Abstract:

The paper deals with the issue of external audit of the financial statements prepared by the small accounting unis that represents the joint stock companies or trusts and that at the balance sheet date of the accounting period and accounting period immediately preceding achieved or exceed one of the set criteria, and other small accounting units if they achieved or exceed during previously defined period two of three set criteria. These criteria are defined as: total sum of assets - 40 million CZK, annual total net turnover - 80 million CZK and average number of employees higher than 50. Due to the amendment of the accounting rules were changed also the set three criteria (total sum of assets brutto was replaced by total sum of assets netto, annual total net turnover was adjusted for items like changes in inventories caused by own company activities or activation). Objective of the contribution was to identify benefits and weaknesses caused to such a business units by external audit of financial statements and to find out opinions on suitability of criteria selection and their value setting that determines the audit obligation for these businesses. The research was conducted using the questionnaire survey, respondents (internal and external) consisted of accounting data users from small enterprises. The research revealed that the most significant benefit for all users is the increase of financial statements credibility. The most significant weakness is audit time requirement followed by the cost demands of audit. 48 % of respondents agree with the current level of set criteria, 9,53 % of respondent describe them as low and 42,86 % of respondents is not sure if the criteria are set suitably.