A survey of time budget pressure and reduced audit quality among australian auditors

This paper reports the results of a survey of Australian auditors’ perceptions of their time-budget pressure, as well as whether they had exhibited “reduced audit quality” (RAQ) behaviours. Further questions examined why RAQ practices were used and what areas of the audit were likely to be subject to these practices. There appears to be a high level of time-budget pressure on auditors, and many auditors have at some time performed RAQ practices, potentially having implications for the quality of the audit function. These results point to the importance of placing an appropriate value on the audit function to ensure that time budgets are adequate.