FINANCIAL CHARACTERISTICS, AUDIT COMMITTEE ACTIVITY, AND AUDIT REPORT LAG IN INDONESIAN REAL ESTATE COMPANIES)

Abstract

Timely audited financial reporting preserves the relevance of accounting information, yet audit completion remains uneven among Indonesian property and real estate companies, whose valuation, financing, and consolidation processes create verification demands. This study examines whether firm size, profitability, leverage, audit committee meeting frequency, and accounting complexity explain audit report lag. A quantitative explanatory design was applied to annual reports of property and real estate companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2020–2022. Purposive sampling produced 25 companies and 75 firm-year observations. Data were collected through documentation and analyzed using descriptive statistics, classical-assumption tests, multiple linear regression, t-tests, an F-test, and adjusted R-squared. Audit report lag averaged 95.16 days and ranged from 41 to 238 days. The model was jointly significant (F = 4.613; p = 0.001) and explained 22.3% of lag variation. Profitability and audit committee meeting frequency significantly reduced audit report lag, whereas firm size, leverage, and accounting complexity were not significant. The findings indicate that timely audit completion depends more on performance incentives and active governance oversight than on structural firm attributes alone. Companies should strengthen audit committee coordination and early financial-close preparation, while future studies should incorporate auditor specialization, digital audit maturity, and panel estimators.