Going Concern €“ Key Auditor Considerations

The principle going concern is a fundamental assumption in the preparation and presentation of financial statements. It is a sensitive assessment in audit arrangement that, in the case of an auditor's mistake, can leave multiple negative consequences for the business of the audited entity and its stakeholders, but also for entire accounting profession, and because of that, auditors with caution to access this issue i.e. its emphasis in the audit opinion. There are many factors that affect the auditor's assessment of the assumption of going concern of the audited entity, and in the first row are the items and indicators from the financial statements as a general tool for assessing the financial health of the company. The aim of this paper is to research the positions and indicators of financial statements that auditors can use for the going concern assessment of business entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, given the lack of research of this nature. On a sample of 148 audit reports for 2020 and 2021, the influence of the total assets, financial result of the period, liquidity coefficients, debt and current ratio, as well as the two-year trend of indicators on the auditor's assessment of the going concern of the audited entity were tested. The research showed that a negative business result, a higher debt ratio, a lower liquidity ratio, a lower current ratio and a decline in 3 of the 4 listed indicators increase the probability of emphasizing the issue of going concern in the audit report.