Reasonableness Gap

Reasonableness Gap

Reasonableness gap: The gap between what society expects the auditors to achieve and what they can be reasonably expected to accomplish.

• Users unreasonable expectations regarding auditors’ responsibilities
• Unreasonable expectations are those where the cost to the auditor of fulfilling the expected responsibility would outweigh any benefit attained by the user.

Examples

1. Expecting an auditor to prepare the company’s financial statements is unreasonable because it compromises auditor independence (Porter et al., 2012).
2. Expecting the auditor to provide a guarantee regarding the accuracy of financial statements or the financial condition of the company (Porter et al., 2012).