Examining the Content and Factors Affecting the Disclosure of Key Audit Matters: The First Year of Implementation of the 701 Audit Standard in Iran

In recent years, the value of auditing, the role played by auditors, and the quality of communication between auditors and the users of their reports, have been criticized. For this reason, significant legislative reforms have been adopted to restore market confidence and strengthen credibility in audit services. Accordingly, to improve the informative value of the auditor reports, the 701 international auditing standard was implemented. Since December 2016, certain criteria have been established to communicate key audit matters to corporate governance stakeholders (management) and to disclose them in the auditor’s report. In Iran, this standard was adopted in 2021, and the revisions became effective for auditing financial statements for periods ending on or after March 21, 2022. This paper aims to identify the key audit matters disclosed in the independent auditor's reports during the inaugural year of the implementation of the 701 audit standard. Furthermore, it seeks to analyze the factors influencing the quantity of key audit matters disclosed in the auditor's reports for the fiscal year concluding on March 20, 2023.

Data are collected from the independent auditor's report of 589 firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and over the counter. The titles and count of key audit matters were categorized by industry, followed by an examination of the relationship between the number of key audit matters disclosed in audit reports and factors such as "size of audit institution," "type of auditor's opinion," and "complexity of the company under scrutiny" using Poisson regression. This investigation was conducted across two levels i.e., all industries and groups of industries. Financial performance, financial leverage, size, and the growth of the company's operating income were included as control variables.

The results related to the first part of the study indicate that in the first year of implementation of this standard, 166 key audit matters were disclosed in the audit reports of 106 companies. Among them, "related party transactions" and "recognition of revenue" have the most frequency. Around 11 percent of the audit reports for companies featured at least one key audit matter, while approximately 80 percent of audit reports for insurance companies and banks included key audit matters. In the second part, the relationship between "the number of key audit matters" disclosed in the audit reports with "the size of the audit institution", "the type of auditor's opinion” and “complexity of the company under consideration" was investigated. The findings indicated that at both the overall industry level and within specific industry groups, there was no significant association between the number of key audit matters and any of the examined variables. However, in the insurance industry, banks, and intermediary financial institutions, a positive correlation was observed between the number of key audit matters disclosed in the audit report and the complexity of the company.

"Transactions with related parties" and "recognition of revenue" are the most important matters reflected in the audit reports of the fiscal year ending March 2023. The size of the audit institution, the type of audit opinion, and the complexity of the company under consideration have no impact on the number of key audit matters included in the audit reports. However, in the insurance industry group, banks, and intermediary financial institutions, the number of key audit matters with the complexity of the company under consideration is directly related. The results of this study can be used by independent auditors to identify the reaction of colleagues to the disclosure of key audit matters. Also, Financial analysts can calibrate their level of reliance and confidence in audit reports by developing a basic comprehension of the implementation of standard 701.