Kvalité och kontroll inom revisionsbranschen : spelar det egentligen någon roll?

Sammanfattning: Audit is a service of society that takes place in the public interest. To guarantee the quality of auditing a quality control is done with predetermined time intervals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the concept quality and the procedure of the quality control and further to tie concepts like trust and ethics to the audit profession. To make the picture complete the paper also provides an insight regarding what deficiencies in quality, in other words failures, means to the audit profession. By performing semi-structured interviews with seven qualified auditors, active on different auditing firms in Skåne, substantial information was collected. The main purpose of the interviews was to find out what auditors perceive as good quality in the auditing profession and to clarify the performed procedure concerning internal quality control. The respondents’ experiences and reflections are compiled in an empirical analysis where similarities and differences are described. To simplify the picture the auditing profession is put in relation to everyday situations where Lisa makes everyday purchases where quality, trust and control have a great significance for the choice she is about to make. The result is based on the respondents’ perceptions and the theory we used. The paper result in a position that quality is hard to define and that the easiest way to define it is to conform to current regulations. Another result is that the quality control is necessary to demonstrate confidence to stakeholders and that an audit failure is when the auditor fails to comply with his/her planning.