Abstract
This paper investigates the usefulness of the external audit to a listed client company. The research questions focus on what the auditors discovered, the subsequent auditor–client interaction, and the ways in which this was useful to the client company. The study proceeds from the management letters produced by the auditors in the period 1999–2001. On the basis of these reports, interviews were conducted with financial managers at different organisational levels. The data collection and analysis of the data follows a grounded theory approach. The results suggest that the usefulness of the audit to the client company was primarily linked to the way the management letters, and the auditor–client interaction related to the management letters, supported the client’s management control system. Improved management control was achieved as a result of co-operation between the audit firm and the client company’s central accounting and finance department, that put pressure on the subordinate units. The reported benefits for the client company must be weighed against potential threats to auditor independence, and the paper also includes empirical results that indicate risks of auditor dependency on the client’s accounting and finance department.