Executive summary

To assess the overall views of ACCs, we asked the following question:

Taking all aspects of their service into consideration, which of the following best describes your overall view of your external auditor?

Overall, ACCs are very satisfied with the quality of their external auditor with 92% rating them 'Above average' or 'Excellent' (Figure 1).

Overall, ACCs are very satisfied with the quality of their external auditor.

The feedback received on the other questions we asked ACCs was consistent with this overall view.

We also asked ACCs for their views on the important features of a quality audit, and the response was:

Important features of a quality audit

  • Quality of team (including specialists) – experienced, relevant industry experience, and strong technical skills
  • Good, frequent, and open communication
  • Evidence of professional scepticism and independent mind-set
  • An understanding of the business and the industry
  • Skills, experience and minYour locationd-set of partner
  • Understanding of risks
  • Constructive challenge of management
  • Focus on reliability of financial statements

Additionally, ACCs gave the following feedback not directly related to audit quality, focused on activities auditors could consider doing more of, or less of.

Response to question:
Things auditors could do more of		 Response to question:
Things auditors could do less of
  • Further innovation and use of technology including data analytics.
  • Explore future and emerging risks.
  • More communication between meetings.
  • Benchmarking and best practice insights.
  • Insights into risk culture and capability of our people.
  • Demonstrate appropriate distance from management.
  • Long, verbose reporting.
  • Too close to management.
  • Basic manual testing instead of using technology.
  • Processes that add little value.