This is a qualitative study about small auditing firms and their customer relationships with SMEs. It contains a total of eight interviews, two with audit firms and six with SME?s.The purpose of the study is to understand how small audit firms manage their customer relationships and if it exist any expectation gaps between the audit firm and the SME.One of the conclusions is that trust is fundamental and gets stronger over time; it is also linked with the personal relationship between the business owner and the auditor/accountant..

The purpose of this essay is to examine why some countries in the world decided to support Kosovo?s declaration of independence in 2008, while others did not. The essay is a type of case study, with Kosovo?s independence as the main focus. For the purpose of the essay, main focus will be on the United States of America, Russia, China and Serbia.

BackgroundA cost that lately has been discussed related to audit is the higher cost for auditing of small stock company. The question is if this cost is higher than the total utility of statutory audit and should it in that case be statutory. SRF says that the condition for small stock companies development is an abolishment of statutory audit. FAR consider that auditing is important for development and continuation.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there are any winners or losers among auditing firms and accounting firms in Sweden if the statutory audit for small stock companies abolish.MethodThe paper is both a qualitative and a quantitative study that is based on primary data made from an interview and a questionnaire investigation. ConclusionOur conclusion is that the big Winner is the accounting trade.

Aim: The analysis model was introduced after several audit-scandals in order to enhance the confidence in the auditors? independence. Our purpose with this essay is to find out if the auditors experience that the stakeholders? confidence in their review of the financial information has increased as a result of the analysis model. We also strive to describe the function of the analysis model in order to give the reader a deeper understanding in this subject.Method: The scientific approch we have used in this essay is a qualitative survey method, in order to find out the auditors opinion and attitude regarding the analysis model and whether the stakeholders? confidence in the financial information has increased as a result of its introduction.

Revisorns oberoende har diskuterats lika länge som revisionen funnits i Sverige. Finansiella skandaler driver på diskussionen om revisorns oberoende och diskussionen drogs upp ytterligare efter Enron-skandalen i USA. Som revisor kan man ställas inför dilemman som kan hota oberoendet. När revisorer ställs inför dilemman måste de avgöra hur de ska hantera dessa situationer för att vara oberoende. Syftet med uppsatsen var att få konkreta situationer beskrivna där revisorer kan ställas inför dilemman rörande oberoendet, samt att skapa förståelse för hur man som revisor kan hantera oberoendeproblematiken.

Background: Sweden has, since 1983, had a statutory audit for all joint-stock companies. However, according to EG?s fourth corporation directive, member countries can decide on their own if this applies for small joint-stock companies. An investigation was launched in the fall of 2006 to form an opinion on the importance of the audit reporting by law and what an abolishment of this rule would mean for small joint-stock companies. Critics are claiming that the cost of audit for small companies is exceeding the cause in these micro companies.Audit is regulated by Swedish translation (RS) of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and is to be applied in all companies comprised by the statutory audit.

Introduction:By insight in the company and by monitoring the management, the board has an important function in creating trust in governance of the company. Furthermore, the board reduces the asymmetry of information between the owners and the management, which also is the function of the auditor, by auditing how the board governs the company and the accounting. In case the board does not effectively monitor the management, the auditor has to extend its monitoring, which increases the owners agency costs through the audit fee. The board composition can affect how effectively the board practices the monitoringProblem: How is the audit fee affected by the board composition?Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how the board composition affects the audit fee.Method: The study uses a quantitative method, where the data was collected from the annual reports of 112 limited companies listed on the NASDAQ OMX Large and Mid Cap lists on January 2, 2012.

The question of the mandatory audits be or not be has been investigated thoroughly in recent years. Theresult is that the audit obligation in all likelihood will be voluntary for 96 percent of all of Sweden´slimited companies in the summer of 2010. The new draft law gives the accountant the opportunity towork both as an accountant and consultant. The investigation in this script works with the question"Which services the owner-managed companies, which in future not will be forced to audit, demandfrom an accounting firm in the suspension of the mandatory audit?" This will take the investigation outby a quantitative study through questionnaires distributed to 40 limited companies.

Background: The Swedish Parliament passed a law change in late 2010, suspending the former requirement for all Swedish incorporated companies to have an auditor. The new limit values allow the smallest incorporated companies to dismiss the auditor of the company (or not appoint one in the case of a newly started company). The opinions of abolishing mandatory audit vary, and little research has been done post to the law change. However, a new situation has arisen, meaning the optional choice of voluntary audit, for some companies.Aims and research questions: The aim of the thesis is to examine the reasons behind voluntary audit in Sweden, as well as what value companies, having chosen audit, see in their auditor. The following research questions have been used in order to fulfill the aim of the thesis: ?Why do small private owner-led incorporated companies in Sweden voluntarily choose audit?? and ?What value does the voluntarily chosen auditor add to the companies??Methodology: The research questions were formulated after reviewing relevant literature and scientific articles regarding the topic of voluntary audit, as well as the recent law change in Sweden.

Background & Problem: The Statutory audit was initiated in the beginning of 1983 with the argument that it had a preventative affect against economic crimes. It is discussed whether the statutory audit should be abolished considering it brings major costs for small limited companies, also there are discussions however easing the regulation for these companies. What effect would it impose for the preventative work against economic crimes if the statutory audit is abolished?Purpose: The purpose with this study is to learn how an abolishment of the statutory audit among so called micro businesses will affect authorities? preventive work against the economic crimes.Demarcate: The study is demarcated to comprise only authorities that work with preventing economic crimes with help of the statutory audit and that will be affected of an possible abolishment, such as the Swedish Tax Office (Skatteverket) and the Swedish National Economic Crimes Bureau (Ekobrottsmynigheten).Methodology: The research is based on a qualitative approach with personal interviews with two representatives from each authority. The gathering of data has been done by researching literature and databases.Conclusions: The result shows that the statutory audit is significant for the authorities and their preventive work.

In today's society there is tougher climate both financially and time wise. Accountants working under tight deadlines leading to the compromise between quality and quantity in the audit process and them therefor are being guilty of so-called reduced audit quality, RAQ. Reduced audit quality involves intentional actions designed to somehow reduce the evidence contained in the audit. We examine in this study the impact of time budget pressure (TBP), underreporting of time (URT), ethical organizational culture and charismatic leadership has on the frequency of RAQ.Previous research has already shown that there are clear links between TBP and RAQ, between URT and RAQ and between ethical culture in organizations and audit quality available. Five hypotheses were designed to the study.

In 1983 Sweden passed a law stating that all limited liability companies are to be included into a mandatory auditing system. According to the EEC, courts fourth amendment, each country has the right to decide whether to exclude a mandatory auditing system for smaller companies. Audit reports in Sweden are considered to be very important for the bank crediting system. Should this be eliminated, it would be more difficult for banks to trust an audit. The significance of calculated audits is questioned in regards to the banks accrediting system.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to seek understanding, describe and analyse how auditors practically reassure and maintain their independence towards clients.Methodology: The study is conducted with a qualitative method with a deductive approach. The study is based on interviews with both experienced and recently graduated auditors.Conclusion: Our empirical results show that there are economical incentives that contradict the requirements to fulfil the auditor?s independence. The conclusion is that the media view is narrow and biased. Furthermore the auditors agree that an acceptable level of comfort is achieved by offering a high value, being a part of a large network of professionals and the ability to set materiality and evaluate risks. .

The recent development in several countries? legislation and best practice recommendations in relation to corporate governance in general and audit committees in particular have affected Swedish listed corporations in the form of the Swedish Corporate Governance Code and the coming EU-directive. This paper aims to discover what factors affected Swedish listed companies to form audit committees when this was entirely voluntary. We collected data from the annual reports of 121 Swedish listed companies and formed eleven hypotheses as to what factors we believed affected the voluntary formation of audit committees based on Agency Theory, economies of scale and circumstances specific to the Swedish environment. We then analyzed the data through the use of a multivariate logistic regression model.

The problem area was identified due to the fact that research within internal audit is fragmented and insufficient, simultaneously to internal audit becoming more common in the public debate. Crises and scandals in companies such as Enron in the US and Skandia in Sweden have resulted in new regulations regarding how companies should be governed. These regulations have been established in Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in the US, and in Sweden the Swedish code for corporate governance will be implemented in 2005. The regulations imply that companies must provide sound internal control and to accomplish that, companies should have an auditing and consulting internal audit function. The Swedish code for corporate governance denotes that companies can decide to comply or explain why the code is not complied.