The Role of Profitability in Moderating the Influence of Liquidity and Leverage on Audit Opinion

Abstract

The auditor issued an audit opinion to determine the risk of uncertainty regarding the condition of the company to continue operating where COVID-19 is spreading rapidly. This research aims to look at the influence of liquidity and leverage on audit opinion in the consumer goods sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2020, with profitability as a moderation variable. The research model uses a causal-comparative design and binary logistic regression analysis with secondary data types. 188 consumer goods sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, in 2020, met the criteria for being the research sample. The results of the study showed that liquidity and leverage simultaneously affect audit opinion. Partially, liquidity has no influence on audit opinion, while leverage partially affects audit opinion. Profitability as moderation is able to strengthen the influence of liquidity on opinions but is not able to moderate the influence of leverage on audit opinions. The limitation in this study is that it only selects the company’s internal factors. Further researchers are expected to consider other free variables such as auditor turnover, and opinions submitted by auditors in the previous period, as well as using other sectors such as the real estate property sector. The leverage factor can be used as reference data for auditors to see how the company is able to maintain the condition of the company to avoid bankruptcy in the pandemic.