A comprehensive review of the literature and the factors affecting the delay in the audit report and its relationship with some financial concepts

A comprehensive review of the literature and the factors affecting the delay in the audit report and its relationship with some financial concepts. The purpose of this study is to review the concept of delay in the audit report, the factors affecting it and its relationship with some financial concepts. Delay in the auditor's report means the time between the date of preparation of the financial statements and the date of the auditor's report. The findings of this study showed that the factors affecting the delay in the audit report generally fall into three categories, which are the factors related to the independent auditor (including the size of the auditor, the auditor's conditional comment, reporting risk and the number of paragraphs of the auditor's report). Factors related to corporate governance (including ownership focus, board size and board independence) and factors related to the audit committee (including the independence of the audit committee and the expertise of the audit committee). Further studies also showed that concepts such as dual CEO duties, tax avoidance, and earnings management increase delays in audit reporting. But variables such as the gender diversity of the board of directors reduce the delay in the audit report.