중소회계법인의 품질관리감리와 감사품질

Quality Control Review on Small and Medium-Sized Audit Firms and Audit Quality

최근 주식회사등의 외부감사에 대한 법률 개정 등으로 회계법인의 감사환경이 크게 변화하고 회계법인의 품질관리에 대한 제도가 강화되고 있다. 이러한 상황에서 대형회계법인에 비해 품질관리 시스템이 미흡할 가능성이 높은 중소회계법인의 내부 품질관리 개선 필요성이 지속적으로 제시되어 왔다. 이에 본 연구에서는 한국공인회계사회 품질관리감리 수검대상인 중소회계법인을 대상으로 품질관리감리 결과를 통해 품질관리 현황을 파악하고, 품질관리감리에서 나타난 세부 요소별 품질관리결과와 최종 감사품질의 관련성을 분석하였다. 우선, 중소회계법인을 대상으로 2011년부터 2017년까지 한국공인 회계사회에서 실시한 품질관리감리 결과에 대한 설문조사를 실시하였다. 그 결과 중소회계법인은 독립성 확인, 품질관리위반자에 대한 조치, 모니터링, 감사시간 관리, 업무수임 및 유지절차 구축에서 지적받은 횟수가 높았다. 그 다음 품질관리감리에서 지적을 받은 세부 항목과 재량적발생액과의 관계를 회귀분석을 통해 검토하였는데, 경영진 운영책임, 독립성 절차, 업무의 수임 및 유지, 교육, 감사시간 및 조서관리 절차가 감사품질과 유의한 관계를 보였으며, 전반적인 지적사항이 적을수록 감사품질이 높았다. 이러한 결과는 중소회계법인의 감사품질은 전반적인 품질관리시스템 개선으로 제고될 수 있다는 것을 실증적으로 제시한다. 본 연구는 이미 시스템을 구축하고 있는 대형회계법인에 비해 시스템적 개선이 필요한 중소회계법인의 현황을 제시하고 품질관리요소별 감사품질간의 관계를 보고함으로써 학계 및 규제기관에 시사점을 제시하고 있다.

Recently audit environment has changed greatly due to the revision of external audit of the corporations law, and the quality control requirements for a audit firm s accounting and auditing practice has been enhanced due to increased audit risks such as lawsuits. With the implementation of new systems such as the standard audit hour policy and the auditor registration system, accounting firms faced unprecedented changes in the audit environment. In particular, there has been a constant need to improve internal quality control of small and medium-sized accounting firms, which are likely to have insufficient quality control systems compared to large accounting firms. In this study, we examined the audit quality control status of small and medium-sized accounting firms and also analyzed the relationship between the elements of an audit firm s system of quality control and audit quality. For data, we conducted a survey of small and medium-sized accounting firms to find out the results of inspection of Auditing Firms’ quality control system by the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants(KICPA) from 2011 to 2017. Among the elements of audit firm’s system of quality control, elements with high violations were 1)independence requirements, 2)acceptance and continuance of client relationships, 3)appropriate action against violators, 4)a monitoring process, 5)management of audit time. For KSE and KOSDAQ listed companies audited by small and medium-sized accounting firms from 2011 to 2017, we analyzed whether the results of inspection of Auditing Firms’ quality control system presented above had a significant relationship with the final audit quality. In the regression analysis results, we find that management responsibility, independence confirmations procedures, acceptance and continuance of client relationships, education and training, sufficient amount of audit hours, and engagement documentation showed a significant relationshipwith audit quality. In addition, we find that the smaller the number of comments on violations, the higher the audit quality. As a limitation of this study, data from accounting firms that did not respond to the survey were excluded from the study, so the audit quality control status of the entire small and medium-sized accounting firms cannot be identified, and the results of analysis between the results of inspection of Auditing Firms’ quality control and audit quality could not be generalized. In addition, in this study, the results of inspection of Auditing Firms quality control are analyzed by elements of a system of quality control under KSQC1(Korean Standard on Quality Control 1), and it will be difficult to ascertain whether elements on QC with many violation affect the deterioration of auditing quality. This is because some elements that are found to be insufficient during inspection of Auditing Firms’ quality control may or may not have a significant impact on audit quality. For example, although there is a lack of monitoring procedures for the quality control system, but if the internal preliminary review is properly conducted, the final audit quality can be good. Therefore, it will be necessary to comprehensively analyze each quality control elements and identify the factors that have more influence on the audit quality, but this study was not performed due to the limitations of data. If these limitations are supplemented in future studies, it is expected that the relationship between elements on quality control and audit quality will be revealed in greater depth. This study gives implications to academia and regulators by identifying the status of quality control of small and medium-sized accounting firms that need improvement and reporting the relationship between the elements of an audit firm s system of quality control and audit quality.