Is Timeliness of Corporate Financial Reporting Related to Accounting Variables? Evidence From Istanbul Stock Exchange
Bengü Vuran, Burcu Adiloğlu

Abstract
Financial reports are intended to meet the needs of decision makers. Accordingly, timeliness is identified as one of the characteristics of information in financial reporting. To accomplish this objective, financial reports must be available on time to inform decision making. Therefore, financial reports should be published as soon as possible after the end of the accounting period. The usefulness of financial statements is impaired if they are not made available to users within a reasonable period after the reporting date. A company should be in a position to issue its financial statements timely. Ongoing factors such as the complexity of an entity’s operations are not sufficient reason for failing to report on a timely basis. More specific deadlines are dealt with by legislation and regulations in many jurisdictions. Because of the fact that the timing of corporate disclosures and the variables associated with this issue have attracted the attention of a number of researchers in recent years. This study examines the relationship between the the timeliness of corporate financial reporting and accounting and auditing related variables of listed non financial companies in Istanbul Stock Exchange for the year 2009 by using chi-square analysis for both consolidated and seperate audited financial statements. The results reveal that, for seperate audited financial statements timeliness of the financial statements are related with the sign of net income, sign of ROA, current ratio and the audit opinion, for consolidated audited financial statements, timeliness of the financial statements are related with the sign of total equity/ total assets and cash flow from operations/interest expense.

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