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Total Number of Subscribers: 426 |
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Date: 8 April 2008 |
Compiled by Mr. M. Sathya Kumar |
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AUDIT - Edged by IT Astral Consulting says
its CAAT software works out real cool. With organisations moving from the traditional system to the
new economy, the role of auditing too is undergoing a metamorphosis. "The traditional role of internal auditing was one of
security, compliance, certification and investigation. Its emerging role,
however, is constructive, participative, consultative, proactive, advisory
and catalytic. Internal auditing focuses more on where a business is going
rather than simply debating on where it has been," says Srivatsan,
Director, Astral Consulting. Srivatsan has kept pace with the changes. Though he started
his career as a Chartered Accountant 25 years ago, he has, over the years,
graduated into offering management consultancy services too for corporates in
India and abroad. While technology as a tool has reduced the burden of an
accountant, the internal auditor is forced to go that extra mile before
certifying the statement as `true and fair'. `Our job is half-done, not
complete, even though the presentation is neat and the balances tally,' he
says. How does his team conduct the random check? `We have developed a tool - CAAT (Computer Assisted Audit
Technique), which involves the use of computer in the audit process. CAAT
incidentally, will allow us to have access to the client's data independent
of the system, test the reliability of the software and perform audit checks
more efficiently. It also helps to analyse and interpret the data,' adds
Srivatsan. Say, for instance, the audit team wants to verify the serialisation
of vouchers to detect gaps in the sequence or extract information of
transactions that have exceeded a certain limit - it can be a strain on the
eye to check the system-generated printout and a time-consuming task. This
tool would indicate the list at the press of a button. CAAT is used in testing the details of transactions and
balances, for identifying inconsistencies or significant fluctuation tests of
general controls, re-performing calculations done by the entity's accounting
systems, in application controls, etc. It may not be possible to perform certain audit procedures
manually because they involve huge data. Computer information systems would
perform such tasks for which no hard copy evidence would be available and it
could be impracticable for the auditor to perform the tests manually. At times the source of information would be initiated
electronically, as in interest calculation and discounts. There is no
specific authorisation for such transactions. These can be verified with the
use of this tool, says Srivatsan. The auditor, should, however set the objective of CAAT
application, determine the content and accessibility of the entity's files,
identify the specific files or databases to be examined, define output
requirements, ensure that the use of the tool is properly controlled and
refine the estimates of cost and benefits. The software has been developed using VC++ with Microsoft SQL
Desktop Engine (MSDE) as the backend database. Data to be analysed is
imported into this database from any source and restructured for analysis.
Source data is accessed in a read-only mode. "Hence there is no danger of the source data being
modified by this application. The hardware lock (Microdog from Sentinel) is a
secured device. It is used to keep away unauthorised persons from using this
tool," claims Srivatsan. You walk into his office and see how his team is capitalising
on the potential of this tool — as evidenced by the
lack of clutter. It is user-friendly, but to use CAAT, the IT knowledge,
expertise and experience of the audit team does matter, says this auditor. |
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Coutesy : L.N. Revathy |
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