Key audit matters - the answer? : An exploratory study investigating auditors possibilty to accomplish the purpose of the new audit report

Abstract: Various institutional attempts to recapture confidence of the audit profession resulted in a new section ISA 701 which is likely to be game changing for stakeholders and the auditing profession. The new standard establishes that more entity specific information should be communicated through the new section key audit matters. Simultaneously, a prerequisite for auditors is the confidentiality duty towards their clients. As such regulation that reinforces increased communications in audit reports might conflict with auditors’ professional values and ethical implementation when conducting audit reports. By using qualitative interviews we investigated auditors interpretation of the new standard in order to forecast potential outcomes of the new reports. Our result indicates that auditors’ fear of trespassing the confidentiality duty might be reflected in the caution taken in the reporting process. The limitations of the confidentiality and auditors low willingness to provide entity specific information implies that it will be hard to move away from a standardized way of reporting. The results suggests that auditors need better prospects which enables an increased communication through audit reports, in other words a change of regulation that limits liability claims.