marlinawati ◽  
Dewi Kusuma Wardani

The purpose of this research is to know the influence between the Quality of Human Resources, Utilization of Information Technology and Internal Control System Against Timeliness of Village Government Financial Reporting at Gunungkidul Regency. This research is causative research. The population is the village government in Gunungkidul Regency, especially in Gedangsari subdistrict. Criteria of respondents in the study were to village and village apparatus. We use questionnaire to collect data. We use multiple regression with SPSS program version 16.0 to analyze data. We find that quality of human resources and internal control system have a positive influence on the timeliness of village government financial reporting. On the other hand, utilization of information technology does not influence the timeliness of village government financial reporting. These imply that the quality of human resources and internal control system can speed up the preparation of village government financial reporting.


2014 ◽  
pp. 55-77
Author(s):  
Tatiana Mazza ◽  
Stefano Azzali

This study analyzes the severity of Internal Control over Financial Reporting deficiencies (Deficiencies, Significant Deficiencies and Material Weaknesses) in a sample of Italian listed companies, in the period 2007- 2012. Using proprietary data the severity of the deficiencies is tested for account-specific, entity level and information technology controls and for industries (manufacturing and services vs finance industries). The results on ICD severity is compared with one of the most frequent ICD (Acc_Period End/Accounting Policies): for account-specific, ICD in revenues, purchase, fixed assets and intangible, loans and insurance are more severe while ICD in Inventory are less severe. Differences in ICD severity have been found in the characteristic account: ICD in loan and insurance for finance industry and ICD in revenue, purchase for manufacturing and service industry are more severe. Finally, we found that ICD in entity level and information technology controls are less severe than account specific ICD in all industries. However, the results on entity level and information technology deficiencies could also mean that the importance of these types of control are under-evaluated by the manufacturing and service companies.


2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather M. Hermanson

The purpose of this study is to analyze the demand for reporting on internal control. Nine financial statement user groups were identified and surveyed to determine whether they agree that: (1) management reports on internal control (MRIC) are useful, (2) MRICs influence decisions, and (3) financial reporting is improved by adding MRICs. In addition, the paper examined whether responses varied based on: (1) the definition of internal control used (manipulated as broad, operational definition vs. narrow, financial-reporting definition) and (2) user group. The results indicate that financial statement users agree that internal controls are important. Respondents agreed that voluntary MRICs improved controls and provided additional information for decision making. Respondents also agreed that mandatory MRICs improved controls, but did not agree about their value for decision making. Using a broad definition of controls, respondents strongly agreed that MRICs improved controls and provided a better indicator of a company's long-term viability. Executive respondents were less likely to agree about the value of MRICs than individual investors and internal auditors.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-430
Author(s):  
Brett Considine ◽  
John Peter Krahel ◽  
Margarita M. Lenk ◽  
Diane J. Janvrin

ABSTRACT Seven short cases highlight the need for organizational control of the use of social technology. Executives now consider the management of social technology strategies and risks to be their fourth highest priority, investing significant resources to develop effective social technology use policies (Carrick et al. 2013; Deloitte 2012; Feltham and Nichol 2012). Moreover, organizations vary their social technology investment choices depending on their objectives and their target audiences (AICPA 2013; Gallaugher and Ransbotham 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). A wide variety of case learning objectives involve applying internal control models, and developing and justifying opinions about how social technology uses and abuses affect operational, financial reporting and regulatory compliance objectives, risks, controls, and performance-monitoring activities. Instructors may utilize one or more of these cases at a time, either individually or in student groups, and in undergraduate or graduate financial accounting, accounting information systems, governance, or auditing courses.


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