Implikasi Gaya Audit Terhadap Komparabilitas Laporan Keuangan

Abstract

Prior studies show that earnings attributes were influenced by characteristics of audit firms hired by clients. Big Four audit firms were reported to have developed working rules to assess accounting standards used by firms in preparing financial reports and consistently applied these working rules across all clients. Unique audit methodology and procedures create audit style that belongs to particular audit firm, especially Big Four audit firms. As a consequence, financial statements audited by the same Big Four audit firms experience similar audit processes and show higher consistency than those of firms audited by different Big Four audit firms. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of audit style on financial report comparability. The population was all companies listed in Indonesian stock exchanges. By using purposive sampling method, 146 companies were selected. Data was collected from financial reports of the studied companies. Period of study is 5 years or 730 observations. The data was analyzed by comparing the accrual differences between two pair of companies (companies which were audited by Big Four firms and companies which were audited by non-Big four firms). This study demonstrated that the higher comparability was found in companies audited by the same Big Four than companies were audited by different Big Four Audit firms). However, this study found that there is no difference between company earnings audited by Big Four Audit and non-Big four firms.