Auditing Information Systems, Second Edition

13.1. COMPUTER-ASSISTED AUDIT TECHNIQUES

Internal and external auditors of many organizations and firms have developed and implemented computer-assisted audit techniques (CAATs) that have greatly increased the efficiency and effectiveness of their audits. Through the use of CAATs, the productivity and value of their audits and consulting services to their clients has also increased. A CAAT can be defined as any computer program or application that has been used to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of an audit process through the automation of previously manual procedures, expansion of the scope of audit coverage, or the creation of new audit procedures. The most powerful CAATs are the ones that independently search databases for information that could indicate the existence of significant or material control weaknesses or operational inefficiencies. Examples of tools that provide the ability for auditors to perform these types of CAATs include report-writing applications that accompany many vendor information systems; off-the-shelf database, spreadsheet and data analysis applications; and data warehouses. The keys to the successful deployment of these CAATs are the integrity and reliability of the data on which the CAATs are dependent, the independence of the method in which the data was obtained, and the timeliness with which the data is available.

Report-writing applications or modules that accompany vendor information systems have the advantage of extracting the desired ...