The impact of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems on the audit report lag

Prior research has shown that the implementation of ERP systems can significantly affect a firm's business operations and processes. However, scant research has been conducted on the relationship between ERP implementation and the timeliness of external audits, such as audit report lags. While some of the alleged benefits of ERP are closely related to removing impediments contributing to audit report lags, others argue that the complex mechanisms of ERP systems create greater complexity for control and audit. In this paper, we examine the relationship between ERP implementations and audit report lags. The test results indicate that overall, a firm's ERP implementation is negatively associated with audit report lag. However, this negative association is significant only at the fourth and fifth years after initial ERP implementation. These results imply that the use of ERP systems by client firms may help decrease the audit report lag, but it takes time for the full impact of the firms' accounting systems to be realized.