Purpose: – This paper aims to hypothesise that demographic characteristics of managers play a significant role in performing their duties amongst which is financial reporting. This study aims to examine whether CEO characteristics, namely, tenure and financial expertise, are associated with audit report timeliness. Design/methodology/approach: – Data from companies listed on the Oman capital market between 2007 and 2011 and three proxies for audit report timeliness are used. Findings: – CEO tenure and CEOs with financial expertise are reported to be associated with timely audit reports. Supplementary tests also confirmed this result. In addition, it is suggested and documented that there is an interaction effect between CEO tenure and financial expertise concerning the timeliness of audit reports. The use of a two-stage least square analysis also supported the main results. Research limitations/implications: – Hypotheses were tested using data from Oman with a relatively small sample size. Therefore, only a few characteristics of the CEO were considered and a more sophisticated approach of testing managers’ effect on company policies was unable to be used. In addition, the generalisability of the study findings should be made carefully. Originality/value: – This paper differs from prior studies, in that it extends the audit report timeliness literature by examining whether the CEO tenure and CEOs with financial expertise are associated with audit report timeliness. Findings demonstrate that CEO characteristics are important factors for a timely audit report.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the characteristics of the audit committee (AC) chair affect audit report timeliness. In particular, the direct association between AC chair accounting expertise and audit report delay, and the moderating effect of other characteristics of AC chair on this association are examined.Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the purpose of this study, the characteristics examined by this study are AC chair expertise, shareholding, tenure and multiple directorships. Furthermore, a sample of Malaysian companies during the period 2005–2011 and the fixed effects panel data method are utilized.Findings: The results suggest that an AC chair with accounting expertise is associated with a reduction in audit delay. The reduction is more obvious when the chair holds shares in the company, but is weakened by longer tenure and multiple directorships. These results are robust after conducting several robust tests. Using mediating analysis, the authors also document that an AC chair with accounting expertise can enhance the timeliness of audit reports even when the quality of financial reporting is lower. The reported result is supported by additional analysis that finds that AC chairs with accounting expertise and AC chairs with accounting expertise and shareholding are significantly associated with shorter abnormal audit delay.Originality/value: This study provides comprehensive analysis concerning the association between AC chair and audit report timeliness using a unique setting. It is among the limited evidence that reports the moderating effect of AC chair characteristics on the role of such chair on audit report timeliness.

Purpose: The worldwide spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significant effects on financial markets and companies, causing an unprecedented level of uncertainty in reporting and auditing companies' financial statements. This study explores whether and how COVID-19 affects audit fees.Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 268 firm-year observations from the Omani capital market between 2017 and 2020, the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with a robust standard error is applied to answer the research question of this study.Findings: The authors find that the pandemic has a significant and positive association with audit fees and abnormal audit fees. This finding suggests that the threat of risk, complexity and legal liability circumstances resulting from the pandemic can be compensated by charging higher audit fees. In addition, the authors provide evidence that Big4 audit firms are those most responding to COVID-19 by charging higher audit fees. Finally, the authors conclude that large companies are less sensitive to the pandemic.Practical implications: Users of financial reports and audit firms should anticipate changes in the audit efforts resulting in increased audit fees during COVID-19. Thus, this paper may guide practitioners and businesses in determining the audit fees and associated costs of any potential pandemic.Originality/value: The study results are among the earliest empirical insights into the effect of COVID-19 on audit fees in Oman.

Purpose: This study investigates the consequences of the key audit matter (KAM) disclosure requirement by considering two salient audit proxies: audit fees and audit report lag. This investigation is relevant because most auditors worldwide are required to expand their audit report including discussion on key matters faced in the audit engagement. However, the emerging literature on the implications of KAM is inconclusive.Design/methodology/approach: Using a distinctive dataset of 601 year-observations for firms listed on the Omani capital market over 2012–2019, this study employs pooled panel data regression with robust standard error.Findings: Results indicate that auditors increased their fees considerably during the period of KAM but substantially shortened audit report lag. Conversely, using the KAM period as a sample, the authors find marginal or insignificant evidence for the effect of the number of KAM on both proxies. In additional analyses, this study shows that entity-level risk KAM is associated with higher fees and shorter audit report lag, while KAM related to account-level risk does not have the same effect. Interestingly, it is observed that KAM disclosure is strongly associated with higher fees and high-quality audit even when the auditors issue their report in a shorter time.Originality/value: This study contributes to the limited research examining the consequences of KAM in emerging markets. It is also the first to show that KAM is associated with shorter audit report lag.