The impact generated by the need to publicise Key Audit Matters: The auditor's professional scepticism

With the disclosure guidelines of ISA 701 (in Brazil NBC TA 701), the audit report began to document a discretionary section called Key Audit Matters (KAM), the purpose of which is to disclose issues or critical points identified by the auditors, which they recognised as important for a better understanding of the financial statements by external users, as well as an understanding of the procedures carried out by the auditors themselves. Through a documentary analysis of 16 audit reports relating to 8 financial statements without KAM (2015) and 8 financial statements with KAM (2016), as well as the respective working papers, external circularisation letters and workbooks prepared by the audit teams, obtained from a specific external audit firm that is relevant in the Brazilian domestic market, Information was tabulated on procedures, qualified opinion, control points, accounting adjustment points and level of formalisation, with the aim of verifying whether the need to disclose the KAM paragraph made auditors more sceptical when carrying out audit work.