Continuous auditing technologies and models: A discussion

1. Continuous auditing technologies and models: A discussion Source: computers & security 25(2006), pp. 325-331 Authors: S. Flowerday, A.W. Blundell, R. Von Solms Speaker: Cheng-Yee Lee

2. Introduction • Information Audit • ‘‘A systematic examination of information use, resources and flows, with a verification by reference to both people and existing documents’’.

3. Introduction • Continuous auditing (CA) • Current audit practices take too long to provide assurances • To provide real time assurances, continuous auditing is desired • ‘‘a methodology that enables independent auditors to provide written assurance on a subject matter using a series of auditors’ reports issued simultaneously with, or a short time after, the occurrence of events underlying the subject matter • This paper surveys 3 CA models, and introduce their concept.

4. CA models • Continuous auditing building automated auditing capability (Rezaee et al., 2002) Data Mart Format Transform Client/ Transaction system Periodic test Collect data and send

5. CA models • Towards a paradigm for continuous auditing (Onions, 2003) 1 keystroke level data examination Client/ Transaction system One transaction 2 Client/ Transaction system Long period test

6. CA models • Continuous audit: model development and implementation within a debt covenant domain (Woodroof and Searcy, 2001) Report is generated on demand Client’s system Auditor’s system Agent Agent Ask for report Collect data According contract Extract data if returned report is more than auditor’s need

7. Conclusion • Within real-time accounting systems, real-time assurances are not only desirable, but are possible. • Data exchange format is important, and XML technology is of great help to such issue.