Abstract Through a survey of workpapers of actual audits, this study investigates how and why audit plans for substantive tests are revised. The experimental auditing literature shows that auditors do adjust audit planning variables in response to changes in experimental environments. In contrast, however, several factors suggest that audit plans may be more stable in practice: there is rarely any cost attached to adjusting an audit plan in an experimental situation, evidence on anchoring tendencies of auditors, and anecdotal evidence of many "SALY" (same as last year) audit plans. The results of this study of audit planning practice show that audit programs for substantive tests of the clients surveyed were quite stable. Cited most frequently as reasons for decreases in substantive tests were internal control strength and favorability of past results. Reasons for increases were more varied, Interestingly, few increases in the audit plan were attributed to analytical review procedures, and a relationship between previous adjusting entries and revision of substantive test programs was not detected.
Jean C. Bedard (Fri,) studied this question.