A Comparison Between Small Newly Registered and Small Mature Limited Companies' Decision to Appoint an Auditor Voluntarily -a Quantitative Study

Abstract: Background and problem discussion: Since the law of audit exemption was introduced 2010, some companies have appointed an auditor voluntarily. These companies must balance the costs and benefits of auditing; various indicators affect the decision. In addition, the characteristics and needs of newly registered companies and mature companies differ. These determinants can affect the decision to choose an auditor. Purpose: The main purpose of this report is to investigate if there is a difference in to what extent small newly registered limited companies in comparison with small mature limited companies choose to appoint an auditor voluntarily and which determinants affect newly registered limited companies’ respectively mature limited companies’ decision to appoint an auditor voluntarily. Limitations: This bachelor thesis is only investigating Swedish private limited companies, small enough to be included by the Swedish voluntary audit requirements. The selections are limited to two specific groups of enterprises that presented a financial statement 31st of December 2011. Newly registered companies are limited to those companies registered during 2011 respectively mature companies registered before 1993. Method: The empirical data was assembled through a quantitative document study and tested via hypotheses. The hypotheses were rejected or confirmed. Conclusions: We can conclude that there is a greater proportion of small newly registered companies that appoint an auditor and that the determinants differ in relation to small mature limited companies. The newly registered companies are affected by total assets and solidity and if the company belonged to the retail industry and health care industry whereas the determinants of mature companies were solely the two industries of construction, design and interior design respectively hotels and restaurants. Proposal for future studies: It would be interesting to investigate other type of businesses’ attitude towards the voluntary audit or to conduct a qualitative survey equivalent to this study. Another possibility would be to investigate companies’ included in the statutory law of Personalliggare attitude towards voluntary audit.