Suchergebnisse

Purpose Key audit matters (KAMs) in International Standard for Auditing, 701 seek to enhance the value of the auditor's report by increasing the transparency of how the audit was performed. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional auditors themselves perceive the impact of KAMs on audit quality and audit effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach Statistical analyses of an electronic survey of certified public auditors (CPAs) in Finland. Findings Regarding the perceptions of KAMs, the authors found two dominant views on auditing: quality and efficiency. In general, the respondents did not consider that KAMs improve audit quality. However, auditors focusing on efficiency considered that KAMs make the audit process more fluent. Further, the use of KAMs may facilitate audit effectiveness and cooperation between auditors and managers. The authors also found three factors related to the KAMs processes and auditing work: effectiveness, risks and workload. Practical implications Auditors may use KAMs to provide focus in their work. This facilitates balancing between the demands for added value while keeping the workload and audit risks at a tolerable level. Originality/value This study contributes to the emerging literature on KAMs as well as to the literature examining practitioner views of changes in auditing regulation. It is, as far as we know, the first study to report survey evidence on how CPAs themselves perceive KAMs and the effects of KAMs on audit work in an European Union country context. ; final draft ; peerReviewed

Purpose Key audit matters (KAMs) in International Standard for Auditing, 701 seek to enhance the value of the auditor's report by increasing the transparency of how the audit was performed. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional auditors themselves perceive the impact of KAMs on audit quality and audit effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach Statistical analyses of an electronic survey of certified public auditors (CPAs) in Finland. Findings Regarding the perceptions of KAMs, the authors found two dominant views on auditing: quality and efficiency. In general, the respondents did not consider that KAMs improve audit quality. However, auditors focusing on efficiency considered that KAMs make the audit process more fluent. Further, the use of KAMs may facilitate audit effectiveness and cooperation between auditors and managers. The authors also found three factors related to the KAMs processes and auditing work: effectiveness, risks and workload. Practical implications Auditors may use KAMs to provide focus in their work. This facilitates balancing between the demands for added value while keeping the workload and audit risks at a tolerable level. Originality/value This study contributes to the emerging literature on KAMs as well as to the literature examining practitioner views of changes in auditing regulation. It is, as far as we know, the first study to report survey evidence on how CPAs themselves perceive KAMs and the effects of KAMs on audit work in an European Union country context. ; peerReviewed

New regulation in the European Union has introduced the mandatory disclosure of key audit matters (KAMs) to audit reports. The EU has identified KAMs as significant risks, significant transactions or events, or significant judgments by auditors. This paper aims to determine the factors that influence the number of KAMs that auditors disclose in the main European countries under the new regulation. We predict that the litigation risk, reputation loss, auditor–client relationship, precision of accounting standards, and the effect of regulators and supervisors' activities affect the number of KAMs that auditors disclose. The sample consists of firms on the FTSE 100, CAC 40, or AEX 25 that have disclosed KAMs at the 2016 fiscal year-end. In line with our hypotheses, the findings show that a higher number of business segments (complexity) and more precise accounting standards lead to the disclosure of a higher number of KAMs. Contrary to our expectations, the results indicate that a positive association exists between the audit fee and the number of KAMs disclosed. As audit fees can be related to higher client risk, this finding could indicate that litigation risk dominates any auditor–client dependence. Further, although auditors often view their audits of banks as complex, the findings show a negative association between banks and the number of disclosed KAMs. This evidence may be related to the fact that financial institutions are in a highly regulated and supervised industry that reduces the need to disclose the KAMs. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

AbstractThis paper investigates the relationship between the percentage of women on audit committees (WOAC) in UK firms and auditors' disclosures on key audit matters (KAM) from 2014 to 2015. The results show that firms with a higher percentage of WOAC have higher readability of KAM disclosures as measured by the Flesch reading ease index. By modifying our dependent and independent variables, sensitivity tests (Blau index and Fog readability index) also corroborate the expectation that WOAC will lead to greater readability of KAM disclosures, with stricter monitoring activities and greater risk avoidance in the audit committee. We provide a useful contribution to recent empirical sustainable corporate governance literature for practices, researchers, and regulators.

The audit committee roles are essential to corporate governance because they are accountable in many aspects of financial governance. In order to understand the relationship between audit committee meeting (ACM) frequency, audit committee size (ACZ), and audit report lag (ARL) in Jordan, this study looked at the moderating effect of key audit matters (KAMs). A correlational research strategy was employed in the study. The data gathered from the 144 Jordanian enterprises for the period of 2016 to 2020 were disclosed in their published annual financial reports. The results show that, in terms of audit committee characteristics, there is no association between ARL and ACZ. Moreover, there is a non-significant relationship found between ACM and ARL. Furthermore, the outcome shows that KAMs and ARL are not significantly associated. On the connection between ACZ and ARL, however, the interaction impact of KAMs shows no moderating effect. Furthermore, the results show that the relationship between ACM and ARL is unaffected by the use of KAMs as a moderating variable. Given their influence on investor decisions, the study hereby advises businesses to pay close attention to the date of the external auditor's report.

ABSTRACT
In 2015, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants issued a standard requiring auditors to communicate key audit matters (KAMs) in the audit report. This standard provides an opportunity to examine the effect of KAMs on audit fees and financial reporting quality. Using public companies listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as the treatment group and the companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Main Board Stock Exchanges as the control group, pre-post and difference-in-differences analyses show that the KAMs standard resulted in improved financial reporting quality but also higher audit fees. Further analyses show that, although the increase in audit fees was related to the risk of material financial statement mis-statements and audit firm business risk, the improvement in financial reporting, which occurred for companies with low financial reporting quality, resulted from the "threat to management of disclosure in KAMs."

Throughout the years, the need for more relevant information led standard setters to reform the audit reporting model and, consequently, to introduce key audit matters' (KAM) disclosure. In this study, I investigate whether this additional disclosure has an impact on investors' reactions, audit quality, and audit fees. In order to achieve this, my sample includes data from listed companies from the main stock market indices of each European Union's country, from the two years after the transposition date of the requirements of Regulation nº. 537/2014 to the national legislation of each state member. To study KAM's disclosure effect on investors' reactions I use the association studies, the price model and return model, and an event study, the CAR model. For the audit quality's study, I use as proxy the discretionary accruals, while for audit fees I used the natural logarithm of audit fees. The results reveal that KAM's disclosure has no impact on investors' reactions, audit quality and audit fees. The results find for investors' reactions might result of investors already be aware of the risks disclosed in KAM or because they believe that the auditor performed the necessary work to mitigate the disclosed risks. Audit quality' results may be driven from a lack of impact in the time resources and audit effort needed, while the results for audit fees might result of auditors absorbing any additional time or audit effort related to KAM's disclosure. ; Ao longo dos anos, a necessidade por informação mais relevante fez com que os reguladores atualizassem o modelo de reporte de auditoria, e como resultado introduzissem a comunicação de matérias relevantes de auditoria (MRA). Neste estudo, investigo se esta comunicação tem impacto nas reações do investidor, na qualidade de auditoria, e nos honorários de auditoria. Para isso, a minha amostra inclui dados de empresas cotadas dos principais índices bolsistas de cada país da União Europeia, dos dois anos após a data da transposição do Regulamento n.º 537/2014 para a legislação nacional de cada estado membro. Para estudar o impacto da comunicação das MRA nas reações dos investidores utilizo estudos de associação, "price model" e "return model", e um estudo de evento, o "CAR model". Para o estudo da qualidade de auditoria, utilizo os acréscimos discricionários, e para o estudo dos honorários de auditoria utilizo o logaritmo dos honorários de auditoria. Os resultados mostram que a comunicação da MRA não tem impacto nas reações dos investidores, na qualidade de auditoria e nos honorários de auditoria. Os resultados para as reações dos investidores podem advir de os investidores já estarem informados dos riscos incluídos na KAM ou porque acreditam que os auditores realizaram o trabalho necessários para os mitigar. Os resultados para a qualidade de auditoria podem resultar da ausência de impacto no tempo e esforço de auditoria necessários, enquanto que os resultados dos honorários de auditoria podem derivar de os auditores absorverem qualquer tempo e esforço de auditoria adicional.

Due to its potential to impact the timeliness of accounting information used by both internal and external users in their decision-making, audit report lag (ARL) is a significant problem (Mardi et al., 2020). Thus, the study looked at how the size of the audit firm and the gender of the auditor affected the ARL as well as how key audit matters (KAMs) functioned as a moderating factor in Jordanian companies that were listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). A correlational research strategy was employed in the study. The information gathered between 2016 and 2020 from the 144 Jordanian enterprises mentioned in their published annual financial reports. The findings indicated a substantial inverse link between audit report delays and audit firm size. Furthermore, there exists a negligible but positive correlation between the gender of auditors and the latency of audit reports. This study also discovered that, in relation to audit report latency, KAMs may function as a moderator between audit company size and auditor gender. It is advised that scholars investigate new businesses and employ alternative approaches in the future. Future studies might examine components like the opinion of the auditors and the auditors' remuneration.