Digital Transformation of Agribusiness Enterprises' Financial Statement Audit

The development of information technologies for accounting and financial reporting necessitates the digital transformation of financial reporting audits. The article aims to study the possibilities of using information technologies to conduct financial statement audits and outline the directions for further digital transformation of auditing agribusiness enterprises. The study results show that audit companies use a wide range of software solutions to conduct financial statement audits: from specialized programs to cloud products that provide communication with the customer. The possibility of implementing software solutions depends on whether the audit company has enough resources to master them. The reasons that hinder digital transformation in the audit field are the high cost of software, the complexity of unifying information obtained from accounting information systems, the need to bring the audit methodology into line with the requirements of the software product, the need for staff training and regular product updates, and software support. Introduction of reporting using the SAF-T file by European countries opens broad prospects for the digital transformation of auditing. SAF-T is an electronic reporting standard in XML format for exchanging accounting data. Its main goal is to simplify the submission of accounting data at the request of a state body or auditor. The Concept for Implementing Electronic Audit of Taxpayers in Ukraine provides for the voluntary submission of data in the SAF-T UA format from 2023. The study found that information from the SAF-T UA file is a reliable source of audit evidence to confirm financial reporting data and tax returns. Auditors can use such files during an audit, in particular, to plan their actions, identify risks, and perform audit procedures. The development of software for auditing financial statements should consider the possibility of the auditor using the SAF-T UA file, which contains all the necessary structured information.