Key audit matters in independent audit: An investigation on independent auditor reports of businesses in BİST

Accounting and audit scandals in the early 2000 have left the credibility of independent auditing questionable. The decrease in confidence in the audit process with the global economic crises has also changed the expectations of financial statement users from independent auditing. Information users have started to request more comprehensive information about the independent audit activity carried out. In order to prevent problems in the financial context, which also affected independent audit reports, international audit standards were established to increase the quality and confidence of the audit and independent audit reports were aimed to become standard. The International Independent Audit and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has published standard 701 titled "Reporting of Key Audit Matters in the Independent Audit Report". In parallel with these developments, the Public Oversight Authority in Turkey prepared the BDS 701 Standard for Reporting Key Audit Matters in the Audit Report and the standard was published in the Official Gazette in 2017 to be implemented as of 01.01.2017. In the study, independent audit reports of companies traded in BİST for 2017-2020 were examined and the key audit Matters included in the independent audit reports of these companies were evaluated.