Independent auditors often rely on other professional opinions in examining financial statements of a client (e.g., those of attorneys, actuaries, appraisers, and computer specialists) and more generally of clients' internal auditors. Reliance on the work of internal auditors results in cost savings to the client and/or a wider mix of services provided for the same cost. Generally, auditors will rely on the clients' internal auditors only to the extent that they can assess the competence, objectivity, and performance of those internal audit personnel. Standards for relying on internal auditors are covered in SAS No. 9 (AICPA [1975]), but the guidelines are general and are not easily implemented by independent auditors. At present, little is known about the factors used by auditors to evaluate clients' internal audit functions. Only a limited set of empirical papers has addressed internal audit function evaluation since issuance of SAS No. 9 in 1975. Gibbs and Schroeder [1979] studied the competency dimension of internal audit functions, and then with Clark [1981a; 1981b] they studied the performance and objectivity dimensions of reliability assessment. They developed a list of factors, or indicators, for evaluating these three dimensions of an internal audit function discussed in SAS No. 9. Unfortunately, the