Communicating key audit matters in the independent auditor's report: Comparison of independent auditor's reports for years of 2019-2020 of the businesses listed on BIST 100

In recent years, due to the financial crises and business scandals in the global economy, there has been a difference in expectations from independent auditing between auditors and audit report users. Due to the financial crisis and scandals, the confidence in independent auditing has been shaken, causing financial information users to demand more descriptive, detailed, and reliable information about companies. Many studies have been carried out at the international level to increase the reliability of independent audit activities and to regain lost trust. PCAOB and IAASB initiated the "Auditor Report Project" in 2011 to provide more transparency regarding the audit conducted and to increase the communication value of independent audit reports with information users. As a result of this study, a new standard was published in 2015 called ''Communicating Key Audit Matters in the Independent Auditor's Report''. In our country, the Public Oversight Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority published BDS 701 on March 9, 2017, based on this standard. The purpose of this research is to conduct a content analysis to determine which key audit matters are considered more important in the independent audit reports of companies traded in the BIST 100 index between 2019-2020 to ensure transparency and quality. According to the results obtained from the research, 75% of the companies in 2019 and 79% in 2020 were audited by the "Big Four ". In 2019, 89% of 100 auditors' reports reported "unmodified opinion", 11% reported " qualified opinion", while in 2020, 87% of 100 auditors' reports reported " unmodified opinion " and 13% reported " qualified opinion ".It has been determined that the sectors with the highest number of companies in 2019-2020 are manufacturing and financial institutions, respectively, and the most reported key audit matters are revenue, tangible and intangible assets, trade and financial receivables, TFRS 16 leases standard and goodwill, respectively. Keywords: Independent Audit, Key Audit Matters, BDS 701, BIST 100