The audit software provides direct financial analysis using various methods and calculates a large number of economic indicators that allow you to analyze business plans.
Special software for automation of auditing activities
Nowadays the audit companies use special information systems, focused on the internal regulation of auditing activities with the use of internal company standards.To guarantee a good quality of audit services, it is necessary to carry out the functions of developing accounting forms, documents, as well as to calculate the audit risk, the level of reliability and materiality, the sample size.
There are two basic strategies in building audit systems:
- minimization of costs for the input of initial data;
- minimization of the risk of missing erroneous data in financial documents.
Choosing the first strategy, you can use the input of information like “yes-no”, which is set by a number of tests, or partially refuse to enter the client’s accounting information. This path can lead to a significant risk of missed errors.
The second strategy requires significant data input. To reduce these costs, you can focus on the client’s primary information, which reflects all financial and business transactions at the analytical and synthetic levels. For this purpose, you can use the conversion of data from the client’s accounting system into the software environment of the audit system or adaptation of the audit system to the structure of the client’s information base.
Types of audit software
The internal market for special audit information systems is just beginning to develop. There are three types of audit programs on the world market:
- special software for computer audit;
- software tools to support audit procedures;
- packages of applied programs for general and problem-oriented purposes.
The first type of program – special computer audit software is designed to audit the client’s computer system directly by testing it using various methods. The result is a conclusion about the actual efficiency of control procedures and data protection in the system, which allows you to assess the risk of the ineffectiveness of control and determine the possibility of using the client’s database in the audit.
The second type of program – software tools for supporting audit procedures – provides work with large amounts of data checked during the performance of audit procedures (for example, checking and analyzing records, comparing data from various files, marking and printing samples, generating reports, etc.). An example of such software is a Virtual Data Room, which is defined as a secure repository for data.
Virtual Data Room – a reliable tool for successful Due Diligence
With the help of data rooms, the records are audited and analyzed based on certain criteria to determine their quality, completeness, and correctness. Data Rooms provide information and consulting services for auditors in the evaluation process, which allows them to conclude with sufficient confidence that the company’s accounting complies with the documents and requirements of regulatory enactments governing the accounting procedure.
The block of Due Diligence procedures is the largest and most important. It includes the following elements:
- audit work programs by section;
- forms-procedures for each section of the audit;
- test forms for individual sections of the audit;
- conclusions by sections of the audit.
This block implements a strategy for optimizing the amount of information that is entered into the Data Room while minimizing the risk of audit errors. This is the most complex part of the automation of the system, aimed at establishing links between the auditor’s information when performing the procedures, the calculated values of materiality and sampling, and the formation of the auditor’s opinion on a specific section.