The implementation of ISA 701-key audit matters: : Empirical evidence on auditors adjustments in the new audit report

The previous audit report gained a lot of criticism since it contained to much standard text that failed to convey valuable information for users. This lead to IAASB implementing a new standard, called ISA 701-KAM, which was implemented by all listed companies in the end of 2016. The purpose of KAM is to make the audit report less standardized and instead provide transparent and entity-specific information. However, there are those who believe that the confidentiality duty, which is prerequisite to be able to perform an audit, can stand in contrast to the new standard. In order to investigate this issue, we have interviewed auditors to get their view of how they have implemented and applied KAM in the audit report. Our results show that auditors are skeptical in regards to the audit report being as entity-specific and transparent as IAASB expect it to be, since there exist an underlying fear of overstepping TCD.