Going-concern Information in auditor's report-empirical study

2002年1月，日本对审计准则进行了修订，修订的特点之一是要求在审计报告中提供额外的信息。所需的补充信息包括：(1)会计变更；(2)后续事项；(3)或有事件；(4)持续经营疑问。财务报表是以持续经营假设为基础的。然而，问题是，当对企业是否持续经营存在重大疑问时，管理层和审计师应如何处理该事项？GC信息，即所谓的“危险信号”信息，在日本泡沫经济破裂时成为一个问题。本研究将检查额外的GC信息是如何呈现的。我对必须遵守证券交易法的公司进行了三次调查，并公布了以下结果。(1)额外提供GC信息的上市公司整体减少。(2)上市公司和非上市公司在新证券交易市场提供额外GC信息的情况有所增加。(3)超出资产的负债，作为提供额外GC信息的理由，急剧减少。另一方面，作为提供额外GC信息的原因，损失数据负现金流（这两者的组合）增加了。超过资产的负债可以客观判断，但损失数据和负现金流量的组合不能客观判断。因此，管理层提供GC信息的时机是一个关键问题。

In January 2002, Japanese auditing standards were revised, and one of the characteristics of the revision was that additional information was required in the auditor's report. The additional information required included : (1)accounting changes, (2)subsequent events, (3)contingency events, (4)going concern doubt.Financial statements are based on the going-concern assumption. However, the question is, how should the management and the auditor deal with the matter when substantial doubt exist as to whether the business is a going-concern. GC information, so-called "red flag" information, became an issue at the time of the bursting of the bubble economy in Japan.This research is to examine how the additional GC information is being presented. I made three investigations of companies which have to observe the Securities Exchange Act and published the following results.(1)Listed companies giving additional GC information decreased as a whole.(2)The giving of additional GC information by companies in the new stock exchange market for listed and unlisted companies increased.(3)Liabilities in excess of assets, as the reason for giving additional GC information, decreased sharply. On the other hand, loss data negative cash flow (a combination of these two), as a reason for giving additional GC information, increased.Liabilities in excess of assets can be judged objectively, but the combination of loss data and negative cash flow cannot be judged objectively. Therefore the timing of the management's giving of GC information is a key issue.