Research On Auditing Quality Of CPA Firms In Taiwan

One of the most important resources for economical decision-making in an active, fast-developing society is to be able to rely on accurate financial statements. In the past few years the economy in Taiwan has been in a slump and some businesses have tried to use false financial statements in order to deceive for personal gain. Some companies even go bankrupt on purpose. As a result of these nefarious activities and economic crimes, auditing reports prepared by CPA firms have come to be doubted more and more. What we are concerned with here is the quality and veracity of CPA auditing.Our research is based on questionnaires analyzed with the statistical software SPSS 12.0 as to hypothesis testing, descriptive statistics, analysis of correlation, the t-Test and regression analysis of 14 auditing characteristics. The aim was to test whether the quality and adequacy of an auditing service has a bearing upon the degree of satisfaction concerning the fees which are demanded for this service. The effect of different types of CPA firms, the changing of CPA firms, and the relationship between client and CPA firm on the degree of satisfaction is discussed as well.Results show that "credibility" ranks highest amongst the 14 characteristics tested while "the turnover of the auditing team" ranks the lowest. Both "the ability to satisfy the client's needs" and "the experience in dealing with similar businesses" are significantly correlated to "the degree of satisfaction with the CPA firm" as well as "the degree of satisfaction with the service". Also, "the ability of satisfying the client's needs" and "having high moral standards as well as accounting and auditing knowledge" and "the frequency and execution of auditing visits" are significantly correlated to "the degree of satisfaction with the auditing team". However, only one of the characteristics, namely "having high moral standards as well as accounting and auditing knowledge" is significantly correlated to "the degree of satisfaction and perception of reasonableness of fees for an audit (2003)". "Changing CPA firms" results in a significant difference in the degree of satisfaction with the audit - but not in the degree of satisfaction with the audit fees. In addition, there doesn't appear to be any significant difference concerning "different types of CPA firms" or the "relationship between client and CPA firm" in relation to the quality of the audit or the degree of satisfaction with the fees demanded for this service. The correlation research on auditing characteristics and the degree of satisfaction with the fees demanded for this service shows that "the degree of satisfaction and perception of reasonableness of fees for an audit (2003)" increases when "having high moral standards as well asaccounting and auditing knowledge", "low turnover of the auditing team" or "being professionally alert and skeptical" increase. Finally, results show that the main reason for changing CPA firms in today's competitive market is the perception that auditing fees are too high.