AUDIT ANALYTICS AUDIT

AUDIT ANALYTICS AND CONTINUOUS AUDIT:LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
operational reasons. The need to monitor and assure control settings and
the nature of overrides generated a new type of audit objective and
process.
Data
Data is in general stored in ERPs, in files for legacy systems, or in more
recent times in large repositories external to the organization that are
called big data (Vasarhelyi, Kogan, and Tuttle; 2015). The access to these
data for observation, monitoring, or mass retrieval requires the auditor’s
knowledge and extensive use of software tools. This access is not only
technically challenging but also organizationally difficult (Vasarhelyi,
Romero, Kuenkaikaew, and Littley; 2012).
1.2 Conceptualizing Various Elements of CA
Table 1-1 illustrates the uses, purposes, and approach of the expanded
model of continuous assurance differentiating between internal and
external usage and further differentiating between diagnostic, predictive,
and historic usage.
Table 1-1: Users, Purpose, and Approach of the Elements of Continuous
Assurance
Data
assurance Controls Compliance
Risk
monitoring
and
assessment
Operations
(monitoring)
Who uses
• Management X X X X X
• Audit (internal X X X
or external)
• Investors
X
• Regulators X X X
Purpose
• Diagnostic X X X X
• Predictive X X
• Historic X X X X X
Primarily performed by
• Automation X X X X X
• Manual X X X
Each of these elements is discussed in the following sections.
Continuous assurance (CA) has the potential to benefit a wide variety of
users. Management will be interested in all aspects, from data assurance
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