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Finance, Accounting and Business Analysis 
Volume 2 Issue 1, 2020 

http://faba.bg 

 

Audit Opinion : Implication from Audit Evidence Evaluation in 

Using Professional Proficiency with Cautiousness and Accuracy 

 
Ely Suhayati 
  
Departement Accounting, Indonesia Computer University, Indonesia 

Info Articles  
 

Abstract 

History Article: 
Submitted 23 January 2020 
Revised 4 March 2020 
Accepted 17 May 2020 

 
Objective:.The purpose of the study is the use professional proficiency with 

cautiousness and accuracy has effects on audit evidence evaluation that 

has implications for audit opinion Methodology : The research method 
that is used is descriptive verification with the help from Structural 

Equation Modeling Partial Least Square, in this research there are only 17 
public accountant office with 25 partners in Bandung Results: Audit 

evidence evaluation which uses the ability to be cautious and accurate has 
implications on audit opinion. Implication: The use professional 

proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy is not only needed to evaluate 

the evidence, but also guarantee he quality of the audit results 

Keywords:  
Professional Proficiency with 
Cautiousness and Accuracy, 
Audit Evidence Evaluation, 
Audit Opinion 

 

  
   

Address Correspondence:   
E-mail : ely.suhayati@email.unikom.ac.id 
 
 

 

  



Ely Suhayati / Finance, Accounting and Business Analysis 2 (1) 2020 

12 

 

INTRODUCTION 
 

Abdul Malik (2017) stated that due care or auditor vigilance principle is important and cannot be 

underestimated when collecting valid data to deliver the auditor opinion. Ernst & Young’s (EY) partner in 

Indonesia, which is KAP Purwantono. Suherman & Suraja, was fined US$ 1 thousand to AS regulator 

because they failed to make their client financial audit report. Previously, EY member in Indonesia 

announced the audit result of telecommunication firms in 2011 and gave an opinion based on inadequate 

evidence and inaccurate data because they published the opinion in a rush. Another problem according to 

Ifsan Lukmanul Hakim (2015) is the case of accounting falsification at Toshiba, the CEO of Toshiba Corp, 

Hisao Tanaka resign due to his involvement in the greatest accounting scandal in Japan, Independent 

investigator team (commissioner (Toshiba chairman) created independent panel), as a result of the 

investigation, they found that there was a manipulation on the financial report regarding Toshiba 

operational profit where it stated that the profit was US $ 1,2 M from 2008-2014 but the fact is Toshiba 

suffered a loss at that time. Additionally, Ifsan Lukmanul Hakim (2015) mention the misuse of accounting 

procedure continuously is done as an official policy from the management and it is impossible for anyone 

to go against it, according to “Toshiba” culture, this problem is related to external audit (independent 

auditor) inaccuracy when they analyze, detect, examine and find the manipulation on the financial report 

that is created by the audited entity and in this case it is “Toshiba”. 

Vigilance attitude is supposed to be emphasized in every audit process, due professional care has a 

meaning of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy, the use of professional proficiency 

with cautiousness and accuracy enable the auditor to obtain the trust that the financial report is free from 

error, whether it is caused by inaccuracy or falsification. If this attitude were underestimated by the 

auditor, it likely causes fatal effects such as auditing with inadequate information, invalid information and 

the audit process would become inaccurate which then implicate the public trust towards opinions that are 

stated by the auditor. Due to the importance of auditor opinion of a firm for the financial report users, the 

auditor should have good due professional care skills to collect and analyze audit evidence that can be 

used to state a reliable opinion. An auditor is required to use their professional proficiency with 

cautiousness and accuracy because the auditor professional proficiency affects the accuracy of the opinion 

they give, and as a result, the auditor could obtain sufficient evidence and give adequate base in terms of 

giving a reliable opinion. 

An opinion is a point of view that is given by the partner (auditor) at a proper financial report of a firm 

(Mulyadi, 2014: 20). Mulyadi (2014: 14) also claim that the auditor gives the opinion for their client 

financial report by checking accounting notes that support the financial report and collect additional 

information, for example, ask for evidence directly and collect physical evidence from outside. Sufficient 

and accurate audit evidence that has been obtained could reduce the audit risk to the acceptable degree, 

hence enable the auditor to produce adequate conclusion as the basis for auditor opinion and professional 

consideration (Sukrisno Agoes, 2017: 179). 

 

LITERATURE REVIEW 

 

The application of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy 

 The application of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy in the implementation 

on audit task based on Professional Public Accountant Standard 2013 section 230 and 230.1 stated that 
“the competence level that generally owns by the auditor in auditing is a reasonable cautiousness and 

accuracy, the auditor should be given a task and supervise based on their knowledge, skills and ability to 

make them be able to evaluate audit evidence that they check.”  

 

Audit Evidence 

According to Ely Suhayati & Siti Kurnia Rahayu (2013:118) “Audit evidence is the overall 

information which is used by the auditor to reach a conclusion and will be the base of the audit opinion, 

and also include the information from the accounting notes that underlying the financial report and other 

information. Additionally. 

 

Audit Opinion 

Alvin A. Arens, Randal J. Elder & Mark S. Beasley (2014:42), “Auditor is responsible for stating an 

opinion in a form of written report regarding whether the financial report has been written properly in 

terms of the materials according to the valid framework report, and this opinion is based on the audit 

evidence evaluation and audit finding that has been obtained. 

 

Correlation the use of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy regarding the evidence 



Ely Suhayati / Finance, Accounting and Business Analysis 2 (1) 2020 

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evaluation 

A theory that has a correlation with those three theories above is the theory about the use of 

professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy regarding the evidence evaluation as claimed 

by Mulyadi (2014 : 27), “The use of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy means using 

a healt consideration in an area settlement, choosing methodology, and procedure examination for 

auditing. Those healthy considerations would be used for the procedure testing, evaluating evidence and 

reporting the audit result.” 

 

Theoretical framework 

An association theory which mentions that audit evaluation is related to audit opinion is stated by 

Ely Suhayati & Siti Kurnia Rahayu (2013 : 117), “to give an opinion the auditor must obtain audit 

evidence from the report and evaluate it. The auditor needs to be able to make a decision on the opinion 

they express based on impartial evaluation on the evidence that has been collected.” 

Moreover, the previous research results entitled the effect of independent public accounting and 

audit judgement towards public accountant opinion by Ely Suhayati (2016) point out that audit 

consideration is an important factor when considering opinion types that are suitable to be given in certain 

circumstances. 

Based on association theory and previous research, it could be concluded that the research paradigms 

is illustrated as follows: 

Figure 1. Research Paradigms 

 

Hypothesis Development 
According to the framework above, hypothesis in this research are 

H1: The use of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy have effects on audit evidence 

evaluation 

H2: Audit evidence evaluation affect audit opinion 

 

METHODS 

The method in this research is Descriptive Verification (Causal), with the help of Structural Equation 

Modelling Partial Least Square in taking conclusion, the method of data collection is survey method 

because it researches more than one public accounting office, whereas the data type from this research 

consists of primary and secondary data. Primary data is collected through questionnaire and interview, the 

statement on the questionnaire is in the form of a closing statement that has been provided with an 

alternative answer by the writer to be chosen by the respondents since the indicator for the variable that is 

going to be measured is already clear or has been operated before. Secondary data for every variable 

collected through a literature review, accounting magazine, articles and journal research. As for the 

population in this research, there are 30 public accountant office with 47 partner, apparently 13 of the 

accountant office is not located at the address record, hence in this research there are only 17 public 

accountant office with 25 partners in Bandung, which means it can be concluded that researcher research 

all population element or known as census. The observation unit of this is the public accountant office 

partner that works based on the auditor work that has been supervised by the supervisor.  

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
 

Recapitulation result from the questioner that distribute to 25 partners is report as follows :  

 

Table 1. Score Percentage of Respondent Answer Regarding Professional Proficiency with Cautiousness 

and Accuracy Variable 

Indicator Actual Score Ideal Score % Actual Score Criteria 

Knowledge 66 100 66,00% Quite Good 

Skills 69 100 69,00% Good 



Ely Suhayati / Finance, Accounting and Business Analysis 2 (1) 2020 

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Ability 134 200 67,00% Quite Good 

Total 269 400 67,25% Quite Good 

 

Professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy is measured by using three indicators, which 

are knowledge, skills and ability. Based on the answer results from 25 partners, the score that was obtained 

is 67,25%, it locates on the interval of  52,01-68,00 and categorizes as quite good which means that there is 

still a gap on the problem that occurs in terms of the professional proficiency with cautiousness and 

accuracy when auditing. 

 

Table 2. Score Percentage of Respondent Answer Regarding Audit Evidence Variable 

Indicator Actual Score Ideal Score % Actual Score Criteria 

Information Evidence from 

Accounting Notes 

133 200 66,50% Quite Good 

Other Information Evidence, 

besides the Accounting Notes 

129 200 64,50% Quite Good 

Total 262 400 65,50% Quite Good 

 

Audit Evidence Evaluation is measured by using two indicators, which are the information evidence 

from accounting notes and other information that are apart from the accounting notes. According to the 

answer results from 25 partners, the score that was obtained is 65,50%, it locates on the interval of 52,01 – 

68,00 and categorizes as quite good which means that 

 

Table 3. Score Percentage of Respondent Answer Regarding Audit Opinion Variable 

Indicator Actual Score Ideal Score % Actual Score Criteria 

Financial Report that are 

Free from Material 

Misstatement 

138 200 69,00% Good 

Financial Report that are 

Corresponding with the 

Applicable Financial Report 

Framework 

133 200 66,50% Quite Good 

Total 271 400 67,75% Quite Good 

 

Audit Opinion is measured by using two indicators, which are a financial report that is free from 

material misstatement and a financial report that is corresponding with the applicable financial report 

framework. Based on the answer results from 25 partners, the score that was obtained is 67,75%, it locates 

on the interval of 52,01 - 68,00 and categorizes as quite good which means that there is still a gap on the 

problem that occurs in terms of the partner who give audit opinion. 

 

Hypothesis Testing 
To test how big the use of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy influences the audit 

evidence evaluation (Y), and the implication towards audit opinion (Z), by using structural equation 

modelling partial least square 2.0. In the structural equation modelling, there are two types of model that 

formed, The first one is a measurement model and the other one is a structural model. 

 

Measurement Model (Outer Model)  

This research uses 3 latent variables with the total of 7 manifest variables. Latent variable from the use 

of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy consists of 3 manifest variables while for the 

latent variable of audit evidence evaluation consist of 2 manifest variable and audit opinion variable 

consist of 2 manifest variables, the calculation result that uses SmartPLS 2.0 obtained a diagram with full 

path model as follows: 

 



Ely Suhayati / Finance, Accounting and Business Analysis 2 (1) 2020 

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Figure 2. Outer Model 

 

Structural Model (Inter Model)  

Hypothesis 1: How much the use of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy affects 

the audit evaluation evidence.   

 

Table 4. Inter Model X  Y 

Latent Variable Coefficient 

Line 

tcalculate tcritical Information Conclusion 

X  Y 0.813 31.762 2.120 Ho rejected Significant  

 

The use of professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy influence the audit evidence 

evaluation as much as 91,3% with the value of tcalculate (31,762) greater than the value of tcritical (2,120), hence 

it can b conclude that Ho is rejected and accepted Ha which means that the use of professional proficiency 

with cautiousness and accuracy affects the audit evidence evaluation according to 25 public accountant 

office partners in Bandung.  

Hypothesis 2: How much does the evaluation of audit evidence has implication on the opinion 

 

Table 5. Inter Model Y  Z 

Latent Variable Coefficient 

Line 

tcalculate tcritical Information Conclusion 

Y  Z 0.875 33.126 2.120 Ho rejected  Significant 

 

Audit evidence evaluation has implications on the opinion as much as 87,5%, with the value of tcalculate 

(33.126) greater than the value of tcritical (2.120), therefore it could be concluded that Ho rejected and Ha 

accepted which means that the audit evidence evaluation has an effects on the opinion according to 25 

public accountant office partners in Bandung.Based on the results and discussions above, the use of 

professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy affect the audit evaluation that has an implication 

on audit opinion.  

This statement is corresponding with the research conducted by Mark W. Nelson (2009) & Dewi 

Fatmawati (2018): the more the auditor acts carefully and vigilance, the more he or she convinced with the 

evidence evaluation that they obtain rather than searching information from the management team. While 

according to Chin Cheal Zenb et al. (2018): vigilance and accuracy lead to fraud detection and as a result, 

it increases the audit quality. Phil D. Wedemeyer (2010), Steven M. Glover (2013) and FKris Hardies & 

Sanne Jansien (2017): audit quality is affected by the use of professional proficiency with cautiousness and 

accuracy. Kelsey R. Brussel et al. (2019): as the vigilance increase, fraud detection also increases. 

Augustine (2013) stated that audit evidence is used to measure the auditor a final opinion. Lia Dahlia 

Iriani (2017) mention that higher competence, independence and professionalism would produce an audit 

with better quality. 

 

CONCLUSIONS  

 

The auditor who is incautious and careless when evaluating audit evidence can cause the audit 

opinion that published by the partner to be unsuitable with the client condition, therefore it is better for the 

auditor to use their professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy and it means that they use 

their knowledge, skills and ability when auditing. As a result, the auditor is able to optimally evaluate 

audit evidence based on the information from accounting notes or other sources, audit opinion implication 

that publishes by the partner is their client financial report that has been audited by public accountant firms 

which is free from error and correlated with the valid financial report framework. To make sure that the 



Ely Suhayati / Finance, Accounting and Business Analysis 2 (1) 2020 

16 

 

auditor keep using their professional proficiency with cautiousness and accuracy in evaluating audit 

evidence that has implication on audit opinion, it suggested that the supervisor need to supervise the 

auditor after they have finished the auditing to make sure that the opinion match the appropriate financial 

report and hence the people would trust the audit result as one of the product from public accountant 

firms. 

The contribution of this research is the use of professional proficiency and with cautiousness and 

accuracy when evaluating evidence has implications for audit opinion. For further research we suggest that 

conducting research into the use of use of professional proficiency and with cautiousness and accuracy will 

produce quality audits so that the opinions generated will be of high quality because people trust towards 

public accountant as an Independent body in auditing the financial report are enormous, these trust are 

given by the people because they are the one who uses the public accountant service, but due to lack of 

carefulness from the auditor when checking the evidence cause the report material to be wrong even until 

the audit opinion publish 

 

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