What is Auditing?

Auditing is the process of assessment and ascertaining of financial,

operational, and strategic goals and processes in organizations to
determine whether they are in compliance with the stated principles in
addition to them being in conformity with organizational and more
importantly, regulatory requirements.
In accounting, we look at the different accounting rules, journal
entries, financial statements, and other bookkeeping duties. All these
tasks are important because, with these skills, accountants can then be
involved in an engagement team to perform an audit on both internal
and external clients. The most common audits are performed by the Big
Four accounting firms for large publicly-traded companies around the
world. To summarize the auditing process, see the diagram
below:

The financial statements in the first box, which include the balance
sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, and note
disclosures, are evaluated against some form of accounting criteria,
such as Generally Accepted Principles of Accounting (GAAP). Different
regions around the world adhere to different accounting standards.
Commonly used standards include the IFRS or US GAAP. The bottom
line is that these are established criteria that are known publicly.
Finally, the work culminates in an audit report where the findings are
communicated to the users.
AUDIT SOFTWARES (COMPUTER ASSISTED AUDIT
TECHNIQUES)
A wide range of software now exists that auditors might find useful
during an audit. In this light, one must have an understanding of the
nature of the software, the functions it can perform, where it might be
used within an audit, and its inherent strengths and limitations. In this
chapter, generalized audit software, industry-specific audit software,
high-level languages, utility software that auditors often use during the
evidence-collection process phase of an audit and specialized software
that auditors sometimes must develop and implement to address
needs that cannot be met satisfactorily using the said four types audit
software is presented.

COMPUTER ASSISTED AUDIT TECHNIQUES (CAAT)

Today’s auditors work constantly with computerized records. It is likely
that many audit clients have eliminated or will eliminate a substantial
portion of their paper documents and replace them with electronic
documents filed only in computerized form. An auditor who is unable
to use computerized audit tools effectively will be at a tremendous
disadvantage. Therefore, today’s auditor must be equipped with the
understanding of alternative tools and approaches to test the
operations of computerized systems and gather and analyze data
contained in computerized files. The following are the five major
reasons for an auditing firm to incorporate computers in their practices:
 Increased productivity because auditors can complete routine
tasks faster, improve consistency, and focus more on significant
issues;
  Audited tasks that might be impractical or impossible to perform
manually can be completed;
 Reduced cost due to diminished time required to complete the
audit work;
 Competitive advantage gained and client perception of the
auditor, the firm, and the quality of the services provided
improved;
 Ability to cope with difficult tasks without corresponding staff
increases.

During the course of the audit an IS auditor should obtain sufficient,

relevant and useful evidence to effectively achieve the audit objectives.
The audit findings and conclusions have to be supported by appropriate
analysis and interpretation of this evidence. With systems having
different hardware and software environments, different data
structure, record formats, processing functions, etc., it is almost
impossible for the auditors to collect evidence and analyze the records
without a software tool. Owing to resource constraints and the ever
changing audit objectives it is almost impossible to quickly develop
audit capabilities, without some sort of CAATs.
AUDITING SOFTWARES USED AND THEIR APPLICABILITY IN
THE RECENT TIMES

Form.com is a comprehensive auditing platform that offers businesses

the scalability and flexibility to collect mission-critical data and the
corresponding business forms to facilitate data collection. It also
provides robust automation and customization capabilities to
streamline and improve a wide range of workflows and tasks.
This multi-awarded audit software is a feature-packed solution that
businesses of any size will need. For instance, it allows seamless field-
to-office collaboration among teams as well as provides an integrated
inspection solution. Likewise, its dynamic forms boost audit efficiency
and speed while sustaining a single version of the truth.
What’s more, this integrated solution has ready-made audit and
inspection modules for businesses in various sectors. Further, it offers
functionalities to simplify data collection, management, and reporting.
And once you deploy Form.com, it can readily match your existing
infrastructure.

Key Form.com Features

 Integrated audit platform
 Process audit and checklists
 Offline forms with mobile capability
 Highly flexible, can be used in any industry
 Real-time audit data analysis
Cygna Auditor (formerly Knowledge Vault) is considered a top choice
for auditing software due to its robust auditing and inspection
capabilities, as well as its advanced reporting and analytics and smart
business management features. This cloud-based auditing solution
offers a wide array of tools and functionalities, including auditing and
analysis, as well as compliance with industry and legal regulations.
This solution provides sophisticated and cost-effective inspection,
discovery, reporting, and management functionalities. These features
enable IT managers and cloud administrators to secure and optimize
cloud-based productivity suites.
Finally, it optimizes license management and service usage to help
companies achieve significant cost savings. In addition, it can
streamline policy administration, reporting, and analytics.
Key Cygna Auditor Features
 Control and manage Exchange 365 migration projects
 Optimize usage of services and license management
 Tighten security with proactive insights into permission and other
security-related changes and activities
Netwrix Auditor is another auditing platform given a high rating by our
experts and users alike. It is designed primarily to be used by IT auditors
and program managers. Also, this user-friendly and easy-to-configure
auditing software helps businesses conduct audits to ensure
compliance with internal protocols and policies. As a result, this helps
ensure robust business data protection and solid access control.
What’s more, it works as an IT security software by enabling users to
easily detect security threats and risks to business data and IT systems.
It also provides effortless access to compliance documents to readily
determine the level of system adherence to internal and external
security policies and regulations. Deployed either as an on-premise or
cloud-based IT system, this auditing solutions can readily track data
access and create reports on any modifications done by users or staff in
an IT network.

Key Netwrix Auditor Features

 Tracking of user behaviors and activities
 Alerts on active directory changes in real-time
 Lockdown overexposed data
MasterControl Audit is a digital audit management platform for life
science firms and similar organizations. This platform is part of a suite
of comprehensive quality and compliance management tools. In
essence, this solution is designed to help these organizations efficiently
and consistently conduct audit processes.
Featuring a drag-and-drop calendar, it also helps regulatory agencies
achieve considerable resource and time savings through intuitive
planning and scheduling of organizational assets. It also provides
automated audit report generation and approval.

Key MasterControl Audit Features

 Increased visibility over total quality management systems
 Controlled response collection
 Powerful reporting functionalities.
Onspring Audit Software is a cloud-based internal audit management
software that helps businesses make strategic plans, perform more
efficiently, and empower their internal audit teams for better
outcomes. This platform is designed to foster better control,
transparency, and team performance of company-wide audit activities.
This audit solution allows businesses to align crucial business objectives
and risks with audit programs. Moreover, it can quickly produce audit
documentation in various formats as well as introduce accountability
for better issue resolution.

Key Onspring Audit Features

 Numerous tools to boost internal audit efficiency
 Issue management module
 Supports dynamic reporting delivery
AUDITING SOFTWARES
USED AND
APPLICABILITY IN
RECENT TIMES

NAME: ROMI SHAGUN BAA

ROOM NUMBER: 13
ROLL NUMBER: 102
SUBJECT: AUDITING & CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
GROUP 1
B.COM (HONOURS) MORNING
SEMETER 6