A recent report from audit regulators finds smaller audit firms are reducing the number of deficiencies spotted by inspectors, even as larger firms have moved in the opposite direction during the past few years.
But don’t expect large firms to start looking over the shoulders of their smaller peers. Audit experts say the inspection results don’t necessarily mean that smaller firms are making bigger improvements in audit quality, or are doing higher-quality audits than larger firms. In fact, the results may say nothing about audit quality at all, they say.
