1st ICARE Student's Conference - 2015

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Application of Sri Lanka accounting standards in small & medium sized enterprises
(Department of Accountancy, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Nishanthi, W.P.L.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in both developed countries and developing countries. It contributes to the growth of the economy through employment generation, new venture development and by opening up new avenues for the growth in the economy. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (1998) had stated that inadequate capital, inadequate institutional credit facilities, use of outdated technology, improper accounting techniques, inadequate sales promotion competencies and inattentiveness of small businesses are the main problems faced by the small businesses in Sri Lanka. Huck and McEwen (1991) argue that 12 competency areas such as starting a business, planning and budgeting, management, marketing/selling, advertising and sales promotion, merchandising and finance and accounting is needed for small business success. This study is done in relation to the factors leading to non-compliance with Standard accounting practices by the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka. The main objectives of the study focused on identifying the nature of the accounting practices and the factors leading to non-compliance with standard accounting practices by the SMEs. Efforts are made to examine the possible causes for noncompliance with the Standard accounting practices by the SMEs in Sri Lanka and the researcher expects that this study would fill the knowledge gap. The researcher uses structured interviews to collect data and selects 30 SMEs and 10 auditors for the study. Two interview guides will be prepared by the researcher for the SME owners, and for the Auditors. In the conceptual model the non-compliance is considered as the dependent variable and the independent variables are the cost of adherence to accounting standards, knowledge and competence of the owners, lack of qualified employees, relevance of standard guidelines and parties interested in the financial reports. The key finding is that, higher cost of adherence to accounting standards, lack of knowledge and competence of the owners, lack of qualified employees, and unavailability of parties interested in the financial reports other than owner is leading to non-compliance and the relevance of standard guidelines does not have a relationship with non-compliance. The non-compliance with Standard accounting practices is not only due to SMEs ‘can’t comply’ with them, but also due to not complying with them even when they are able to comply. The researcher finally makes recommendations to the policy makers, government and professional accounting bodies to design the policies and frameworks to ensure SMEs’ compliance with standard accounting practices.
Effect of auditor fee on audit quality
(Department of Accountancy, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Madusanka, A.P.
The relation between auditor independence and an auditor’s ability to conduct high-quality audits has been widely debated by regulators, legislators, financial statement users and researchers. Fees paid to auditors can affect audit quality in two ways: large fees paid to auditors may increase the effort exerted by auditors, hence, increasing audit quality. Alternatively, large fees paid to auditors, particularly those that are related to non-audit services, make auditors more economically dependent on their clients. Such financial reliance may induce a relationship whereby the auditor becomes reluctant to make appropriate inquiries during the audit for fear of losing highly profitable fees. Conversely, the potential for audit failure imposes significant economic costs on the auditor (DeAngelo, 1981; Simunic, 1984). Though a number of recent studies have examined the relationship between audit and non-audit fees and independence, they are ambiguous as to the relationship between audit fees and auditor behavior (Larcker and Richardson, 2004). They also differ on how fee composition and client importance affect auditor independence. The paper aims to examine the relation between fees paid to auditors and audit quality during the period of 2010-2015. The paper constructs a measure of auditor profitability that is used as a proxy for auditor independence. The methodology is grounded in the notion that auditor independence is influenced by effort and risk-adjusted fees, rather than the level of fees received from clients. Since, risk and effort are unobservable, the paper uses proxies based on client size, complexity and risk to estimate abnormal fees. Abnormal fees are derived using a fee estimation model drawn from prior literature. The paper employs two metrics to assess audit quality – the standard deviation of residuals from regressions relating current accruals to cash flows and the absolute value of performance-adjusted discretionary accruals.