Developing a Model for Audit Documentation Quality based on Grounded Theory Approach

In recent years, the quality of audit documentation and its impact on audit quality in auditing standards (such as PCAOB Standard 3) has received more attention. According to auditing standards, audit documentation is the record of audit procedures performed relevant audit evidence obtained, and conclusions the auditor reached. The importance of audit documentation is determined by the need to provide evidence that corroborates the auditor's opinion, as well as to provide information about the various stages of the audit process. The present study aims to design a model of audit documentation quality with a grounded theorizing approach. The research method is qualitative. In order to conduct in-depth and semi-structured interviews, 16 partners of audit firms, directors of the audit organization and financial managers of companies were selected through a purposeful process. The research findings were identified as a paradigm model with 14 categories for causal conditions, 6 categories for context conditions, 6 categories for intervening conditions, 6 categories for strategy and 3 categories for consequences related to the main research phenomenon. The results showed that the quality of audit documentation and its evaluation is complex and multifaceted in nature and in addition to personality and auditor characteristics, it is also affected by the micro and macro environment around the audit field. Accordingly, in order to comprehensively examine the issue, various aspects have been examined in developing the quality model of audit documentation