关于内部控制效果评价的格式和经验外文翻译.docx

关于内部控制效果评价的格式和经验外文翻译.docx

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关于内部控制效果评价的格式和经验外文翻译

外文文献翻译

原文：

Theeffectofformatandexperienceoninternalcontrolevaluation

JamesLloydBierstaker

DepartmentofAccountancy,CollegeofCommerceandFinance,

VillanovaUniversity,Villanova,Pennsylvania,USA,and

JayC.Thibodeau

BentleyCollege,Waltham,Massachusetts,USA

Abstract

Purpose–Thepurposeofthispaperistoinvestigatewhethertheuseofaquestionnaireoranarrativedocumentationformatwillimpactanauditor’sperformanceinidentifyinginternalcontroldesignweaknesses.

Design/methodology/approach–Afieldexperimentapproachwithasampleof73auditorsofvaryingexperience.

Findings–Itisfoundthatauditorswhocompletedaninternalcontrolquestionnaire（ICQ）correctlyidentifiedmoreinternalcontroldesignweaknessesthanauditorswhopreparedanarrative.Internalcontrolevaluationexperiencemoderatedthiseffect.Theresultsimplythatthequestionnairedocumentationformatstimulatesanauditor’sexistinginternalcontrolknowledge,therebyenhancingperformancewhenidentifyinginternalcontroldesignweaknesses.

Practicalimplications–Thesefindingssuggestthatthereareimportantbenefitstoauditorsthatmaybelostiftheychoosenottousequestionnairesforinternalcontrolevaluation.Thesefindingshaveimportantimplicationsforpractitionersandstandardsetters,whoappeartobegravitatingawayfromtheuseofstandardizedICQs.

Originality/value–TheresultsofthisstudymayassistorganizationsthatareconsideringwhatformtheirinternalcontroldocumentationshouldtakeinresponsetotheSarbanes-OxleyActof2002.

KeywordsInternalcontrol,Auditors,Questionnaires

PapertypeResearchpaper

Introduction

Auditingstandardsrequirethatoneveryengagementauditorsobtainanddocumenta

“sufficientunderstandingofinternalcontrol”toproperlyplantheauditanddetermine

thenature,timingandextentofaudittesting（USSASNo.78AICPA,1995;ISA400

IFA,2003）.Inaddition,theSarbanes-OxleyAct（2002）hassignificantlyincreasedthe

responsibilitiestoevaluateinternalcontroleffectivenessforauditorsofcompaniesthatregistertotradesecuritiesintheUSA,includingallforeignregistrants.Specifically,auditorsofallpubliclytradedcompaniesmustexpressanopinionontheeffectivenessofthecompany’sinternalcontrolsystemoverfinancialreporting.Tosupportthisopinion,auditorsarerequiredtoidentifyanddescribeallmaterialweaknessesinthedesignoroperationofinternalcontrolsthatexistedatthe“asof”datefortheirclient（PCAOB,2004,A-76）.

Whileauditorshavealwaysbeenrequiredtounderstandthedesignofaclient’s

internalcontrolsystemaspartofthefinancialstatementaudit,theimportanceofidentifyinginternalcontroldesignweaknesseshasnowbeendramaticallyelevated

sincepoorperformanceonthetaskcanleaddirectlytotheexpressionofincorrect

opinionsandultimatelylitigationagainsttheauditfirm.Further,foreignregistrants

arerequiredtofullycomplywiththerequirementsoftheSarbanes-OxleyAct（2002）byJuly15,2006orloseaccesstoUScapitalmarkets.Auditingstandardsbodies

throughouttheworld,includingtheISA,arecurrentlyconsideringwhetherandwhat

changestopracticearewarranted.Therefore,theSarbanes-OxleyActhashad

widespreadinfluencethroughouttheworld.

Adirectresultofthesenewauditrequirementshasbeenanincreasedfocusbyauditfirmstoimprovetheeffectivenessandefficiencyoftheprocessesusedtogainanunderstandingof,document,andevaluateacompany’sinternalcontrolsystem.Since,theimprovementofauditeffectivenessandefficiencyhasalwaysbeenoneofthefundamentalgoalsofauditjudgmentresearch（Messier,1995）,thepurposeofthis

studyistoinvestigatewhethertheuseofaquestionnaireoranarrativedocumentation

formatwillimpacttheperformanceofauditorsinidentifyingweaknessesinthedesignofaclient’sinternalcontrolsystem.

Atpresent,thereisnostandardformatrequirementforauditorstofollowwhen

documentingtheirunderstandingofaclient’sinternalcontrolprocedures.Rather,

auditorsareallowedtochooseamonganumberofallowabledocumentationformats

（e.g.narrativeandquestionnaire）underbothGenerallyAcceptedAuditingStandards

（AICPA,1995）andInternationalAuditingStandards（IFA,2003）.However,recent

guidancebythePCAOBindicatesauditorsshouldnotrelyonstandardized

“checklists”whenevaluatingcontrols（PCAOB,2005）.Moreover,recentremarksmadebyWilliamMcDonough,ChairmanofthePCAOB,alsoindicateauditorsshouldavoida“checktheboxmentality”aboutcontroltesting（FEI,2005）.Thus,researchinvestigatingtherelativemeritsofvariouschoicesthatareallowableundertheexistingauditguidanceiswarranted.

Theresultsofabetween-subjectsexperimentadministeredto73auditorsof

varyingexperienceindicatethatdocumentationformatdoesimpactanauditor’s

evaluationofaclient’sinternalcontrolsystem.Specifically,auditorswho

completedaquestionnaire（ascomparedtoanarrative）identifiedmoredesign

weaknessesinaclient’sinternalcontrolsystem.Asexpected,thetreatmenteffect

wasmoderatedbyinternalcontrolexperience.Takentogether,ourresultsimply

thatthequestionnaireformatstimulatesanexperiencedauditor’sexistinginternal

controlknowledge,therebyenhancingperformancewhenidentifyingdesign

weaknessesinaclient’sinternalcontrolsystem.

Theresultsofthisstudyareimportanttobothaudittheoryandpractice.Forsometime,practisingauditorshaveusedboththenarrativeandthequestionnaireformattodocumenttheirunderstandingofaclient’sinternalcontrolsystem（Bierstaker,1999）.However,recentresearchsuggeststhatauditorsareincreasinglyrelyingonthenarrativeformat,whilequestionnaires（andotherformats）arebeingusedlessfrequently（BierstakerandWright,2004）.Inaddition,recentguidancebythePCAOBmayfurtherreduceauditors’relianceonquestionnaires.Nevertheless,theresultsofthisstudysuggestthatstandardizedquestionnairesmaybevaluabletoolstoassistauditorsinevaluatingcontrolweaknesses,andthiseffectseemstoincreaseasauditorsgainexperience.Therefore,practitionersandstandardsettersmaywishtore-visitthepotentialbenefitsofusingquestionnairestodocumentandevaluatecontrols.

Theremainderofthispaperconsistsoffoursections.Hypothesesdevelopmentsectiondevelopsthehypotheses.Methodssectionpresentstheresearchdesign.Thenextsectionpresentstheexperimentalresults.Thefinalsectiondescribestheresultsandimplicationstoaudittheoryandpractice.

Hypothesesdevelopment

Thedesignofaclient’sinternalcontrolsystem

PriortoSarbanes-Oxley,auditorshadachoiceregardingthelevelofworktobecompletedonapubliclytradedclient’sinternalcontrolsystem.Thatis,auditorswereonlyrequiredtoobtaina“sufficientunderstandingofinternalcontrol”toplantheauditanddeterminethenature,timingandextentofsubstantiveaudittesting（AICPA,1995）.Auditorswouldusethisunderstandingtoevaluatethecapabilityofanauditee’sinternalcontrolsystemtodetectorpreventtheoccurrenceoferrorsand/ormisstatementsinanauditee’sfinancialstatements.Themoreauditorsunderstoodaclient’sinternalcontrolprocessesandrelatedrisks,thebetterauditorswouldbeabletotakeadvantageofaneffectiveinternalcontrolsysteminplanningthesubstantiveteststhatareneededtocompletetheaudit（Winogradetal.,2000）.

Now,however,theimportanceofevaluatingthedesignofaninternalcontrolsystemhasbeentakentoanewlevelofconsequences.Itisnolongerjustasteptodeterminethe“nature,timingandextent”ofsubstantiveevidencetobegathered.Rather,therearenowdirectpotentialconsequences,sinceauditorsusetheresultsoftheevaluationtoreachconclusionsabouttwoseparateauditopinions.TheheightenedimportanceofthisevaluationrepresentsoneofthemoredramaticchangesinthenewintegratedauditprocessrequiredtobecompletedonpubliclytradedcompaniesintheUSAasaresultoftheSarbanes-OxleyAct（2002）.

InitsInternalControlStandard,thePCAOBhasmandatedthatmanagersofpubliclyheldcompaniesuse“arecognizedinternalcontrolframeworkestablishedbyabodyofexpertsthatfolloweddue-processprocedures”tobaseitsassessmentoftheeffectivenessofthecompany’sinternalcontroloverfinancialreporting（PCAOB,2004,A-11）.Forthisassessment,theInternalControlStandardmakesspecificreferencetotheCOSOinternalcontrolframework（COSO,1992）asa“suitableandavailableframeworkforpurposesofmanagement’sassessment”（PCAOB,2004,A-11）.

ThenewInternalControlStandardrequiresauditorstoevaluatewhethertheclient’sinternalcontroldesignreflectseachoftheappropriateinternalcontrolobjectives,asoutlinedintheCOSO（1992）report.Theevaluationofinternalcontroldesignoccursconcurrentlywiththeprocessofidentifyingthekeyinternalcontrolactivitiesinaclient’sinternalcontrolsystem.Eachoftheinternalcontrolobjectivesmustbesupportedbyaninternalcontrolactivity.Thestandardrecognizesthepossibilitythatasingleinternalcontrolactivitymightbedirectlysupportiveofseveralinternalcontrolobjectives.However,ifanyoftheinternalcontrolobjectivesarenotsupportedbyaninternalcontrolactivity,aninternalcontrolweakness（ordeficiency）mustbenoted.Inaddition,eachinternalcontrolweaknessidentifiedmustbeevaluatedastowhetheritcouldhaveledtoamaterialmisstatement.Iftheauditorconcludesthatthereismore

thanaremotelikelihoodthattheweaknesscouldhaveledtoamaterialmisstatement,the