Information och signaler i revisionsberättelsen
En studie av konkursdrabbade företag i Skåne län
The requirement on audit was introduced when ownership was separated from management. The situation that arouse was that not only the owners, but also the stakeholders, required information about the company?s financial position. On this basis the audit would contribute to quality assurance of the financial information. One of the auditor's functions is to assess an ongoing stakeholder opinion. If any doubt occurs regarding the company's going-concern a remark about the going-concern issues should be included in the audit report. A previous study shows that in about 50% of the cases, the auditor has been given a qualified audit report and the following year gone bankrupt. The aim of this study is to explain what factors that influences the auditor to provide information or signals in the audit report. The method that is used is a document study based on all joint-stock companies that have gone bankrupt in Skåne County during the period 070401-080331. The result of the study highlights that auditors in Skåne have been given adverse options in the majority of the cases but should instead have been given more remarks regarding going-concern. Furthermore the study indicates that larger accounting firms give more remarks regarding going-concern problems than smaller accounting firms. Finally the study also showed that larger companies tend to get more adverse options than smaller companies.