AUDIT SOFTWARE
Chapter 16
Generalized Audit Software
Off-the-shelf software that provides a means to
gain access to and manipulate data maintained on
computer storage media.
• Motivations for generalized audit software
development
The set of problems caused by the diversity
of computerized information processing
environments that auditors might confront.
Functional Capabilities of
Generalized Audit Software
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File access
File reorganization
Selection
Statistical
Arithmetic
Stratification and frequency analysis
File creation and updating
Reporting
Audit tasks that can be
accomplished using generalized
audit software
• Examine the quality of data
• Examine the quality of system
processes
• Examine the existence of the
entities the data purports to
represent
• Undertake analytical review
Functional limitations of
generalized audit software
• Generalized audit software permits
auditors to undertake only ex post auditing
and not concurrent auditing
• Generalized audit software has only
limited capabilities for verifying
processing logic
• It is difficult for auditors to determine
the application system’s propensity for
error using generalized audit software
The phases should be managed:
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Feasibility analysis and planning
Design
Coding & testing
Operation, evaluation and
documentation
Utility Software
Software that performs fairly specific
functions that are needed
frequently, often by a large number
of users, during the operation of
computer systems.
Auditors can use utility
software to :
• Facilitate assessment of security and
integrity.
• Facilitate gaining an understanding of an
application system
• Assess data quality.
• Assess program quality.
• Facilitate program development
• Facilitate assessing operational efficiency.
Expert Systems
• Programs that encapsulate the
knowledge that human experts have
about a particular domain and possess
capabilities to reproduce this
knowledge when presented with a
particular problem.
Neural Network Software
• It is used primarily for pattern
recognition, learning, and
classification purposes.
• The network learns by adjusting
internal weights among its
components until it can predict the
output based on the input pattern.
Specialized audit software
• Software written in a procedureoriented or problem-oriented
language to fulfill a specific set of
audit tasks.
• 3 ways to developed audit software:
– Auditors can take total responsibility
for developing and implementing the
software themselves.