Journal of Commerce and Accounting Research

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The Readability of Standardised Reports by the International Federation of Accountants


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1 Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax 3018., Tunisia
     

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The International Federation of Accountants has revised several standards that standardize audit reports. The objective of these revised standards is to improve financial reporting. So the purpose of this paper is to examine the readability of reports which have been standardised by three International Standards on Auditing (ISA 700, ISA 705 and ISA 706). The Measurement of the understandability of reports is achieved in terms of the linguistic characteristics of standardised reports wording. The results show that the standardised audit reports are not fully readable. These reports do not fulfill their informative function for all users of financial statements. Our investigation discusses the information value of reports published by ISA and the implications for the Stakeholders.

Keywords

IFAC, ISA, Audit Reports, Readability, Determinants of Understandability
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  • The Readability of Standardised Reports by the International Federation of Accountants

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Authors

Mondher Fakhfakh
Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax 3018., Tunisia

Abstract


The International Federation of Accountants has revised several standards that standardize audit reports. The objective of these revised standards is to improve financial reporting. So the purpose of this paper is to examine the readability of reports which have been standardised by three International Standards on Auditing (ISA 700, ISA 705 and ISA 706). The Measurement of the understandability of reports is achieved in terms of the linguistic characteristics of standardised reports wording. The results show that the standardised audit reports are not fully readable. These reports do not fulfill their informative function for all users of financial statements. Our investigation discusses the information value of reports published by ISA and the implications for the Stakeholders.

Keywords


IFAC, ISA, Audit Reports, Readability, Determinants of Understandability

References