How Do Team Workloads and Team Staffing Affect the Audit? Archival Evidence from U.S. Audits

Abstract

Using U.S. data from a global accounting firm, we investigate whether two key elements of audit teams – team workloads and staffing continuity – affect audit outcomes. We find that greater team workloads are associated with lower audit quality, particularly when team members spend more time on other concurrent clients, have lower performance ratings, and have total workloads that exceed the common industry benchmark. This detrimental effect is especially observable for senior and staff auditors. We also find that greater year-over-year team staffing continuity improves audit quality, efficiency, and profitability. These effects are strongest when senior and staff auditor continuity is high, when returning team members are highly rated, and in smaller audit offices where quality typically is lowest. Our study provides important new evidence about audit teams and audit outcomes as called for by academics and audit regulators.