Changing the Auditor’s Report – The Impact on the Users and the Global Business Environment

Abstract:

Financial audit has always been a valued financial service, as it has been standing for quality oriented towards the users. In the current business environment, qualitative information is a precious resource and the users of financial statements are complaining about a lack of such information. The general idea is that, in a world struggling to emerge from the current difficulties, it is of absolute importance to have informed suppliers of capital. The IAASB has tried to respond in this respect, by proposing some changes to the audit report. In this paper, we have, on one hand, analysed these propositions and, on the other hand, have come with our own suggestions of change, but in a wider framework, so that the changes would be of substantial help for the users. It is our belief that audit plays a crucial role in the business world, with its role of assuring the users that they can trust or not the information provided by management, and we have tried to show that sustainable global growth can only be achieved by a substantial change in the way that the suppliers of capital receive information.