Error Projection and Uncertainty in the Evaluation of Aggregate Error
实验发现审计师在评估总财务报表误差是否超过重要性水平时，倾向于低估推断误差和抽样不确定性的影响，导致可能不充分调整财务报表。
At the end of the audit process, auditors evaluate the risk that aggregate financial statement error exceeds materiality. This evaluation is complex in that it requires a consideration of known error, projected error, and sampling risk related to various segments of the audit. If the risk of material aggregate error is unacceptably high, the auditor can require the client to make adjustments for known and/or projected errors to reduce audit risk to an acceptable level. Results of an experiment indicate that auditors tend to underestimate the effect of both projected error and uncertainty when evaluating aggregate error and the need for adjustments to financial statements. Auditors were provided information about known errors in four accounts and the results of sampling applied to two additional accounts for a hypothetical audit case. They were then asked to indicate the adjustments to the financial statements, which would be required before issuing a “clean” audit opinion. Comparisons of auditors' required adjustments with and without explicit error projections and error bounds suggest that auditors may not adequately consider projected error and sampling uncertainty in the absence of explicit projections and error bounds.