SUMMARY
In this article, we provide a practitioner summary of our paper “Coaching today’s auditors: What causes reviewers to adopt a more developmental approach?” (Andiola, Brazel, Downey, and Schaefer 2024). In our study, we examine workpaper review by supervising audit seniors as a quality control mechanism intended to detect audit preparer (staff) errors in the short term and professionally develop preparers in the long term. We find that reviewers adopt a more developmental approach when reviewing workpapers completed by local preparers. We also observe that, regardless of office affiliation, reviewers are apt to adopt a more developmental approach when preparers are likely to recur. Our results also indicate that reviewers who adopt a more developmental approach exhibit greater coaching in their actual review comments and are also more likely to detect preparers’ errors. We summarize our key findings and discuss practical implications and actionable suggestions for audit practitioners.
Data Availability: Contact the authors.
JEL Classifications: L2; M40; M42; M51.
