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The purpose of this research is to determine, first, whether an auditor, by conducting a statutory audit of the company’s financial statements, can improve the company’s non-quantitative information quality, and, second, whether the six leading audit firms in Greece improve the non-quantitative information quality more than other, smaller audit firms. The data are primary, arising from the published financial statements for the period from 2019 to 2022 of 84 companies operating in the agricultural supplies sector. These financial statements were retrieved in January 2024 from the General Commercial Registry of Greece. We have reviewed the management reports of these companies to examine their compliance with Greek legislation requirements on non-quantitative information reporting, i.e., on the entity’s performance, business risk management, and environmental and labor issues. We note that non-quantitative information reporting is improving during the period 2019–2022, regardless of the auditor’s involvement. The average reporting scores of audited companies are higher than the corresponding scores of non-audited companies, so the auditors have significantly improved the non-quantitative information reporting. In addition, the reporting scores of companies audited by six leading audit firms are higher than the corresponding scores of companies audited by the other, smaller audit firms. Full article

Research on auditing professionals’ perceptions of non-financial reporting and its assurance is relatively scarce, and the majority of the existing studies pay little attention to the assurance aspect. Our study contributes to strengthening this type of research by investigating Portuguese audit professionals’ perceptions of non-financial reporting and its assurance. The purpose of the current paper is to identify the perceptions of Portuguese audit professionals about non-financial reporting, particularly the responsibility for its preparation, its mandatory or voluntary natures, and how to improve non-financial reporting and its assurance. We also analyze whether these perceptions are associated with sex and work experience. The perceptions of statutory auditors were surveyed by using a questionnaire. Results allow us to conclude that Portuguese statutory auditors agree that non-financial reporting assurance is an important practice, and that company management should be responsible for the preparation and publication of non-financial reports. They consider that assurance of these reports should be conducted by a statutory auditor and think that the Institute of Portuguese Statutory Auditors should have a more active role in this matter. Notwithstanding, very few of the respondents have experience with this type of assurance, which may explain their acknowledgment of the importance of additional training. Work experience and sex do not influence the perceptions of the auditors. Findings suggest the existence of a positive attitude towards non-financial reporting and its assurance associated with the acknowledgement of its underdevelopment in Portugal. As far as we are aware, our study is the first to focus exclusively on Portuguese auditing professionals’ perceptions concerning non-financial reporting and assurance. Full article