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Objectives To present a new method for displaying blood utilization data based on analysis of decision time intervals (DTIs). Methods Retrospective study of patients treated in a medical intensive care unit (ICU), surgical ICU, or postcardiac surgery ICU at an academic hospital between January 2018 and June 2023. Each patient's episode of care was divided into a series of DTIs. Transfusions during each time interval were recorded. Results In total, 16,562 patients received 6980 units of plasma and 21,034 units of red blood cells during 111,557 time intervals of care. Patients had international normalized ratio (INR) values ranging from less than 1.0 to more than 4.0. Data on plasma transfusion at different INR values were displayed as the number of transfusion episodes, number of units given, or the proportion of DTIs with transfusion. Clinicians transfused plasma on 1.5% of occasions when the INR was 1.5 or less and on 2.2% of occasions when the INR was less than 2.0. Plasma was transfused without red blood cells in only 0.75% of DTIs. Transfusion practice was statistically different among the 3 ICUs. Conclusions Compared with traditional methods of displaying the results of blood audits, DTI analysis displays information regarding the decision both to transfuse and to not transfuse. Utilization reviews that display data based on decision time analysis reveal clinical practice patterns very different from those suggested by traditional displays of plasma audit data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine financial management audits of educational institutions to improve the quality of schools in Indonesia. This literature review involves several key steps: identifying and narrowing the research topic; searching for relevant literature sources including books, articles, journals, and other documents; reading and understanding the contents of these sources; compiling and analysing the collected data; and finally, drawing conclusions from the research. This study's findings underscore the critical importance of financial audits for educational institutions in ensuring compliance with laws and regulations, enhancing transparency and accountability, boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of financial management, preventing fraud, and securing the sustainability of these institutions. Financial audits serve a crucial role in the improvement of educational quality in Indonesia by fostering accountability and transparency in budget usage. Regular audits require institutions to meticulously account for financial transactions, mitigate the risk of fund misuse, and promote effective fund allocation. This suggests that bolstering financial audit practices in Indonesian educational institutions can significantly elevate educational standards.

The financial audit report is a valuable tool for ensuring financial transparency and integrity within a company. By presenting the audit results in detail, the report contributes to creating a relationship of trust between the company and its stakeholders. By evaluating procedures and systems, auditors can identify risks and deficiencies within the company, creating the opportunity for company management to act to improve processes by effectively managing resources and achieving set goals. Starting from the premise that by presenting correct and reliable financial information, the audit report provides management and shareholders with a solid basis for making well-informed and substantiated decisions, we set out to analyze the decision-makers' perceptions of the role and importance of the financial audit for business continuity companies. The research is qualitative, as it is about the realization of a situation survey, based on a questionnaire within several companies, the respondents being their decision-makers. The conclusions of our study can be a starting point for carrying out research in the field, the issue of the reliability of the financial and accounting information presented in the financial reports remains topical, even though digitalization tends to capture the field of accounting and auditing as well, the standardization of information is one of the consequences this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fraud presents a substantial risk to the overall financial integrity of the global corporate environment. This empirical study investigates practical approaches for firms to strengthen their defenses against fraud, with a focus on improving internal controls, optimizing internal audits, and implementing effective corporate governance. Fraud, which involves compromising the accuracy of financial information, poses dangers that go beyond financial losses. It also affects stakeholder trust and market confidence. Therefore, it is important for company executives, auditors, and policymakers to proactively identify and mitigate these risks. The combination of internal controls, internal audits, and corporate governance plays a crucial role in combating fraud. Internal controls provide the basic principles of financial practices, internal audits closely examine transactions, and effective company governance promotes ethical behavior, resulting in a strong framework for preventing fraud. Based on an extensive examination of existing literature, this study offers practical observations that enable businesses to identify, tackle, and prohibit fraudulent activities. Practical suggestions can help manage the relationship between internal controls, internal audits, and corporate governance. These suggestions can improve audit procedures, enhance transparency, and strengthen the reliability of financial reporting.

In today's rapidly evolving world, the importance of sustainability and circularity has become more prominent than ever. Businesses and economies worldwide are recognizing the need to transition towards a circular model, where resources are used efficiently and waste is minimized. This transition necessitates changes across all sectors, including financial auditing. While the main object of financial audit is to provide an opinion on financial statements to ensure that it gives true and fair view of the accounts, the auditor will also need to assess an organization's sustainability by evaluating its environmental and social impact, resource efficiency, and circularity performance. It becomes more and more important that the financial auditor should provide a comprehensive assessment of the organization's sustainability practices, enabling stakeholders to understand its commitment to environmental responsibility, social equity, and economic resilience. Auditing sustainability reporting involves different challenges compared to those encountered in auditing financial statements. The independent audit report issued by the financial auditor on sustainability reporting plays an essential role in building confidence in the robustness of non-financial information, providing benefits such as: ensuring the credibility of ESG information presentations within the annual report; creating a positive impact on the company's reputation; strengthening the company's awareness of material ESG risks and facilitating the improvement of internal systems, processes and controls and the company's performance in the ESG area; better positioning of the company in ESG rating rankings. Hence, auditing sustainability reporting goes beyond financial metrics and includes non-financial indicators that reflect the organization's triple bottom line – people, planet, and profit. Henceforth, by expanding the scope of financial audits to incorporate sustainability metrics, audit companies can demonstrate their commitment to the circular economy and provide transparency regarding their clients’ environmental and social performance. Henceforward, auditing sustainability reporting not only enables stakeholders to make informed decisions, but also promotes accountability and incentivizes organizations to adopt circular practices. In this context, to effectively track, measure, and assess the sustainability performance of organizations, emerging technologies play a crucial role. This paper explores the role of emerging technologies in facilitating the transition of financial auditing towards a circular economy by employing a Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA). Analyzing the literature on the subject is the first step in the process, which is followed by a reflective study of the underlying themes and their consequences for financial auditing procedures. Several important themes emerged, highlighting the benefits, difficulties, as well as moral and social ramifications of integrating modern technology. These themes draw attention to the topic's complexity and shed light on the opportunities and difficulties that come with incorporating emerging technologies into an audit engagement on sustainability reporting.

In today's economic environment, the many harms caused by financial fraud have attracted increased attention from academia and regulatory bodies alike. In the last two decades, marked by great crises, pandemics, financial fraud has affected to the global economy, being a threat for stability of the capital markets. The purpose of this study is to highlight the main aspects of the specialized literature on the subject of fraud risk, for its analysis and assessment. This study aims to obtain a financial profile of entities at risk of being subject to financial reporting fraud or asset misappropriation. The sample is represented by the entities listed on the BSE regulated market in the period 2020-2022. According to the object of activity, the analyzed entities are grouped as follows: chemical-pharmaceutical, tourism and services. In the study it is proposed the option of analyzing and assessment of fraud risk using quantitative and qualitative methods.

Copyright of Revista CEA is the property of Revista CEA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Fraud presents a substantial risk to the overall financial integrity of the global corporate environment. This empirical study investigates practical approaches for firms to strengthen their defenses against fraud, with a focus on improving internal controls, optimizing internal audits, and implementing effective corporate governance. Fraud, which involves compromising the accuracy of financial information, poses dangers that go beyond financial losses. It also affects stakeholder trust and market confidence. Therefore, it is important for company executives, auditors, and policymakers to proactively identify and mitigate these risks. The combination of internal controls, internal audits, and corporate governance plays a crucial role in combating fraud. Internal controls provide the basic principles of financial practices, internal audits closely examine transactions, and effective company governance promotes ethical behavior, resulting in a strong framework for preventing fraud. Based on an extensive examination of existing literature, this study offers practical observations that enable businesses to identify, tackle, and prohibit fraudulent activities. Practical suggestions can help manage the relationship between internal controls, internal audits, and corporate governance. These suggestions can improve audit procedures, enhance transparency, and strengthen the reliability of financial reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. This paper investigates the effect of cross-reporting quality transfer: the association between the merits of the financial auditor and the quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Specifically, we examine whether the effect of Big Four financial audits on the CSR reporting quality of Chinese listed firms differs from that of non-Big Four firms. Design/methodology/approach. This paper uses archival data and regression analysis from a sample (5257 firm-year observations) of A-share listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2009 to 2018. Findings. The analysis shows that when a company's financial auditor is a Big Four firm, the quality of CSR reports is higher than when it is audited by non-Big Four auditor, which in turn can be explained by differences in cross-reporting quality transfer between Big Four and non-Big Four firms. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced in non-stateowned enterprises (NSOEs) than in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and among firms residing in high-pressure legal environments as opposed to low-pressure regions. Originality. This study extends the literature on the quality of CSR reporting based on the type of financial reporting audit provider, thus bridging the gap between financial audit and sustainability reporting practice and elucidating the cross-reporting quality transfer effect. Practical implications. The paper's findings shed light on the impact that Big Four firms have on the quality of CSR reports through financial audits, thus confirming the cross-reporting quality transfer effect in China. These findings might appeal to political decision-makers, authorities and companies given the notable contribution of CSR disclosure to the decision-making processes of stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One of the most important factors that can affect auditors' understanding of ethical issues is the environmental factor of the threat to personal interests. The objective of this research was to examine the impact of ethical constraints and personal interest threats on professional judgment and doubt. Methods: The use of field research and documentation has been made to apply the goal of this study and the descriptive-correlation approach. To determine the research pattern and the criteria extracted from the theoretical bases has been done with the help of 30 experts using the method based on the Delphi technique. The statistical population of this research was the auditors working in member institutions of the official accountants' society at different levels. Factor load, path coefficients, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability coefficient were stimated. All statistical analyses were done using SPSS and Amos software. Results: In every instance, the T value and the standardized factor loading between the variables and the questions were more than 1.96 and 0.4, respectively. Consequently, the findings demonstrated that the questions were appropriately included in the model and study based on the data gathered, and no more questions in the questionnaire needed to be added or altered. Ethical pressures and the threat of personal interests have a significant effect on auditors' judgment and auditors' professional skepticism. Also, the threat of personal interests has a significant effect on professional doubt. Average variance extracted showed that the appropriateness of convergent validity because the average variance retrieved from the elements. Factor loading coefficients showed that the self-interest item had the highest coefficient. Conclusion: Moral pressures and the threat of personal interests are important factors in auditors' judgments and their professional doubts, which are effective from the cultural resources of the society. Therefore, adjusting each of these factors will improve the conditions of auditors.

Audit fees are among some of the most important concerns of audit firms, financial/statutory audit regulators and academia. The objective of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the impact of company size indicators on the formation of audit fees. Based on the data available in the “Audit Analytics” database, a sample of 27 companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange was selected, for which 524 observations were reported, representing the indicators “Audit Fee”, “Total Assets” and “Turnover” during 2017-2021. From the research carried out, it emerged that the turnover and total assets size indicators have a significant and positive influence on the financial audit fee. In addition, the findings indicate that “the market capitalization” indicator is not a predictive and causal variable of the value of the financial audit service.

The key to the enterprise is in management, and the focus of financial management is enterprise accounting, and the enterprise accounting management system is the core of financial management. Developing a set of accounting management systems has become an urgent problem to solve to improve the efficiency and accuracy of enterprise accounting. In this paper, we use the decision tree model to design the enterprise accounting system and establish an efficient accounting system, which is logically divided into 5 layers: database, data storage layer, business logic layer, business appearance layer and user interface layer. The effectiveness and applicability of the decision tree model for enterprise accounting systems are discussed. The results show that the decision tree model can improve the accounting error tolerance and efficiency and reduce accounting risk. The satisfaction rate of most evaluation indexes has increased to more than 50%, the satisfaction rate of accounting business operation compliance has increased from 6% to 55%, the reasonableness of the internal audit cycle has increased from 18% to 70%, and the timeliness of annual accounting statement disclosure has increased from 8% to more than 50%. The decision tree model is positive for using enterprise accounting and can meet the requirements of enterprise accounting system design.

Social, economic and environmental factors contribute to the companies' sustainable development. Social and financial dimensions have an important contribution to sustainable performance, through assurance of transparency in the information communication requested by stakeholders in order to substantiate their decisions. Social transparency is ensured by presenting organization's actions in the field of social responsibility, and financial transparency takes into account the most accurate, complete and neutral presentation of information, both in the annual financial statements and in the audit reports. The present study aims to assess the influence of financial transparency and gender equality on the sustainable corporate performance, thus contributing to increasing SDGs awareness and achievement required by 2030 Agenda. Through a sample of 1133 observations (Romanian listed companies/years) to the period 2008–2020, the obtained research results emphasis that gender equality and absence/presence of transparency in financial reporting have a significant influence on corporate sustainable performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the article was to identify the level of concentration on the market of audit services provided to public companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The additional aim of the article was to identify the level of rotation among companies providing audit services to public companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

The study purpose was to assess the impact of public sector audit on investment climate formation under the COVID‐19 pandemic and to develop recommendations to improve its effectiveness. For this purpose, a multistage research project was developed with the participation of auditors from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. The project was based on the primary information obtained in the course of expert interviews. Testing the methodological approach with experts from these countries allowed proving the main study hypotheses, according to which the public sector audit has an indirect positive impact on investment climate formation. Such an audit influences the main impact factors through improving public administration efficiency, the fight against corruption, and the provision of the regulatory framework. During the testing, the main directions for improving public audit for a more favorable investment climate were formulated. The developed methodological approach makes it possible to obtain an expert assessment of the impact of the public audit on investment climate formation. At the same time, partial use of statistical methods makes it possible to replicate the study in the form of an expert interview, which increases its attractiveness for researchers in conditions of shortage of qualified interviewers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's economic environment, the many harms caused by financial fraud have attracted increased attention from academia and regulatory bodies alike. In the last two decades, marked by great crises, pandemics, financial fraud has affected to the global economy, being a threat for stability of the capital markets. The purpose of this study is to highlight the main aspects of the specialized literature on the subject of fraud risk, for its analysis and assessment. This study aims to obtain a financial profile of entities at risk of being subject to financial reporting fraud or asset misappropriation. The sample is represented by the entities listed on the BSE regulated market in the period 2020-2022. According to the object of activity, the analyzed entities are grouped as follows: chemical-pharmaceutical, tourism and services. In the study it is proposed the option of analyzing and assessment of fraud risk using quantitative and qualitative methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External audit is undergoing rapid changes where more and more routine tasks are automated with analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) instruments. The paper addresses a research problem of mapping data analytics to audit tasks and develops a framework aligning audit phases and AI and using data analytics in teaching audit with AI. The paper contributes to the literature on using data analytics with AI in knowledge specific areas and particularly critical for emerging audit analytics, which is data analytics in external financial audit application. The paper employs the process model methodology (Wynn and Clarkson, Research in Engineering Design 29:161–202, 2018) and the hybrid approach of curriculum development (Dzuranin et al., Journal of Accounting Education 43:24–39, 2018). The framework is extended further by inclusion of knowledge areas and skills recommendations for each identified stage. This inclusion is linked to the peak accounting body guidelines to ensure compliance with course certification and future job prospects. The developed framework is implemented using audit management platform MindBridge AI. The developed teaching and learning materials show implementation of the framework on the practical level. The developed framework was evaluated in a focus group with accounting academics and industry professionals. Its implementation was evaluated in a series of workshops and a survey with participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the scale of criminal activity has reached alarming levels and the globalisation of the financial services industry and advances in technology have made the financial aspects of crime increasingly complex. Money laundering and terrorist financing are most often carried out by economic entities. Accounting professionals in general and financial auditors in particular occupy positions that enable them to fight criminal acts of this nature. The overall aim of the research is to assess the extent to which the financial auditor can contribute to the prevention or mitigation of money laundering and terrorist financing at the level of audited companies, following the adoption of legislative changes. More specifically, the first direction of this research consists in identifying and analyzing the variables that characterize the susceptibility of the involvement of companies, listed on the BSE on the regulated market, in acts of money laundering and terrorist financing in the period 2019-2020 by sector of activity. The second direction of the research aims to assess the extent to which the financial auditor can contribute to preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing by identifying and reporting the factors of occurrence of risks of this nature as key audit issues. Statistical methods of multivariate data analysis are used to test the research hypotheses.

Financial auditors, members of the recognized national professional bodies, provide independent services such as statutory audit of the annual financial statements published by economic entities and other financial audit services, out of which an important category is represented by the financial audit of projects financed through European funds. In this paper, we present a comparative study of the way these two activities are undertaken in Romania, from the point of view of the aspects concerning the regulatory and the transparency status of the audit services delivered. Following our analysis, we will present the common elements that have been identified between the two audit fields, the most important being the significant public interest presented by the audited information, the verification of the accounting of some complex economic transactions, the possibility of the appearance of errors and frauds in the process of the preparation and presentation of the audited information and the specific financial audit procedures that are applied by financial auditors in their audit work. Further, we will highlight the main differences existing between the two fields, respectively the legislative regulation as opposed to performing the audits based on the options of the management authorities or of the beneficiaries of the European funding, the different audit supervising bodies (ASPAAS - The Authority for Public Supervision of the Statutory Audit Activity and, respectively, CAFR - The Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania) and the situation regarding the ensuring of the transparency of the audit activities performed. As a result of this research, we draw conclusions about the necessity and the means through which the financial audit of EU-funded projects can be better organized, monitored and exploited in order to support the protection of the financial interests of the European Union and implicitly of the European citizens.

Although in Romania the financial audit is at the beginning of the road, the system of legislative regulations of recent years anticipates new trends and the expansion of its role in the next century. The main responsibility in the prevention of fraud and errors, as well as in their detection, belongs to the management of the entity, but at the same time also to those who are entrusted with the governance. These responsibilities may vary from one country to another, or from one entity to another. The management, under the careful supervision of those delegated with governance, must create an appropriate climate, establish and maintain high ethical standards, a culture of honesty and establish the setting of periodic controls to prevent and detect possible fraud and errors at the level the audited entity.

Audit reports provide a support for management authorities to ensure that the nonreimbursable European funds provided to beneficiaries in EU Member States are used in their intended manner and that irregularities and frauds do not affect the EU’s financial interests. Approaching the risk of fraud by financial auditors during their engagements is treated by the International Standard on Auditing 240 which explains the auditors’ responsibilities regarding fraud in an audit of financial statements. Auditors must identify and assess the risk of material misstatements due to fraud and respond accordingly through the audit procedures they perform and the audit opinion they issue. ISA 240 specifically refers to the audit of historical financial statements and is mainly applied in the audit of statutory annual financial statements of companies. In this paper, we have researched how the actions prescribed by ISA 240 can be applied in the missions regarding the audit of EU-funded projects.

The technological evolution in the last decade has led to the extensive integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into various fields, including audit and accounting. This research addresses the profound transformation of audit and accounting methodologies through the integration of AI-based technologies. Focusing on the application of linear regression in financial data analysis, this study explores the efficiency and accuracy of AI in interpreting, analyzing, and predicting financial models. Using simulated data sets and implementing the model in Python, the results show a strong correlation between the level of AI implementation and audit efficiency. Our vision for the future suggests a deep collaboration between human capability and artificial intelligence, allowing for a more accurate and efficient audit. This transformation will require ongoing adaptation from professionals and industry regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Empirical studies concerning determinants which the amount of the fees for auditing a financial statement depends on are undertaken in the international literature. The review of the previous studies allowed the authors to distinguish three main groups of such factors. They concentrate around the character of a client, a category of an auditor who audits an entity and engagement in the auditing proces. This paper aims to determine the factors that influence the amount of an audit fee in European mining companies. Design/methodology/approach: The auditors’ reports for 2019 were analysed. The authors formulated the main hypotheses according to which the amount of an audit fee for a financial statement of listed mining sector companies depends on the factors specific to an audited entity (H1), a category of an auditor (H2) and complexity of the process of the audit of a financial statement (H3). The collected data were a basis to construct the model of linear regression. Findings: The results of the study carried out proved a strong statistically important relation between an audit fee for a financial statement and a size of an auditee expressed in a natural logarithm of the total assets. The essential relations were also confirmed between an audit fee for a financial statement and profitability of assets of audited companies, a category of an auditor and a number of Key Audit Matters verified during the audit and disclosed in the report by an statutory auditor. Furthermore, a relation between the amount of an audit fee for a financial statement and power of standards of reporting and auditing in a given country was confirmed. Research limitations/implications: On the one hand, the acceptance of a research sample narrowed down to the listed companies, doing business exclusively in the mining sector is an added value of the empirical research carried out, which enabled drawing conclusions for the chosen branch. On the other hand, the small research value limits the study. Practical implications: Our paper has some practical implications. The obtained results enable a comparison with the results of the previous empirical research and an evaluation of the determinants of the amount of audit fees of financial statements in the mining sector with other branches. Originality/value: Our paper contributes to the literature on financial audit, as its allows new insight into better understanding of the process of selecting an auditor and negotiating his remuneration in a specific industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial auditors, members of the Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors, are involved in the activity of verifying that the implementation of EU-funded projects is compliant with the relevant national and European legislation. They conclude audit contracts with the beneficiaries of European funds, perform external financial audit services upon the projects’ implementation activities and provide audit reports which are presented by beneficiaries to the management authorities in order to certify the eligibility of projects’ expenses for reimbursement. In this paper, our aim is to perform a study upon this specific segment of the financial audit services market in Romania, by collecting and analysing data related to the financial audit contracts which have been awarded through the national public procurement electronic system in the time period 2013-2021. Our research results will respond to some specific objectives. Firstly, this study establishes how the number of audit contracts is spread over the main operational programs implemented in Romania and through which the audited projects have been financed. Further, we aim to discover if the market concentration to a small number of local audit firms involved in this field, which has been proved in a previous study covering the period 2011-2012, maintained or not from year 2013 to date. Finally, we will obtain an overview of the main audit firms acting in this market segment, based on researching which firms gained the biggest number of audit contracts and performed most of the required audit engagements in the analysed period.

In a modern financial market, potential investors are constantly looking for high-yield and low-risk financial investments. Undoubtedly, the audit of financial statements is one of the processes that lead to minimizing the risk of financial loss, following a decision to invest in a particular company. It has already become normal for audit reports to include in addition to financial and non-financial information that could have an impact on the company's business in the future. The main objective of the study is to identify the impact of issuing audit reports on the value of shares of Romanian public companies. The paper evaluates the reaction of the Romanian stock market to the events of publishing audit reports that contain different types of audit opinions. The practical significance and relevance of the paper is due to the growing role of auditing on the financial market and the lack of such papers in the national literature.

The going concern hypothesis assumes the financial sustainability of the company in the future, being important the professional judgment of the auditor who affirms the reasonableness of the financial information in all its material aspects and promotes credibility in the global market. The audit report of 51 companies for the 2010-2020, period was analyzed, a logit regression and the Mann Whitney U test were applied with financial indicators. It is observed that ROA has a positive impact on the going concern assumption. The financial indicators analyzed are not that different before and during COVID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present scientific research is generated by the concern of bringing forth the validation and capitalization of the accounting truth and the appropiate image in accountancy by means of financial auditing, refering to the reforms of these two fields based on the profound changes of the last three decades, but especially of the present ones. The interest and importance of scientific research is enhanced by the researcher's ability to highlight the influence of financial auditing on the credibility of the financial statements of a public interest economic entity in expressing and validating both the accounting truth and the appropiate image of its financial position. Therefore, it finds solutions to users' requirments as well as to the needs of an efficient management process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial auditors, members of the recognized national professional bodies, provide independent services such as statutory audit of the annual financial statements published by economic entities and other financial audit services, out of which an important category is represented by the financial audit of projects financed through European funds. In this paper, we present a comparative study of the way these two activities are undertaken in Romania, from the point of view of the aspects concerning the regulatory and the transparency status of the audit services delivered. Following our analysis, we will present the common elements that have been identified between the two audit fields, the most important being the significant public interest presented by the audited information, the verification of the accounting of some complex economic transactions, the possibility of the appearance of errors and frauds in the process of the preparation and presentation of the audited information and the specific financial audit procedures that are applied by financial auditors in their audit work. Further, we will highlight the main differences existing between the two fields, respectively the legislative regulation as opposed to performing the audits based on the options of the management authorities or of the beneficiaries of the European funding, the different audit supervising bodies (ASPAAS - The Authority for Public Supervision of the Statutory Audit Activity and, respectively, CAFR - The Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania) and the situation regarding the ensuring of the transparency of the audit activities performed. As a result of this research, we draw conclusions about the necessity and the means through which the financial audit of EU-funded projects can be better organized, monitored and exploited in order to support the protection of the financial interests of the European Union and implicitly of the European citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Researcher Review is the property of Association of Arab Universities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, the scale of criminal activity has reached alarming levels and the globalisation of the financial services industry and advances in technology have made the financial aspects of crime increasingly complex. Money laundering and terrorist financing are most often carried out by economic entities. Accounting professionals in general and financial auditors in particular occupy positions that enable them to fight criminal acts of this nature. The overall aim of the research is to assess the extent to which the financial auditor can contribute to the prevention or mitigation of money laundering and terrorist financing at the level of audited companies, following the adoption of legislative changes. More specifically, the first direction of this research consists in identifying and analyzing the variables that characterize the susceptibility of the involvement of companies, listed on the BSE on the regulated market, in acts of money laundering and terrorist financing in the period 2019-2020 by sector of activity. The second direction of the research aims to assess the extent to which the financial auditor can contribute to preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing by identifying and reporting the factors of occurrence of risks of this nature as key audit issues. Statistical methods of multivariate data analysis are used to test the research hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that an economic and social entity, which keeps an accounting record in accordance with the provisions of the International Accounting Standards, carries out a credible and correct activity. The aim of the regular check of the activity of an enterprise by a professional in the field, who has adequate professional and moral qualities is that of generating trust in the accounting information provided by the entity. The importance of financial audit lies in the confirmation and increase of the credibility of the information found in the financial statements, indispensable for the future decisions of their users. The fact that the information was obtained and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting standards and principles makes it more plausible.

The going concern of an entity's activity is a fundamental accounting principle. The practical application of this principle has accounting, legal and financial implications. From an accounting point of view, the management of the entities shall be responsible for drawing up the financial statements in accordance with this principle. From a legal perspective, entities that go into liquidation are no longer obliged to respect the going concern principle. When auditing financial statements, auditors shall be responsible for assessing the adequacy of compliance with the principle of going concern and for including the appropriate references in their report. The objective of the paper is to analyse the reasons for including in the auditors' report the paragraph on going concern uncertainties, in the light of their evolution over time, their frequency and diversification. The sample included 120 companies listed on European stock exchanges, included in the main stock indexes for the period 2010-2020. The data was gathered from reports published by auditors that were included in the Audit Analytics database. The results showed that there was an average trend of 20 reported situations per year, but with a significant increase over the last two years analysed mainly due to the situations arising from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The most common reasons were liquidity risk, substantial liabilities and the refinancing of activities. In recent years there has been a diversification of reasons, but with a reduced frequency, such as the working capital, the decrease in stockholder equity and competitor threat. Reporting on going concern issues is of particular importance so that increasing transparency in the publication of this information can contribute to a higher degree of investor confidence in the entities' financial statements.

The digital era affects all the fundamental areas known so far. In meeting the high levels of competition and industry pressures, the organizations used IT systems to help them achieve market advantages by saving resources, developing domestically and adapting to the challenges posed by the external environment. This paper includes in the first part a description of the role of systems such as ERP, Business Intelligence, "Analytics", "Big Data" and Computer Assisted Audit Techniques – CAAT's in the activity of auditors but also in collecting and processing a large volume of data by those in charge with the financial accounting field. In the second part, with the help of the questionnaire, data on the use of these systems by Romanian auditors were collected and analysed.

Nowadays, various innovative and restructuring undertakings have been permanently integrated into the func-tioning of enterprises. Through fundamental changes they enable the company's internal equilibrium, balance with the business environment and, consequently, its market value and competitiveness. The aim of the study is to present the role of financial audit as an information and control tool supporting the restructuring process of enterprises. It was assumed that financial audit is a key element of the restructuring process, which is contrib-uting to efficient and effective rebuilding of the enterprise. It offers the possibility to accelerate strategic pro-cesses for businesses with both difficult economic and financial conditions and companies in good economic shape. Moreover, it also helps companies facing the challenges of today's tough competition and those that initiate changes in their business environment. Companies that do not keep books of accounts and therefore do not prepare financial statements have limited information on financial health and assets. Practice shows that financial reports remain the main source of financial information while the credibility, transparency and quality of disclosures are key to gaining stakeholders’ confidence and enriching the knowledge and experience of the company's management.

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Recommendations for the development of a state internal audit system in conditions of using digital technologies have been elaborated. It was established that the procedures of conducting state internal audits change under influence of digitization. Conformity of the stages of audit digitization and the applied digital technologies was established. Foreign experience in the digitization of the state internal audit was analyzed. It was also established that the active application of artificial intelligence technologies may be one of the probable scenarios of the development of the state internal audit system in foreign countries in the near future. Types of digital technologies were systematized depending on the field of state internal audit. It was found that the maximum effect from the use of digital technologies in the field of audit will take place in the case of their synergistic combination. Coordinated interaction between constituent elements of the state internal audit has been established. This has made it possible to present the process of development of the state internal audit system in conditions of digitization and determine its main objective: ensure greater transparency and efficiency of accounting for tangible assets by means of new digital technologies. Taking into account the above, a mechanism of development of the system of state internal audit in conditions of use of digital technologies was offered. It is based on corresponding directions and measures. It was established that to assess the efficiency of development of the state internal audit system in conditions of application of digital technologies, it is advisable to use the indicators reflecting overall results of measures taken in state financial control. The application of the proposed mechanism will make it possible to establish the effect of digital technologies on the development of the state internal audit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the financial audit process is carried out in an anachronistic manner by professionals in the field. Digitization is in itself a way to start dealing with the problems we have created in the past. The aim of the article is to try to highlight the benefits of a digitized process of automatic data processing in a financial audit. Digitization uses a number of integrated and complementary tools. The need to adopt integrative applications that have a good functioning and flexibility of processes, appears in a globalized environment with more and more varied accounting programs. For this, it must be taken into account that the accessibility of those interested is easy, simple, able to adapt to legislative changes and new technologies quickly, with transparent information, low implementation costs, protected from cyber attacks and last but not least to contributes to the elimination of fraud and better management.

This article examines how the event following the preparation of the financial statements for the year ended on December 31, 2019, namely Coronavirus pandemic caused by Sars-Cov 2 virus, was presented in the audit reports issued by financial auditors and by management in the financial statements or in the explanatory notes. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the audit reports and reports prepared by companies whose shares are traded on the regulated market of Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), taking into account the changes brought by COVID pandemic. In this survey, a sample of 84 companies listed on BVB was analysed, taking as a reference time, the year 2019 given that, starting with March 15, 2020, Romania entered into the state of emergency. The study involves a quantitative and qualitative model based on the analysis of all reports issued by companies listed on BVB and the issuance of statistics about the degree of congruence between financial reporting under IFRS and financial audit in the context of Coronavirus. The results show that only a small part (14.81%) of the audit reports contains aspects or elements communicated by the auditor to the users of the financial statements, regarding possible economic effects caused by the current pandemic. In the same time, most companies (70.37%) presented in the explanatory notes of the financial statements or in the management reports of the directors, the subsequent event from the end of the financial year until the preparation and the approval of the financial statements.

Investors use information presented in integrated reports to assess the manner in which companies create value in the context of corporate social responsibility and their decisions are marked by the truthfulness and quality of information provided by companies. Consequently, financial auditors have the role to provide assurance and credibility not only on the financial information presented within the financial statements, but also on the non-financial information published by companies. Based on the knowledge they gain on the audited client, the auditors are qualified to evaluate the link between the way the business strategy is carried out, corporate performance sand the impact of non-financial information upon sustainable development and also the deriving consequences from the corporate social responsibility point of view.This paper aims to make an analysis of the way in which financial auditors contribute to increasing the corporate social responsibility of companies through auditing non-financial reports they issue

Almost half of the Romanian companies have been victims of economic crime in the last two years, and over 50% of the economic crimes committed globally were caused by the inefficiency of internal control mechanisms, according to a PwC Report of May 2018. Under these conditions, it was necessary for economic entities to develop procedures that prevent, combat, but also report fraudulent behavior. The financial auditor has an important role to play in this direction, both for assessing the risk of fraud, in general, and for assessing the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, in particular. In this regard, recent changes were made to regulations issued at European and national level on the obligations of financial auditors for the establishment of measures to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing in the missions in which they are involved. This article aims, on the one hand, to highlight the financial audit procedures for assessing the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing identified in the audit missions of companies listed on the BSE, and on the other, to test the influence these risks on the reporting by the financial auditors of the suspicious transactions, but also on the audit opinion.

In a modern financial market, potential investors are constantly looking for high-yield and low-risk financial investments. Undoubtedly, the audit of financial statements is one of the processes that lead to minimizing the risk of financial loss, following a decision to invest in a particular company. It has already become normal for audit reports to include in addition to financial and non-financial information that could have an impact on the company's business in the future. The main objective of the study is to identify the impact of issuing audit reports on the value of shares of Romanian public companies. The paper evaluates the reaction of the Romanian stock market to the events of publishing audit reports that contain different types of audit opinions. The practical significance and relevance of the paper is due to the growing role of auditing on the financial market and the lack of such papers in the national literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial auditors, members of the Romanian Chamber of Financial Auditors, are involved in the activity of verifying that the implementation of EU-funded projects is compliant with the relevant national and European legislation. They conclude audit contracts with the beneficiaries of European funds, perform external financial audit services upon the projects’ implementation activities and provide audit reports which are presented by beneficiaries to the management authorities in order to certify the eligibility of projects’ expenses for reimbursement. In this paper, our aim is to perform a study upon this specific segment of the financial audit services market in Romania, by collecting and analysing data related to the financial audit contracts which have been awarded through the national public procurement electronic system in the time period 2013-2021. Our research results will respond to some specific objectives. Firstly, this study establishes how the number of audit contracts is spread over the main operational programs implemented in Romania and through which the audited projects have been financed. Further, we aim to discover if the market concentration to a small number of local audit firms involved in this field, which has been proved in a previous study covering the period 2011-2012, maintained or not from year 2013 to date. Finally, we will obtain an overview of the main audit firms acting in this market segment, based on researching which firms gained the biggest number of audit contracts and performed most of the required audit engagements in the analysed period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current global economic crisis caused by the SARS-COV-19 pandemic, mobilizes society to protect personal assets, implicitly, through safe investments with favorable returns. One of the solutions for individuals remains to be the money investments in the share capital of the entities listed on a regulated stock market. Individual investment strategies are becoming increasingly diversified due to the current volatile environment. In the same year 2020, within the Bucharest Stock Exchange, there was a massive withdrawal of investments followed by reaching a historical maximum number of active investors, which contributed to the recovery of the loss of the previous stock market capitalization until the end of the year. This paper aims to determine a link between ROI and EPS factors and change the investment strategy of individuals active on the Romanian stock market (BVB). To demonstrate that there is a link between these variables, the study starts from the financial information extracted from the annual reports of the companies together with the data on the shareholding structure provided by the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The starting point consists of a factorial analysis of the investment strategy (codified by changing the structure of the shareholding of individuals) based on the evolution of ROI and EPS indicators during the time period studied 2016-2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]