The super-auditor, perpetual beta and pervasive performativity

Abstract

The paper advocates a ‘super-audit’ that assesses the company's future and what that says about the share price or another valuation. Most audit ‘failures’ relate to an assessment of the future whether that be going concern issues, impairments, long-term contracts, provisions, likely changes in the business environment and so forth. The paper suggests a focus on improving the auditor's skills in assessing the future and the leverage of such skills to look at market value added and the share price as a service to the investment community and those who rely on share prices being fair and reasonable. The super-audit report becomes akin to an investment analyst's research report and intended to be an influence on share prices. Many companies around the world currently receive little, or no, or low-quality research coverage. Inevitably many unanswered questions remain for the super-audit about appointment, remuneration, timings, legal liability, professional education and so forth. They are challenging but not insurmountable and make us think more deeply about the same challenges in relation to the conventional audit. The biggest challenge is how the auditor should progress the process of understanding the business and its future.