Personselskaber og udvidet gennemgang

Abstract

Through this thesis, I have examined the relation between partnerships and extended review and the expectancy gap between management, users of the annual reports and the auditor. To do this, partnerships, extended review and the expectancy gap have been described. Partnerships are companies, which consists of participants, who are responsible for paying the company’s debt, if the company cannot pay. Because of this kind of liability, the creditors are sure to get paid, because the physical people are required to use their personal belongings to pay them. The partnership does not have to prepare an annual report. If the participants are companies instead of physical people, and these companies are limited, the partnership has to be registered and has to prepare an annual report. This requirement is due to the limited liability that exists in such a company, which means that the creditors cannot be sure to get their payment. With the annual report, the creditors have an opportunity to examine the financial statements to decide whether they want to give credit to the partnership or not. Depending on the size of the partnership, it can choose not to be audited. Instead of an audit according to the International Standards of Auditing, it can choose that an auditor should perform an extended review according to the Danish “Erklæringsbekendtgørelse”. In an extended review, the auditor’s actions consist of enquiries and analysis, which is similar to a normal review. In addition, there are four additional actions, which have to be performed, if they are relevant to the particular partnership. There are no concrete certainty for the accuracy of the annual report. There are an expectancy gap, when a partnership chooses an extended review of their annual report. For example, the management expects a cheap service, but the price depends of the company and how many of the additional actions that are relevant. The users expects that the annual report is 100 % correct, but they cannot be sure about that because of the limited actions the auditor performs. Furthermore, the users does not understand the actions because of the language in the standard, which is addressing the auditors. To reduce the expectancy gap, there has to be more communication about what the extended review implies. It has to be communicated so that the management and the users understand it. For example, there should be made extra guidelines addressing these parties and courses should be provided.