The Effects of Client Status and the Auditor's Presentation of Multiple Estimation Alternatives on Client Financial Reporting Aggressiveness

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Sanaz Aghazadeh ◽  
Andrew M. Collins ◽  
Chad M. Stefaniak
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Accounting Estimates ◽  
Aggressive Financial Reporting

ABSTRACT Accounting estimates are highly subjective and multiple estimation alternatives often exist for a single account. When addressing audit-related adjustments with clients, auditors must decide whether to discuss all possible estimation alternatives or approach the client with only a single, auditor-preferred estimation alternative. In an experiment with experienced CFOs and controllers, we find clients with relatively higher status (operationalized as those with a CPA license) take more aggressive financial reporting positions when the auditor approaches the client with multiple adjustment options based on various estimation alternatives. Our study provides the first evidence that client status is a significant factor in auditor-client negotiations. We also demonstrate how auditors' approach to client negotiations involving multiple allowable estimation alternatives can influence audit quality.

Does the Mandatory Adoption of IFRS Improve the Association between Accruals and Cash Flows? Evidence from Accounting Estimates

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-59
Author(s):  
Jimmy F. Downes ◽  
Tony Kang ◽  
Sohyung Kim ◽  
Cheol Lee
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Cash Flows ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Accounting Quality ◽  
Financial Reporting Standards ◽  
Ifrs Adoption ◽  
Accounting Estimates ◽  
Accounting Accruals ◽  
Future Cash Flows

SYNOPSIS We investigate the effect of mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in the European Union on the association between accounting estimates and future cash flows, a key concept of accounting quality within the International Accounting Standard Board conceptual framework. We find that the predictive value of accounting estimates improves after IFRS adoption. This improvement is largely driven by specific types of accounting estimates, such as accounts receivable, depreciation, and amortization expense. We also find that the improvement is concentrated in countries with larger differences between pre-IFRS domestic GAAP and IFRS. Our findings suggest that IFRS allow managers to exercise their judgment to provide information about future cash flows through the more subjective/judgmental portion of accounting accruals. JEL Classifications: M16; M49; O52. Data Availability: The data used in this study are from public sources identified in the study.

Auditor and FASB Responsibilities for Representing Underlying Economics—What U.S. Standards Actually Say

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe-Vonna Palmrose ◽  
William R. Kinney
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Financial Reporting Quality ◽  
Or Practice

SYNOPSIS Does the auditor's responsibility under U.S. authoritative guidance extend to providing assurance of financial reporting quality—specifically whether financial statements “faithfully reflect the firm's underlying economics”—after the auditor has concluded that financial statements are fairly presented in conformity with GAAP, in all material respects? The question arises because DeFond and Zhang (2014) state such a view and cite U.S. authoritative guidance as support. We review SEC, PCAOB, and FASB guidance and other sources and find no authoritative support for DeFond and Zhang's (2014) view. We also find that the PCAOB explicitly recognizes the lack of objective criteria that would be necessary to evaluate financial reporting quality beyond application of GAAP to events and transactions. Further, we find no evidence that practicing auditors do (separately) assess or assure that financial statements faithfully reflect the entire firm's underlying economics. Overall, these findings suggest DeFond and Zhang (2014) express a personal (and impracticable) normative view and not the auditor's actual responsibility or practice under extant U.S. standards. More broadly, results reinforce the importance of defining and measuring audit quality based on the auditor's actual responsibilities and the importance of accurately characterizing authoritative guidance and practice for scholarship regarding complex and multifaceted matters, including audit quality.

Understanding the Relation between Financial Reporting Quality and Audit Quality

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Milici Gaynor ◽  
Andrea Seaton Kelton ◽  
Molly Mercer ◽  
Teri Lombardi Yohn
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Recursive Relation ◽  
Financial Reporting Quality ◽  
Task Environment ◽  
Future Research

SUMMARY A primary goal of both financial reporting research and audit research is to understand the determinants of quality, and researchers in both areas have identified a wide set of variables that enhance or impair quality. In this paper, we define financial reporting quality and audit quality and use a person/task/environment framework to summarize prior findings on the determinants of each. We use this framework to discuss the links between the financial reporting and audit academic literatures and highlight the recursive relation between financial reporting quality and audit quality. Our discussion provides insights and suggestions on how financial reporting and audit researchers can learn from each other to improve our collective understanding of financial reporting and audit quality. Using this framework, we also identify opportunities for future research.

Audit Quality and the Market Value of Cash Holdings: The Case of Office-Level Auditor Industry Specialization

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeong-Bon Kim ◽  
Jay Junghun Lee ◽  
Jong Chool Park
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Firm Value ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Cash Holdings ◽  
Market Value ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Value Of Cash ◽  
Office Level ◽  
Industry Specialist

SUMMARY This study investigates the monitoring role of high-quality auditors defined as office-level industry specialists in the stock market valuation of cash assets. We find that the market value of cash holdings is significantly higher for the client of an industry specialist auditor. The marginal value of cash is 34 cents higher for the client of a joint-industry specialist at both the national and city levels than for the client of a nonspecialist. We also find that cash holdings are more closely associated with capital investment and the market value of capital investment is significantly higher when the auditor is a joint-industry specialist. Moreover, we find that the value of cash increases significantly when the client changes its auditor to a joint-industry specialist. Our findings hold even after controlling for the client's governance efficacy and financial reporting quality. Our results provide new insight into the mechanism through which high-quality audits affect firm value: External audits facilitate shareholders' monitoring over managerial cash expenditures, thereby leading market participants to attach a higher value to cash holdings.

Determinants of audit fees in quoted financial and non-financial firms

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Wasiu Ajani Musa ◽  
Ramat Titilayo Salman ◽  
Ibrahim Olayiwola Amoo
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Lagrangian Multiplier ◽  
Financial Firms ◽  
Lm Test

Regulators have ensured the compulsory disclosure of audit fees in the financial statement to overcome abnormal fees and instill credibility in the financial report since audit pricing is contingent upon audit quality. However, discrepancies between audit fee dimensions are evidenced in the abnormal audit fees, resulting in accounting scandals. Hence, this study assessed the determinants of audit fees in quoted financial and non-financial firms by building a model underpinned by agency theory (Mitnick, 2006) and economic theory of product differentiation (Beath & Katsoulacos, 1991). Secondary data were utilized from companies’ annual reports between 2009 and 2018 using the purposive sampling technique. Furthermore, Breusch-Pagan Lagrangian multiplier (LM) test and the Hausman test indicated the consistency of the models. The static panel regression estimations showed that auditee size, risk, auditor size, reputation, engagement lag, and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation significantly affect audit fees in both sectors. This study concluded that the three dimensions largely determine audit fees. This study instructively proposed that assurance clients should devise an outline of guidelines and practices to guide activities in the sectors by monitoring the variables that impact audit fees

Financial Reporting, Auditing, Analyst Scrutiny, and Investment Efficiency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Chan ◽  
Nanqin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Investment Efficiency ◽  
Strategic Interactions ◽  
Financial Reports ◽  
Audit Failure ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Ex Ante

This paper presents an economic framework to study strategic interactions along the analyst-auditor-owner disciplinary chain, in which the auditor examines the financial reports prepared by the owner, and the analyst uncovers financial misreporting as well as audit failure. We find that although analyst scrutiny ex post detects misreporting, it ex ante aggravates the owner's misreporting behavior and further impairs financial statement reliability if the legal penalties for the auditor and the owner are small. We also show how the effects of a regulation depend on its target's disciplinarian(s). Specifically, (i) although enhancing the auditor's legal liability always increases audit quality and financial statement reliability, it decreases investment efficiency if and only if the analyst is highly independent; and (ii) increasing the owner's misreporting penalty decreases investment efficiency if and only if either of (but not both) the regulations on the auditor and the analyst is strict.

scholarly journals The Attenuating Effect of Intelligent Agents and Agent Autonomy on Managers' Ability to Diffuse Responsibility for and Engage in Earnings Management

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Peter C. Kipp ◽  
Mary B. Curtis ◽  
Ziyin Li
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Intelligent Agents ◽  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Ethical Conduct ◽  
Human Agent ◽  
Perception Of Control ◽  
Reporting Decisions ◽  
Aggressive Financial Reporting

SYNOPSIS Advances in IT suggest that computerized intelligent agents (IAs) may soon occupy many roles that presently employ human agents. A significant concern is the ethical conduct of those who use IAs, including their possible utilization by managers to engage in earnings management. We investigate how financial reporting decisions are affected when they are supported by the work of an IA versus a human agent, with varying autonomy. In an experiment with experienced managers, we vary agent type (human versus IA) and autonomy (more versus less), finding that managers engage in less aggressive financial reporting decisions with IAs than with human agents, and engage in less aggressive reporting decisions with less autonomous agents than with more autonomous agents. Managers' perception of control over their agent and ability to diffuse their own responsibility for financial reporting decisions explain the effect of agent type and autonomy on managers' financial reporting decisions.

scholarly journals The influence factors of the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 213-220
Author(s):  
Salsabila Anggiani Amriza ◽  
Nurul Aisyah Rachmawati
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Financial Constraint ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Tax Aggressiveness ◽  
Tax Reporting ◽  
The Relationship

This research focus to investigate the effect of audit quality and financial constraint on the complementary level of financial and tax reporting aggressiveness. This research uses binary logistic regression to investigate the effect of audit quality and financial constraint on the complementary level of financial and tax reporting aggressiveness with a sample of 147 manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2017-2019. This research found that companies with good audit quality have a complementary level of financial and tax reporting aggressiveness that tends to be below. Also, companies that face financial constraints have a higher complementary level of financial reporting and tax aggressiveness. This study presents empirical evidence that supports the view of audit quality and financial constraint’s impact on the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness. Although there are many studies that discuss the relationship between financial and tax aggressiveness, there are still few studies that contribute to examine the determinants of the complementary level of financial and tax reporting aggressiveness in Indonesia.

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