Research On Audit Judgment Performance

Professional skill and independence guarantee audit quality. Only by forming professional opinion on the audited-object firstly, auditor may fulfill the independent checkup duty. Professional skill is the fundamental difference between audit and other occupations, whose core is audit judgment. The study on audit judgment performance aims at promoting judgment skill to establish the foundation for high-quality auditing. Audit opinion can increase the value of accounting information, moreover, audit is paid service so that CPA's firms and auditors have economic attribute. As a result, audit judgment should reflect both the value of professional skill and the restraint of resources. Based on above understanding, this dissertation has analyzed the connotation of audit judgment performance in terms of economics, then discussed the evaluation criteria and the influence factors, and applied the conclusion to audit environment in China to put forward the corresponding improvement suggestions. The dissertation is divided into four chapters:Chapter one introduces the basic theory of audit judgment. The first part describes the definition and characters, compares audit judgment with accounting judgment, and discusses the elements of audit judgment. Then, the origin and importance are analyzed. Finally, the concerned research results at home and abroad are reviewed briefly.Chapter two discusses the evaluation criteria of audit judgment performance. Based on general meaning of performance, the economics meaning of audit judgment performance is provided. The objective judgment result is the foundation of appropriate audit opinion, and the improvement of efficiency is the economic restriction faced with CPA's firms. The good judgment performance is the unity of objective judgment effect and high efficiency. Both effect and efficiency should be considered to structure the evaluation criteria. Therefore effect standard and efficiencystandard are formed. The effect standard reflects the objectivity of judgment result invirtue of provable and defendable. The efficiency standard requires the input as low as possible accompanied by good judgment effect. Cultivation of professional skill and advocating of professional dedication contribute to improving judgment efficiency. This chapter uses the internal control judgment model of dependability as the example to introduce the application of the evaluation criteria.Chapter three discusses the influence factors of audit judgment performance. As the judging-subject, the auditor plays an important role through knowledge, skill and personality. Meanwhile audit judgment depends on the combination of an auditor's professional skill and audit technology, and it is an interdynamic process among the auditor, the judged-object and audit environment. So the influence factors can be divided into four kinds: auditor, audit technology, judged-object and audit environment.Chapter four gives the proposal of improving audit judgment performance in China. This part analyzes the current audit judgment performance situation from judgment effect and efficiency at first, points out that judgment result lacks objectivity and judgment cost fails to decrease. Afterwards, four kinds of influence factors are discussed to reveal the cause of above situation. Finally, auditor, CPA's firms and each management organization should make joint efforts to improve auditor's professional skill and audit technology, reduce the unfavorable factors coming from audited-company and audit environment.