Unveiling the Auditor’s Lens: Impact of Workload, Time Pressure, Professional Skepticism, and Competence to Fraud Detection

Abstract This study is motivated by the expectation gap over the role of external auditors in detecting fraud. External auditors are expected to detect fraudulent financial statements, however the findings of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) Global 2020 proved that fraud can be detected by external auditors by 4%. The preceding finding showed that the auditor’s ability to detect fraud is still relatively low. Based on that motivation, this study aims to investigate the role of workload, time pressure, professional skepticism, and competence on the ability of auditors to detect fraud. This study was conducted by a quantitative study with primary data. Data was obtained through online and direct questionnaires distribution. This study employed convenience sampling by distributing questionnaires to external auditors who were more accessible in order to facilitate efficient data collection. This study proved that professional skepticism and auditors’ competence affect the auditors’ ability to detect fraud. Meanwhile, workload and time pressure did not affect the auditors’ ability to detect fraud. Auditors are responsible for ensuring the fairness of financial reports, this makes auditors act professionally and carefully, even if the auditor is under work and time pressure.