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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.

Statistical analyses of an electronic survey of certified public auditors (CPAs) in Finland.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the particular information needs of external auditors performing information technology (IT) audits at service providers in cross-organizational settings and to promote a software-based approach towards their satisfaction. The approach is intended to supplement the manual approaches currently adopted by auditors to procure information in such settings.

The authors analyzed data collected by means of a series of 16 interviews and four think-aloud sessions with experienced professionals.

Information procurement is perceived as tedious by auditors and largely relies on repeat interviews and perusal of documents. Given the growing complexity of cross-organizational settings, manual approaches to information procurement are reaching their limits. A considerable portion of the information required is often stored by service providers using software that is inaccessible to auditors. The authors argue that a software-based approach providing an interface for auditors to access relevant information held by such software presents an avenue worth exploring.

The authors outline how the information stored by service providers using software can be made accessible with reasonable effort. Complementing manual approaches to information procurement with an audit interface would reduce workload and increase quality.

The concept of an audit interface represents a novel and promising approach to meeting the information needs of auditors performing IT audits in cross-organizational settings more effectively. Both auditors and service providers would benefit from its implementation.

The purpose of this study is to understand how the new reforms related to key audit matters (KAM) disclosures in Australia may have impacted audit quality by eliciting the perceptions of key stakeholders in the audit and assurance services market.

The study uses a qualitative approach and New Institutional Sociology (NIS) to explain how auditors have responded to the KAM reforms. Interviews were conducted with 20 individuals representing identified groups of stakeholders in the market for audit and assurance services in Australia.

The study finds there is little consensus between some stakeholder groups on whether the KAM reforms may have improved audit quality, based on the perceptions shared. The findings conveyed that the auditors and regulators, standard setters acknowledge that KAM disclosures are either costly and/or time-consuming to implement. The Big Four auditors indicate these reforms led to changes mainly around internal consultations and independent reviews, whereas the non-Big Four auditors highlighted increased interactions with audit clients.

This is one of the first studies to examine the perceived post-implementation impacts on audit quality of the KAM reforms (ISA 701) after the initial two years of implementation and how auditors have responded, explored through the lens of institutional logic.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of chief accounting officer (CAO) on the efficiency of auditing process and to empirically examine the association between separate CAO appointment and audit report lag (ARL).

This study employs firms listed in the US market from 2004 to 2012. The firm year having a CAO who does not simultaneously take other executive position is specifically identified. Firm years with job titles similar to CAO, such as chief accounting executive, vice president of accounting or corporate accounting executive, are categorized into the CAO group.

The presence of a separate CAO significantly reduces ARL. With the appointment of a new auditor, the presence of a separate CAO is associated with lower ARL, suggesting the moderating effect of separate CAOs on the relationship between auditor change and audit delay.

This study shows the importance of CAO, an executive who is specifically responsible for carrying out accounting functions. The findings suggesting the positive effects of separate CAO on external audit process and the timeliness of information should be of interest to firms, financial reporting users, auditors and regulators.

While few studies address CAO-related issues, the roles of a CAO are not widely explored and how a separate CAO affects external audit process remains an open question. This study fills this gap and further documents the contribution of separate CAO in external audit work to enrich literature in executive roles and audit efficiency at the same time.

This study aims to extend recent research analyzing the effect of auditor busyness on audit quality. Specifically, this study explores the effect on audit quality of a change of fiscal year-end to or from an audit firm’s busy period.

Empirical archival.

When firms change their fiscal year-end to a period when the auditor is less busy, client firms are rewarded with lower audit fees and auditors are rewarded with a reduction in required effort. This study finds no difference in the level of audit quality after a change in fiscal year-end.

There are significant implications for audit firms as they may gain cost advantages by successfully promoting off-season fiscal year-ends, and reduce the negative effect on employees associated with “busy season” stress. Similarly, client firms may find that audit costs are reduced when they adopt a less “busy” fiscal year-end.

These results have policy implications for regulators because regulators often dictate the fiscal year-end for certain industries or traded securities. Such dictates may thus introduce inefficiencies into the market for audit services.

These results should guide regulators in their decisions to dictate fiscal year-ends and firms in their choice of reporting periods.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of audit seasonality on the association between audit fees and audit quality in Nigerian deposit money banks.

The sample comprises 14 banks with annual financial statements between 2008 and 2020. The modified Baron and Kenny’s (1986) causal mediation model by Iacobucci et al. (2007) through the use of bootstrapped partial least square structural equation modelling and Sobel’s (1986) z-test is adopted to achieve this study’s objective.

The results of the causal mediation analysis show evidence of a fully mediating role of audit seasonality in the association between audit fees and audit quality in the Nigerian banking industry.

This study extends the body of knowledge by demonstrating how audit fees influence audit quality through audit seasonality as a mediator in line with the job demands-and resources and conservation of resources theories. Regulatory authorities should be wary of policies that will further increase the workload of already burdened personnel of audit firms as the uniform fiscal year-end of 31 December introduced in the Nigerian banking system has unintended consequences on audit fees and audit quality.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies to provide evidence on the indirect association between audit fees and audit quality.

The highly publicized accounting scandals of the recent past seriously damaged the credibility of the accounting profession. In an effort to restore public confidence in the capital markets, the US Congress passed the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002. A central theme of this new law is the attempted reduction of major audit failure by stricter governmental regulation of the accounting profession and the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. This paper discusses the likely effectiveness of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act in the reduction of major audit failures. Four root causes of audit failure are identified, and issues not addressed by the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act that may have audit failure implications are discussed. Recommendations for improvements that potentially further reduce the likelihood of audit failure are presented.

This paper aims to examine the role of Blockchain in the accounting and auditing literature and profession. Specifically, the paper investigates auditors' perceptions about the role of blockchain in accounting and auditing and the perceived potential benefits and challenges of blockchain-based accounting systems in Egypt. Moreover, what are the capabilities required for successfully implementing blockchain-based accounting systems?

A mixed-method approach was adopted to achieve the research objectives. The qualitative study included 11 in-depth interviews with external auditors, and the results of the interviews and the literature review helped develop a survey collected from 58 auditors.

The findings revealed low-to-moderate awareness of Blockchain-based accounting systems. Also, there were significant differences between auditors from large audit firms and small-and-medium audit firms regarding the benefits and challenges associated with Blockchain-based accounting systems.

The results provide valuable insights for practitioners, researchers and policymakers.

Understanding blockchain-based accounting systems and the benefits and challenges associated with their application is crucial for developing effective strategies and frameworks to overcome barriers and realize the transformative potential of blockchain in the accounting and audit market.

Auditing is seasonal, with the majority of U.S. public companies having a December fiscal year-end. This results in an audit “busy season” and “off-season” with a non-trivial seasonal impact on the pricing of audit services. We apply an economic framework that explains how audit seasonality affects both the magnitude and the price elasticity of audit demand and audit supply. We find that the audit busy season is associated with an audit fee premium of approximately 10% based on a meta-analysis of 97 analyses from 18 audit fee studies of U.S public companies. A meta-regression of the contextual differences in research design between studies reveals that examining only Big N attenuates the busy season effect size but does not eliminate it, and that the busy season effect size may be larger post-SOX.

Prior literature on talent management (TM) in the audit setting has suggested several practices that may affect auditors’ performance. However, the study is limited in terms of a measurable set of comprehensive constructs of TM in the audit setting, as well as the impact of comprehensive TM constructs on auditors’ performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine TM practices perceived to be important by auditors for auditors’ performance.

Data were obtained from 307 survey questionnaires received from auditors of large- as well as small- and medium-sized firms.

The study respondents perceived TM attributes related to supervision and review practices as the most vital for auditors’ performance. This category was followed by attributes related to ethics management practices along with training and development. The findings reveal that respondents generally perceived lower significance for attributes pertaining to work–life balance (WLB) and establishing a TM policy for auditors’ performance. While both top management and staff members of audit firms regarded WLB and establishing a TM policy to be of lower significance, top management placed greater importance on attributes related to ethics management, while staff perceived training and development attributes to be more critical.

This study examined a comprehensive set of TM practices (establishing a TM policy, recruitment, ethics management, training and development, supervision and review, remuneration, WLB and succession planning) and assessed the perceptions of audit practitioners on the significance of these practices on auditors’ performance.