Decision Making Procedure in Accepting Audit Engagement of the Certified Public Accountant in Thailand

Abstract

Abstract

            The objectives of the research were to investigate the decision making process in accepting audit engagement of the accounting auditor individuals in Thailand, as well as to explore the factors influencing their consideration before accepting audit engagement. The tool for data collection was In-Depth Interview. Key informants included 12 auditors. It was a quantitative research conducted as a case study. The findings were discovered as follows: (1) through the perspectives of auditors in Thailand, the unique attributes of the procedure of decision making from each category of the auditors were defined, as well as some difference among them was also underlined. There were 3 sources for accepting the audit engagement, including accounting firms, audit firms, and each individual. (2) Regarding decision making procedure in accepting the audit engagement, it was found that the determination and the performance of the auditors and other accounting professions were based on transparency, independency, honesty, prejudice and fairness. Whether to continue the audit engagement next time, the auditors considered from the impression of the audit engagement from previous times, the audit quality adhering with the conventional standards, free-risk taking, as well as reasonable compensation. (3) The factors influencing the decision making were varied from each category. It was found that the three types of auditors considered the risk before deciding to take the audit to reduce the audit from the professional council and word load factors. For category 1: engagement accepted from the source of accounting firms, the  factor was the sizes of the firms.  For category 2: engagement accepted from the source of audit firms, the factor which was personal readiness. For category 3: engagement accepted from each individual auditor, the factor was business types. The theoretical concepts of the working performance of those three categories were consistent with both descriptive decision making theories, and systematic decision making theories. Therefore, it could be implied that the influencing factors found in the study tended to help predict the pricing determination and the willingness to accept audit engagement of the auditors.