2011 Top Audit Events and Hot Topics

My congratulations to all accountants that 2011 year finally ended. I wish you all the luck in 2012 year, hope it would not upset you.

In this post I would like to summarise some hot issues in audit area for 2011 and the most read topics of this audit blog. I don’t claim to be ultimate truth oracle, and, of course, you are welcomed to share your opinions regarding most significant events in audit world for 2011.

Top 3 events of 2011 affecting audit profession

1. The discussions regarding changes in legislation for auditing firm. I think, that this was one of the hottest topics in audit in last year and it has potential significant impact on our industry. European authorities are aware about ethic issues, lack of competition and quality, and expectation gap in our industry. Thus, proposed changes are related with audit firm rotation, creation of pure audit firms, supervision of audit, services provided by auditors.

2. Olympus scandal in Japan. The scandal in audit industry are drivers of changes, just remember what effect had Enron and Arthur Anderson problem. Admittedly, the occurrence of significant change depends on the place where a scandal occurs, to have real effect it should be probably in USA or at least Western Europe. Olympus case involves several Big4 audit firms and is very interesting: strange and costly acquisitions, inflated consultancy fee, not clear intentions of management.

3. Problems in World Economy. We can’t ignore macroeconomic factors affecting audit clients. The news from Europe are murky and there is risk that slow recovery and high indebtedness might result future bankruptcies. Of course, the auditors in the public opinion would be partly responsible for weak balance sheets of their clients J

Top 10 topics of “Audit-is-Cool!!!” Blog        
The process of topic selection is simple and transparent. I just monitor “post” section of Blogspot, which gives me statistics of most popular posts. The chart of top posts is published below.

What can I say about these selection of my readers?

Generally, top 5 positions show that people are interested in: 1) ethics and ethical scandals, 2) self-education, 3) business ideas, 4) politics, and 5) audit technical issues. I am glad that scientific issues in audit area are also appealing to readers: my overview of papers investigating effect of audit opinions on share prices got place in top ten.

What next?

In my next post I am going to ask my readers what topics you would like me to discuss in this blog in 2012. I will try to arrange polls for this purposes.

Again, dear readers if you have your personal opinion regarding most significant or may be most interesting events for 2011, please share them in comments. I would be glad to discuss it with you.