The Assessment of Task Structure, Knowledge Base, and Decision Aids for a Comprehensive Inventory of Audit Tasks

To perform audits and study auditors and the audit function demands a detailed understanding of audit components and their characteristics. The authors of this unique book―a blend of research findings, data analysis, and proprietary data base―provide just that: a comprehensive inventory of audit tasks and essential decision aids, all developed by highly experienced auditors. Describing how some parts of the audit are more structured than other parts this work demonstrates that more experience is generally required to perform less structured tasks. In addition, most audit tasks are not perceived as being suitable for decision aids.

Of special value is the authors' comprehensive inventory of audit tasks, constructed on a coding of approximately 2,000 variables identified from their examination of 433 audit tasks. Among them are such variables as judgments of task structure, years of experience, supervised instances of practice, professional rank, and applicable decision aids. The authors' detailed description provides a collection of useful tables, giving simple descriptive statistics about task structure, knowledge base, and decision aids. The authors borrow their framework of analysis from the management science literature, creating an important study for professionals and academics in management, accounting and specialists in psychology and behavior sciences.

MOHAMMAD J. ABDOLMOHAMMADI is John E. Rhodes Professor of Accountancy at Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts./e He taught previously at Indiana University, Boston University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He publishes regularly and widely in the journals of his field.

CATHERINE A. USOFF is Associate Professor of Accounting, Bentley College. She specializes in behavioral auditing and accounting education research, and has published a number of papers in these fields in the professional and academic journals serving them.