Global Journal of Management and Business Research, D: Accounting and Auditing, Volume 22 Issue 2

"N°2-601: general report on the annual accounts" for the annual accounts of individual companies and standard “No. 2-602: report on the consolidated accounts” for the consolidated statements. The same year, there was the integration by the LSF 2 Another milestone in the process of changing the audit report in France corresponds to the introduction of the "NEP 700 and 705." . Of the second part of the audit report, "Justification of the assessments" of the auditor. 3 standards respectively in 2007 and 2006. It should be noted that since the LSF in 2003, the standards audit has acquired the status of a ministerial decree which has made it possible to reinforce their applicability. This public nature makes these NSPs opposable to third parties and institutionalizes the normalizing role of the Company 4 c) Perception of the usefulness and use of the audit report by shareholders and other economic actors . Shareholders and investors nowadays seek to diversify the sources of information they consult to form an opinion on the solvency and profitability of the company. Among the documents required, we can cite the certified financial statements, mentioning the auditor’s opinionon the reliability of the audited accounts. The place of audit reports among the sources of information mobilized by bankers, for example, has been dealt with by certain researchers) [31,32; 19; 5;25;4; 30]. The main observation resulting from this work reveals that this report is only one element among others that shareholders and potential investors consult [25; 39; 21; 38]. In addition, the usefulness of this report varies according to its informational content, more particularly, according to the nature of the audit opinion expressed. In France, [38] specifies that the audit report occupies the 3rd place among the sources of information used by bankers, just after the financial statements, the appendices, and economic and sectoral data. In a study by [33]concerning the perception of audit reports with reservations by a sample of users, including bankers, the authors point out that the latter have difficulty understanding the sampling principle "testing" applied by auditors during their account verification. As for [33; 2], they highlight bankers' perception of the level of assurance provided by the audit report. Indeed, the audit opinion constitutes a form of guarantee for users regarding the reliability of the company's accounts. Similarly, this level of commitment is, in some cases, confronted with the materiality of the audit, which favors quantitative techniques, subject to criticism from bankers. These increasingly recurrent 2 Financial Security Law of 08/01/2003. 3 The NEP 700 standard was revised and approved by order of May 26, 2017. 4 Source: https://www.cncc.fr criticisms, open the way to materiality of the audit 5 In another study carried out, the American context, [2] specify that the extent to which stakeholders use the standard audit report (SAR) based on qualitative factors [29]. 6 III. I nformational and C ommunicational V alue of the F rench A udit R eport depends on their understanding of the message transmitted by the auditor. The authors emphasize the persistence of the gap in bankers' knowledge of the audit message. The common use of the audit report by bankers cannot be explained solely by factors related to its content but also by the very architecture of this document, which lacks consubstantiality. Similarly, the length of the audit report [11; 34] and the brevity of the information it contains [28; 37] seem to be at the origin of the weak attractiveness of this report to users. The review of these studies allows us to note the existence of a certain ambiguity around the working methods adopted by the auditors, also, in the understanding of specific technical terms [2], which therefore influence their perception of the audit opinion. Indeed, the vagueness that surrounds the auditor’s work can then explain the low use of the audit report by bankers or even certain economic operators. The audit report has often been the subject of numerous criticisms relating to its informational contribution and the content of the message it conveys. The communicative value of this report is called into question by authors who highlight the limited communicative potential of this report that does not manage to compete with other information media. a) Use of the audit report by companies Audit reports used by several professionals has been the subject of several studies [19; 33], mainly in the Anglo-Saxon context. Most of this research shows the low usefulness of the audit report, which unfortunately does not constitute a significant source of information for readers. In the French context, the work of [22] shows the insufficient attention paid by readers to the financial information contained in audit reports. These raises questions about the communication ensured by the audit reports. One of the elements that may explain the low attractiveness of the audit report is the binary nature of this document, whether or not it validates the financial 5 The materiality of the audit allows the auditor to determine the extent of the audit work, to make a judgment on the material nature of the accounting anomalies that he may have identified and to ultimately issue an opinion on the reliability and the sincerity of the accounting documents. Materiality is set according to quantitative criteria, but also qualitative criteria defined by professional standards (Lahbari and Manita, 2011). 6 Unqualified audit report. Informational Performance of Audit Reports Content: Case of French Companies Listed on the Stock Exchange during the Decade 2010-2020 3 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue II Version I Year 2022 ( )D © 2022 Global Journals