Accounting education at the university level in developing SEE countries has often been criticised for the inability to develop essential skills of graduates necessary for a career in professional accountancy in the 21st century. Our research study presents the results of a survey among students enrolled to an accounting degree program and employers for their perceived importance of a wide range of generic and technical skills for successful entrance to the profession. The study also investigated perceived effectiveness of the university accounting education to develop important skills at an appropriate level. The results indicated agreement between the two respondent groups in respect of the greater importance of generic skills, where students gave more weight to personal skills of time management, good presentation and characteristics of self-confidence, motivation and selfpromotion. Employers valued more oral communication, knowledge of foreign languages, ethical attitude and credibility and commitment to life-long learning. The employers and students agreed that education process and program need improvements in order to allow for better development of technical and generic skills among successful graduates.

PurposeThe state audit is crucial for society in ensuring the transparent and legal spending of public funds. In the Republic of North Macedonia, although state audit-related activities have existed since the state's independence, the State Audit Office started operating as a Supreme Audit Institution in 1999. The purpose of this research was to explore the development of the State Audit Office in the Republic of North Macedonia over the past two decades regarding the organisational aspect and the state audit-related activities.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a detailed analysis performed using statistical tests of data collected from the State Audit Office's annual reports on operation and performed audits in the period 2001–2020, concerning the budget, organisational size, audit engagements, audited public revenues and expenditures, audit reports, and given recommendations and their implementation. The survey method was used to determine other factors that could have a correlation with the development of the State Audit Office.FindingsIn general, it can be concluded that the State Audit Office has grown in terms of financial resources at its disposal and the organisational size (number of employees). Although there is no correlation between the regularity audit engagements and the audited public revenues and expenditures, there is still a positive correlation between the audited public revenues and expenditures. The implementation of the given recommendations by the auditors is not related to the number of recommendations in the final audit reports. There are several internal, external and international factors that have a positive correlation with the development of the State Audit Office.Research limitations/implicationsThe first limitation of this paper pertains to the period of existence of the Supreme Audit Institution in the Republic of North Macedonia not being very long in order to be able to draw more significant conclusions. The second limitation concerns the measurement of the variables from the survey being based only on the perception of the state auditors. Such a measurement method might be considered less accurate in describing the actual situation.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this paper is the only one that explores the development of the Supreme Audit Institution in the Republic of North Macedonia. Furthermore, it provides a good basis for further detailed research on areas relevant to the issue. We believe that this research will enrich the existing body of literature on state audit by offering a concrete example of the development of a Supreme Audit Institution in a less-researched geographical area.

Purpose: The accelerated process of digitalization is a challenge, and at the same time an opportunity to apply modern and practical solutions in audit engagements. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the application of big data and data analytics as one of the most advanced disruptive technologies in public sector auditing. Methodology: Qualitative and quantitative research was made on big data and data analytics as technologies that can modernize public sector auditing in Republic of North Macedonia. A survey method was used to identify the perception and attitude of the public sector auditors who are part of the State Audit Office and the internal auditors in public sector departments. The processing of the collected data was done through several statistical methods and tests, using SPSS software. Findings: In general, our research shows the positive attitude and perception of public sector auditors in the Macedonian practice for modernization and automation through the application of advanced data analytics tools in current and future audit engagements. Originality/Value: To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the only one that explores the potential of big data and data analytics technologies in Macedonian practice and presents early results that provide a good basis for further in-depth research.

We are currently on the verge of the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0) that will fundamentally change the way in which businesses and individuals operate. It is characterized by the integration of both physical and virtual world with a new pulse for greater automation and autonomy of business processes without or limited need of human intervention. Cloud computing, the internet of things, big data and data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, augmented reality are among the most exploited contributing technologies. This paper provides a conceptual framework for emerging technologies with greatest disruptive potential for the accounting and assurance profession. We have surveyed the scarce literature with the aim of investigating the relationship and interplay between most potent emerging technologies and accounting and assurance services. Our findings suggest that cloud accounting, big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning will most likely shape the accounting and assurance world for many organisations and future skills set pursued by professionals in order to add value. We conclude that current accounting research efforts are insufficient to understand and grasp the possible future interactions between the vibrant digital economy, its emerging technologies and the accounting profession, including the changing information needs of investors.

Transparency reports are a communication link between audit firms and the general public about their work, internal policies, and quality control to increase the trust of information users. On the other hand, the need for transparency in audit firms is a factor that aims to substantially improve and maintain the quality of audits at the highest level. This paper is quantitative and qualitative research on the transparency of audit firms in the Republic of North Macedonia and analysis of the financial data contained in them, focusing on the audit firms' revenue. Through a detailed elaboration of each audit firm’s transparency reports in the period from 2007 to 2021, or a total of 372 individual transparency reports, we identified the state of transparency reports that differs in the period from 2007 to 2013 versus 2014 to 2021, positive trends of financial indicators over the years, as well as the structure of total revenues, i.e. participation of the individual services they offer. The hypothesis testing findings are early results, identifying the positive correlation between the number of employees and the audit-related turnover regardless of the audit firms' size and their affiliation with Big 4, an international network, or local audit firms. Between the number of customers, i.e. audit engagements and the audit-related turnover, there is a positive correlation for international network audit firms and local audit firms, but not for the Big 4. The paper contributes to the current literature on audit firms’ transparency in order to improve them and their real contribution to improving the quality of audit engagements. The results of the conducted quantitative analysis are a good basis for further in-depth research in identifying potential factors that correlate with the audit firms’ revenue.