Characteristics Of Professional Skerity

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What Lies Beneath Essay

Professional skepticism is an important attitude to have as an auditor and accountant in gathering and evaluating audit evidence. Hurtt developed a scale to measure the auditor’s level of professional skepticism. Hurtt identified six traits of professional skepticism: questioning mind; suspension of judgment; search of knowledge; interpersonal understanding; autonomy; and self-esteem.

The first trait of professional skepticism is to have a questioning mind. This trait is important to have as an auditor because it is the attitude of an individual relating to curiosity and interest. In this case, the audit team at Betty’s firm questioned Toby regarding the large miscellaneous expense. However, Toby would give Betty a response that will explain the issue without further investigating. Betty did not question Toby further since having a large miscellaneous expense account should be an indicator to auditors to prepare for questions. Betty did not have a questioning mind after Toby provided an explanation. In this situation, the best approach to Betty is to question Toby’s explanation of the large miscellaneous account balance. Auditors should contentiously ask questions until they are certain that they the evidence contains no errors.

The second trait …show more content…

This is one of the characteristics that make skeptical actions based on skeptical thoughts. If an individual is obedient, they are more likely to agree with other’s ideas and accept the way things are. However, as an auditor, the most important trait is to always be determined to obtain additional evidence or perform additional research. Betty and her audit team accepted Toby’s explanation because they trusted him without any doubt. She did not perform the level of skepticism in that she went along with Toby’s response. Even though she has requested the reconciliation of the expense, but she did not complete

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