EnhancingAuditors’ Going Concern Judgmentby ApplyingBankruptcy Prediction Models as an Additional Procedureto ISA 570 from the Perspective of External Auditors

This study aims to highlight the possibility of using bankruptcy prediction modelswithin the analytical procedures to enhance auditor’s judgment when assessing a company's ability to continue as a going concern in the audit engagement. For this purpose, a questionnaire has been designed, distributed to (180) external auditors in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the recovered questionnaires appropriate for analysis reached to (163) questionnaires, with a recovery percentage of (90.56%), and the questionnaire data was analyzed using the (SPSS), Means, standard deviations, Chi-square and one sample T-test were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The findings of the study show that the auditors have enough knowledge of the indicators in the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 570, and the rate of (57.1%) of the auditors use both financial and operating indicators in their engagements, and that auditors could rely on bankruptcy prediction models besides the judgment and experience which enhances judgment when testing the ability of the entity to continue, which protects them from legal liability and professional dereliction. The study recommendes that: (1) External auditors must test all indicators in assessing the going concern assumption without exceptions. (2) Auditors must take part in sessions and seminars related to auditing, and the audit firms should encourage their employees to take part.