An Empirical Investigation of Internal and External Factors Associated with Audit Report Lag in Indonesia

Abstract

. The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence regarding the effect of profitability, leverage, liquidity, auditor opinion, and public accounting firm’s (Kantor Akuntansi Publik/KAP) reputation on audit report lag. The independent variables in this study are profitability measured by using ROA, leverage measured by using DER, liquidity measured by using CR, auditor's opinion measured by using interval variables, where two of them are for companies that get unqualified opinion without exception, and the other one is for companies that get opinions other than unqualified opinion. Accounting firm reputation are measured by using interval variables, where two of them are for companies affiliated with The Big Four of public accounting firm (KAP) and the other one is for companies other than affiliated with The Big Four of public accounting firm (KAP). This study uses secondary data from annual financial reports listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. This study's population was 34 transportation sector companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period of 2014-2018. By using purposive technique sampling, obtained 26 company samples with 130 observations. The results show that simultaneously profitability, leverage, liquidity, auditor opinion, and public accounting firm’s reputation significantly affect the timeliness of financial reporting. Meanwhile, partial testing shows that profitability, liquidity, leverage, auditor opinion, and accounting firm’s reputation significantly affect audit report lag