Auditors' consideration of corporate governance and management control philosophy in preplanning and planning judgments

The professional literature (e.g., COSO 1992, POB 1993), recent auditing standards (e.g., SAS Nos. 78 and 82), and prior research (e.g., Beasley 1996; Beasley et al. 1999; Dechow et al, 1996) highlight the importance of corporate governance and management control philosophy in ensuring the integrity of the financial-reporting process. We examine the link between these two macro-level factors and both preplanning (e.g., client acceptance, business risk judgments) and planning judgments (e.g., extent and timing of testing). Ninety-six auditors evaluated a hypothetical client with corporate governance and management control philosophy characteristics that were either strong or weak. More experienced auditors performed preplanning (client acceptance) judgments, while the remaining auditors performed planning judgments related to the extent and timing of substantive testing. As predicted, management control philosophy and the governance structure did affect the preplanning and planning judgments, with a stronger effect observed for management control philosophy. While the results for judgments related to the extent of testing were consistent with professional guidance, auditors lacked consensus in judging the effect on the timing of tests. The results provide insight into the effect of two important elements of the control environment on preplanning and planning judgments and could prove useful in the development of work papers and risk assessment models.