Purpose This research seeks to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of financial reporting and the auditor's responsibility. This paper aims to investigate how the auditors identified the impact of COVID-19 on the companies' annual financial statements and considered this impact as a key audit matters (KAM) in the reports issued and the factors that influenced their reporting. Design/methodology/approach The empirical research consists of a qualitative analysis of KAMs and a quantitative one based on a panel data econometric model using a random effects maximum likelihood regression. The sample includes companies listed on the primary market on European stock exchanges in 2019–2020. Findings The results suggest a direct positive correlation between numbers of KAMs and the auditor's size, frequency of the event and going concern uncertainty. Two of the variables were not validated: auditor rotation and audit fees. Research limitations/implications The limitation of research can be the sample structure, and the model we proposed does not take into account all possible influencing factors. Practical implications This study will help researchers, policymakers and business owners have a deeper understanding of auditors' responsibility in their work. As practical implications of the COVID-19 impact following the implementation of telework, audit firms have begun to invest in digital programs to assist them in their teamwork and communication with clients. One impact on regulators has been to relax reporting requirements by extending deadlines. Originality/value This research contributes to the academic literature by providing a synthesis and econometric model of the effects identified by auditors, following the COVID-19 pandemic, expressed by KAMs in their reports.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on all aspects of life, but also on the financial reporting of companies and on the activity of auditors. The paper aims to highlight the importance of reporting in the financial statements the subsequent events caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also of the aspects that can significantly influence the going concern of companies' activities, respectively how these effects can cause changes in the quality of audit services. The study was conducted on a sample of 60 companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, analyzing the components of the annual reports for the financial year 2019, namely the financial statements, the administrator's report and the independent auditor's report. The results showed that the effects generated by the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact in most of the industries studied, affecting both companies to carry out activities by closing borders, reducing or even closing certain activities, stopping travel and hindering communication with suppliers, customers or investors, reduced sales, deferred payments or the need to optimally manage costs and available resources, as well as at the level of employees by performing work at home, technical unemployment or salary reductions, but also at the level of the client-auditor relationship, by limiting travel in business interest. Most of the estimated effects of the pandemic were presented in the administrator's report, some of the effects being mentioned in the explanatory notes to the financial statements. From a statistical point of view, the companies' declaration of the effects of the pandemic was correlated with the size of the auditor, the opinion issued by him and the average number of employees. The study showed that certain auditors assessed the risks posed by subsequent events reported by companies, presenting insignificant uncertainties in some cases, but also significant uncertainties regarding the going concern of the activity of some companies.

In a market economy with frequent changes, audit is an area that can provide some stability at the economic and social lever, even if the economic and financial crises have questioned the audit work and led to a decrease in the trust of the intended users in the auditors work, leading to a distortion of the primary purpose of the financial audit. The article presents the relevant aspects of the evolution of audit reporting, especially on the underlying issues that expressing qualified opinions or disclaimer of opinion. The content of paper includes a review literature, national and international, and a case study that identified and analyzed the qualified opinions expressed in the auditor’s independent reports, after analysis the financial statements of companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange for the period 2015, 2016 and 2017. The entities were grouped on 9 sectors of activity and researched for each industry if the auditors expressed an unqualified opinion or a modified opinion and if the auditor is part of a Big4 company or belongs to another auditor category. The reasons behind the modified opinions were analyzed and grouped according to the frequency of their appearance in the audit reports. The most important conclusion of the case study was that in all cases, the reasons that led to express modified opinions, was detailed in the auditor’s report, this being considered as a reference guide for the future auditor’s missions, as well as, a recommendation for improving the highlighted aspects.

The article aims to highlight the importance of reporting of subsequent events in financial statements, the factors that influence their reporting and the implication in statutory audit. The purpose of the article is to research the theoretical and legal basis which regulates the accounting and audit of subsequent events, but also research practical cases on this subject. The case study was based on the study of the 62 companies, listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, from which were analyzed the financial statements and the independent auditor"s reports, grouping the subsequent events which was found, depending on their type and the domain in which that company operates, and were compared the types of events that occurred in each domain of activity. From empirical research resulted that reporting of subsequent events can be influenced by various factors such as: the auditor"s category, the audit opinion, the performance and the size of company. The main conclusion which resulted from the study case is that the subsequent events are more frequent presented in financial statements of an entity, influencing in some cases the auditor"s opinion related to these financial statements.

The paper aims to identify the threats to the auditor's independence and to discuss this subject from a theoretically point of view. Auditor independence is one of the seven principles of professional ethics, necessary to perform a fair and professional audit engagement. In this paper, I have reviewed the literature and analyzed some of the most relevant scientific articles that have researched this topic. For the case study, I chose to analyze the most relevant papers in this area taking into account the objective pursued by the author, the research methodology, the selected sample, the variables and the category of threats to auditor independence. Subsequently, were split the discovered threats into groups and identified a series of safeguards to limit the threats to the auditor's independence. The main conclusion is that an in-depth knowledge, the exercise of the procedures for mitigating the effects of threats to the auditor's independence and compliance with professional and ethical rules are factors that ensure the successful performance of an audit process.