Professional standards guide external auditors to consider the effect of the client's internal audit work and opportunities to utilize the direct assistance of the internal audit function when planning and conducting audits. We examine the effect of internal audit assistance on external audit...

Benefit plan audits, a material but less understood public accounting service, represent a non-audit service that is “audit-related.” We explore the implications of benefit plan audits for the financial statement audit. We find that performing a benefit plan audit for a company significantly...