Auditors’ materiality judgments : What factors influence the auditors' professional judgment of materiality level?

Förutom standarder och riktlinjer utgör revisorns egna professionella bedömningar en stor del av hur denna bedömer väsentlighetsnivån vid en revision. Tidigare studier har funnit flertalet bakomliggande faktorer som påverkar denna bedömning. 2011 implementerades ISA i Sverige varför det finns ett intresse att undersöka vad denna standard har haft för påverkan på svenska revisorers väsentlighetsbedömning. Studiens resultat visar att tre faktorer av de som ingår i studien kan förklara variationen i revisorers väsentlighetsbedömningar. Variablerna kön, chefspress och storlek på revisionsbyrå har i studien ett signifikant samband med variationen i bedömd väsentlighetsnivå. Att dessa olika faktorer har en påverkan på väsentlighetsbedömningen antas förklaras av bland annat olika nivåer av riskbenägenhet och revisionskvalitet.Background: In addition to standards and guidelines, the auditor’s own professional judgment represents a big part of how the auditor assesses the materiality level for an audit. Previous studies have found a number of underlying factors that affects this assessment. In 2011, ISA was implemented in Sweden why there is an interest to investigate what impact this standard has had on the Swedish auditors' materiality judgments. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the factors that affect the auditors’ professional judgment of the overall materiality level. Method: The study is based on a deductive approach where previous research in this areais used to formulate hypotheses regarding the factors that may affect auditors in their materiality judgment. Quantitative data is collected in the form of primary data through a survey. Furthermore, one experienced auditor is interviewed. Conclusion: The results show that the variables Gender, Pressure from management and Firm size can explain variations in different auditors' materiality judgments. These factors impact on the materiality assessment is assumed to be caused by, among other things, different levels of risk propensity and audit quality