审计轮换制度将如何对企业产生影响

来源：Economia

发布时间：2016-09-23

作者：Amenda　　编辑：无忧草

翻译：Amenda 鸟儿

转载自：中国会计视野

 

正如Caroline Biebuyck所发现——新颁布的审计轮换制度结果已经在专业服务公司有所体现。

让人期待已久的审计轮换制度终于出台。上市公司以及其他公众利益体已经开始习惯于每十年必须对外进行审计招标，至少每二十年更换审计师。

尽管新制定的欧盟审计方针和法规在今年六月十七日之后才生效，但是它们已经对大型审计公司产生影响——那些看起来神圣的合同即将到期，而如今却要拱手相让给竞争对手。正如德勤的审计管理合伙人Stephen Griggs所说：“审计事务所意识到他们正在流失所有当前的客户，这真是件让你夜不能寐的事情。”

不仅仅是审计服务受到影响,最大的综合业务事务所们也逐渐受到了影响。但是他们在与长期合作的客户告别之后也在努力寻找新客户。他们需要考虑还有什么是他们能或不能为客户做到的。服务行业在持续萎缩，与此同时，通过提供其他可允许的服务事务所只能赚取不到审计费用的70%。

这导致公司在考虑审计和非审计服务的投标时使用更多的策略。审计委员会在需要招标时，首先要进行独立的审查：公司中意的承包商是否已经给公司提供了服务。如果一家事务所正处于长期且昂贵的合同中期，比如系统审查期间，那么公司就不愿意中断审查，让这家事务所竞标审计业务。

这也迫使专业事务所做出类似的决定。他们需要权衡，到底是去竞标审计业务还是把精力用在其他更有盈利性的咨询业务上。普华永道法规事务的负责人Gilly Lord证实道：“在转变审计与非审计的业务关系性质中，我们需要更加地灵活。”

致同会计师事务所的审阅部门负责人Sue Almond说：“事务所正以更加全面的角度看待他们的业务。在决定竞标时，我们会进行比以前更多的内部交流，有更多的协同运作。我们需要考虑的不仅仅是现在，还有未来几年，做什么对我们最有利，然后看这将如何引导我们制定发展战略。”

新法规对大型上市公司的审计市场产生了震撼性的影响。例如，在法规变化之前，德勤一年对富时指数100（FTSE 100）公司的审计不过投几次标。在2016年年末，德勤预期投标次数会翻十倍。

很多事务所都在争夺客户资源，可是问题来了：怎么样才能让事务所在竞争中展现自己的不同？特别是在有超过1700页准则的严格要求下，法定审计已经是个无差别的服务。

安永的审阅管理合伙人Hywel Ball认为，对于大型事务所来说，创新是区分差异的首要因素。创新可以帮助事务所更好地处理公司事务和危机。“如果你能身临其境地运用创新，就像你在处理关键的商业风险那样。”他说：“能做好这些，就能大大提升审计服务的质量。”

据毕马威会计师事务所国际市场与治理的负责人说，数据和分析正在为改善审计流程提供各种各样的新机会。无论如何创新总是会发生，而增加的招标数量无疑是为它按下了加速器。

事务所正在努力推广数据分析，不仅仅因为它是一种审计工具，更因为它能够通过提供有用信息而帮助管理层运营。英格兰及威尔士特许会计师协会（ICAEW）审阅与审计的负责人Henry Irving提出谨慎的意见，认为数据分析可能导致利益冲突。他说：“事务所需要认真考虑，如何让新开发的服务符合道德标准以及保持独立性。比如一个公司存在欺诈，管理层为了推脱责任，归咎于审计师的数据分析系统没有发现问题。这就不是一个是否保持了实际客观性的问题，而是是否被认为保持了客观性的问题。”

“大部分大公司都在寻找四大以外的事务所进行审计招标。”

无论事务所宣传自己有多少与众不同的优点，客户唯一在乎的只有审计质量。格里格斯（Griggs）说：“事务所面临最大的问题就是如何证明自己能提供最优质的服务？”他认为这是事务所不再以低价竞争审计业务作为赢得竞标策略的一个原因。“公司往往会基于审计质量来选择事务所，然后在围绕审计费用展开协商。”

但是这一现象引来的问题是，强制轮换制度是否有利于审计行业重建信任。想一一研究引起审计行业变化的因素是很困难的。（劳德（Lord）说，很难说什么因素对审计行业产生了最深远的影响）：强制轮换只是拼图中的一部分，它还包括了科技上的进步，技术和道德标准、规章制度的变化，以及大规模的人口流动。

一些审计小组组长则认为，或许投标制度的改变和信任之间没有什么关系。例如，阿尔蒙(Almond)认为制度的改变对于审计报告起着越来越重要的影响。“这是一个巨大的进步，因为它明确反映了企业在审计及其方法等方面的风险。审计报告越详细，就越鼓励投资者参与质询、加入到与企业和审计师的对话当中。当我们在一起共事的机会越多，就越容易达成共识，也就有更多机会去创造一个更加相互信任的环境。”

波尔(Ball)也认同相互协作是21世纪保证会计与审计相互关联的关键因素。“社会想要看看我们是怎样应对压力与变化，怎样一起协作去重新定义这个行业。如果不能相互协作，我们将永远被认为是自私的。强制轮换本身并没有改变太多事情。”

静态市场

技术创新可能会让审计行业更上一层楼，但它也同样可能使其他事务所很难撼动四大在富时350强（FTSE350）公司选择审计服务的主导地位（目前富时350强公司98%的审计都是由四大完成的）。一些人认为这是一种威胁，四大昂贵、先进的科学技术为与其竞争的其他审计同行树立了进入壁垒。

波尔说：“审计创新有点像军备竞赛，非四大的事务并不在这场竞赛中。我们生活在一个不断创新的世界，类似仓鼠轮一样不断前进。我认为它不会随着投标结束而停下来，我们会保持竞争，进而促进创新。它不会为了等非四大事务所的追赶而有片刻的停止。

但是BDO的高级合伙人詹姆士·罗伯特(James Roberts)对此有异议，声明BDO也在和四大进行着一样的创新。他说：“随着时间的推移，我相信成本会降下来。早期确实需要大量的投资，但逐渐地，这些创新就能运用到市场。我们正在用数据分析：小事务所现在不会用，但过几年它们也许会。因为市场存在竞争，创新就会渗透到下层——这是一件好事。”

罗伯特指出，制度改变之后，BDO在审计投标上的功夫主要下在建立联系，而不是期待事务所一定能够拿下合同——至少是在第一轮投标之后。“大多数大型公司在寻找除了四大之外的投标者。这些公司认为：我们需要对外和我们熟悉的一两个事务所建立关系。因此，我们正在和以前不了解的公司培养关系。因为我们想要和他们交流，对他们而言认识我们也十分有意义。因为这会促进除了审计之外的其他服务方面的合作。”

阿尔蒙也同意，四大在下一轮的审计合同中的主导地位不太可能改变——换句话说至少在未来的一二十年之内。“但它确实让公司有更多的机会和动力和其他会计师事务所合作。如今，所有人的目光都集中在富时350强公司上。但是除此之外还有更多的变动的业务，那是我们更应该关注的。”

这也反映了欧文(Irving)的一个焦虑：大型上市公司的审计可能局限在四大事务所，竞争的压力会逐渐扩散到小规模的公司。“大的事务所可能会为小公司的审计而竞争——他们自然会这么做。这会影响到小事务所，让他们更难生存。”

他认为过去几十年审计和非审计业务都集中在大型事务所的趋势还会继续。历史的教训无法证实竞争会让更多的公司有机会变成大型事务所。我们的市场比20、30年之前更加集中。轮换制度虽然产生了转变，但它并没有增加事务所的选择，特别是对特大公司的审计。

但是，这也不意味着小事务所会一无所有。欧文说（参考我们六月《economia》期刊的78页）：“可以考虑精细化。有趣的是，除四大以外的事务所可以找到能使自己够成功的商机，取得比自身规模比例更高的市场占有率。所以说虽然这些规则可能会增强集中化的趋势，也会导致小型事务所向精细化的延伸。”

 

English version：

How mandatory audit rotation is impacting firms

Caroline Biebuyck,20July 2016

 

The consequences of new rules on mandatory audit rotation are already being felt throughout professional service firms’businesses,as Caroline Biebuyck finds out

Long-anticipated rules on mandatory audit rotation are finally in place.Listed companies and other public interest entities are starting to get used to the idea of having to put their audit out to tender every 10years,and changing auditor at least every 20years.

Although the new EU audit directive and regulation only apply to accounting periods that started on or after 17June this year,the effects are already being felt throughout the largest audit firms.Seemingly sacrosanct contracts are coming to an end and are being thrown open to competitors.As Deloitte audit managing partner Stephen Griggs puts it:“Audit firms know they are going to lose all their existing clients.That’s something to think about when you’re lying awake at night.”

But the impact is not just on audit services.The ripples are already being felt throughout the largest multi-disciplinary practices.While they say goodbye to long-standing audit clients and work to win others,they need to consider what else they can –or cannot –do for the companies they audit.The permitted service pool continues to shrink;meanwhile firms can earn no more than 70%of their audit fee by providing these other allowed services to their audit clients.

But the impact is not just on audit services.The ripples are already being felt throughout the largest multi-disciplinary practices.While they say goodbye to long-standing audit clients and work to win others,they need to consider what else they can –or cannot –do for the companies they audit.The permitted service pool continues to shrink;meanwhile firms can earn no more than 70%of their audit fee by providing these other allowed services to their audit clients.

This is leading companies to be much more strategic about which firms they ask to tender for non-audit as well as audit contracts.An audit committee needing to issue a tender usually starts with an independence review:a look at what services,if any,the firms it is thinking of asking to tender are already providing to the company.If a firm is in the middle of a lengthy and costly contract,such as a systems review,then the company might not want that to be interrupted by asking the firm to tender for its audit.

And it is forcing professional firms into making similar decisions.They need to weigh up whether it’s worth their while to bid for the audit or to hold their fire for other,potentially more lucrative,consulting contracts.“We have had to get much more agile at changing the nature of our relationships between audit and non-audit,”confirms Gilly Lord,PwC’s head of regulatory affairs.

Firms are taking a more holistic view across all their services,says Sue Almond,head of assurance at Grant Thornton.“Decisions on what to bid for are more of a collaborative exercise with more cross-firm discussions than there have been in the past,”she says.“We have to think about where we may be best placed,not just now but over the next few years,and see where that leads strategically.”

Tech talks

The new rules are already having a seismic effect on the audit market for larger listed companies.Before the change,Deloitte,for instance,would be involved in no more than a couple of FTSE 100audit bids a year.By the end of 2016the firm expects that number to rise 10-fold.

With so many contracts coming up for grabs,the question is:how can –and do –firms differentiate themselves from their competition?Especially given that the statutory audit is a pretty homogenous service,strictly defined by more than 1,700pages of standards.

The leading differentiator,according to the largest firms,is innovation.Hywel Ball,EY’s assurance managing partner,believes that innovation helps firms get a better handle on a company’s business –and the threats to that business.“If you apply innovation in that context that should help the audit product as you are addressing the key business risks,”he says.“Getting that right should help improve the audit product in substance.”

Data and analytics are coming to the fore and opening up all sorts of opportunities to improve the audit process according to Tony Cates,head of international markets and government at KPMG.“A lot of this innovation would likely be happening anyway but the increased tendering environment has certainly pressed the accelerator on it.”

Firms are promoting data analytics not just as an audit tool but as something that can help management by producing helpful information to help them run the business.ICAEW’s head of audit and assurance Henry Irving cautions that this could lead to a conflict of interests.“Firms need to consider carefully how new services they are developing sit within the ethical standards and perception of independence which they need to preserve,”he says.“Say there is fraud at a company and management say they missed it because the auditors’data analytics did not pick it up.This is not a problem of actual objectivity but perceived objectivity.”

Whatever distinguishing factors firms promote,clients really only have one main concern:audit quality.“The question for firms is always:how can I show that I will produce the highest quality audit?”says Griggs.He thinks this is one of the reasons why firms are no longer quoting a reduced fee as a tactic to win the audit.“Quite often companies will pick the firm they want as their auditor,based on concerns about audit quality:then there will be a discussion around the fee.”

The flip side of this is the question of whether mandatory rotation is helping rebuild trust in the audit profession.It’s hard to disaggregate all the things that are disrupting the audit world (“It’s almost impossible to say what is having the most profound effect,”says Lord):mandatory rotation is only a part of an interconnected jigsaw of pieces that include technological advances,changes to technical and ethical standards and regulations,and massive demographic shifts.

Or perhaps,as some leading auditors think,the changes to tendering rules have little to do with trust.Almond,for instance,sees the changes to the audit report as playing a more important role.“That is a really big step forward as it is about articulating the risks to the business,the risks that were addressed in the audit,the audit approach,and so on.The more detailed audit report is engaging and encouraging investors to be more involved,to ask questions,to get into dialogue with the business and its auditors.The more we work together,the more the collective knowledge level rises and the greater the opportunity to generate a more trusting environment.”

Ball agrees that collaboration is the key to ensuring the accounting and auditing profession remain relevant in the 21st century.“Society wants to see how we respond to the pressures and changes and how we work together to redefine the profession.Without that we will always be viewed as self-interested.Mandatory rotation itself isn’t going to do much to change things.”

Static market

Technological innovation might be transforming audit at the very top end,but it could also be preventing other firms from shaking the Big Four from their dominant position as the auditors of choice for FTSE 350firms.(The Big Four currently handle 98%of all FTSE 350audits.)Some see a real threat that the Big Four’s technologies,developed at considerable cost,are erecting an effective barrier to entry for the firms jostling for position behind them in the audit league.

“There’s a bit of an arms race with audit innovation and the non-Big Four firms are not in that race,”says Ball.“We’re in a world of continuous innovation,a kind of hamster wheel.I don’t think that’s going to stop as the tenders mean we will keep having to compete and this competition is driving the innovation.That won’t stop for a period of calm to enable the non-Big Four to catch up.”

But James Roberts,a BDO senior partner,disputes this,asserting that his firm is making the same innovations as the Big Four.“Over time I think that the cost will fall,”he says.“The early movers will have had to make the big investment but over time I can see these innovations will be available throughout the market.We’re using data analytics now;smaller firms aren’t.In a few years time they may be.Because there is competition in the market the innovation will seep down –and that has to be a good thing.”

Roberts points out that most of BDO’s efforts in audit tenders have been directed to building connections rather than necessarily expecting that the firm will win audit contracts –at least,for this first set of tenders after the rule change.“Most large companies are looking to involve someone outside the Big Four in their audit tenders.These companies are saying:we need to have relationships outside the one or two firms that we know.As a result we are developing relationships with companies we haven’t previously known both because we’d like to talk to them and because they realise it makes sense for them to get to know people like us.And that’s leading to an increase in work in non-audit areas.”

Almond agrees that there’s unlikely to be any shift in Big Four dominance over the next audit contract cycle –in other words for at least a decade or two.“What it does is provide the opportunity and encouragement for companies to work with other firms of accountants in other guises,”she says.“At the moment everyone’s concentrating on the FTSE 350.But there’s a lot more dynamic business outside that,and that’s where our focus is.”

This reflects one of Irving’s concerns:that while competition for large listed company audits might stay stuck within the Big Four,competitive pressures will play out further down the scale.“Large firms could be competing for SME work –the automation might enable them to do this.That would affect smaller practitioners,making it harder for them to compete.”

He sees an extension of the trend over the past few decades for both audit and non-audit services to be concentrated in the largest practices.“The lessons of history don’t bear out the view that competition will produce great opportunities and enable more firms to come into the fold.We have a more concentrated market now than we did 20or 30years ago.Rotation has produced more switching but it hasn’t widened the choice of firms,especially for the largest companies.”

However,that does not mean all is lost for smaller practitioners.Think about specialisation,says Irving [see page 78of June’s economia for our feature on this].“The interesting thing is that where non-Big Four practices find themselves a niche they can be very successful at it and achieve a far higher market penetration than would be expected for their size.So while these rules could lead to increasing concentration,they could also result in increasing specialisation further down the size line.”

文章出处：《economia》 

《Economia》是专为ICAEW会员提供最新会计及财经资讯的刊物。其在线版本则对社会开放，不但继承了纸质版敏锐的洞察力和犀利的分析力，还添加了覆盖商业、经济、管理、金融、会计等多个领域的即时新闻报道。

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