The Influence of the Client's Background on the Auditor's Decision in Acceptance the Audit Engagement

Abstract

In financial auditing the auditor can accept a new engagement or not, based on the client’s background, with a major impact on the audit risk. This study aims to indentify and analyze the influence of the background factors that lead the auditor to the clients’ acceptance. For obtaining the research result, in the study a sample of 100 companies was considered. These companies were the first 100 multinationals included in top 500 Fortune, from 2011, and which were audited by Big 4 audit companies. The study develops three work hypotheses regarding the influence of some financial and non-financial factors to the auditor’s acceptance of a new audit engagement. For testing the hypotheses, there were proposed as factors some financial variables (return ratios, financial leverage) and non-financial variables (activity field, auditor). The research results were obtained by using quantitative methods for data analysis. In the study the data were processed with the statistical software, SPSS 19.0. The research results show that the auditor’s decision regarding the acceptance of the audit engagement is significantly influenced by the client’s prestige, reflected through the position occupied in Top 500 Fortune, the specialization of the auditor in a specific activity field and by the client’s financial performance and his ability to continue as a going concern in a predictable horizon of time.