Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management

Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management, 2022 - Volume 7 Issue 1, Article No: 11681
https://doi.org/10.55267/iadt.07.11681

Published Online: 31 Jan 2022

Views: 1427 | Downloads: 1374

As a result of the increasing demand on the credibility of the financial information disclosure, internal auditing has been playing an increasingly important role in organizations. Currently, there is a need to ensure the compliance of organizational transactions in real time in order to increase the reliability of the information and to reduce risks. In this context, the concept of Continuous Assurance has emerged, allowing to reduce potential errors and risks and obtain useful information in real time, supporting more effectively the decision making and internal auditing. This paper aims to understand the importance and the use of Continuous Assurance services from the perspective of the internal auditor. So, the methodology used is qualitative and the questionnaire survey was used to collect data from interna auditors in Portugal. The main results demonstrate, among other findings, that the Continuous Assurance services are considered by the internal auditors as very important. Despite this, its implementation in the organizations does not follow the importance assigned to it, and is still far from being fully deployed. The dimension of the audit department is an influential factor in the use of some Continuous Assurance services.

digital transformation internal audit continuous assurance risk management

• ACL. (2006), New Demand s, New Priorities - The Evolving Role of Internal Audit, edited by Services, A.C.L.Global Audit Executives Survey Report, ACL Services Ltd.
• Alles, M., Brennan, G., Kogan, A. and Vasarhelyi, M. (2006), “Continuous monitoring of business process controls: A pilot implementation of a continuous auditing system at Siemens”, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 137–161.
• Alles, M., Kogan, A. and Vasarhelyi, M. (2003), “Black Box Logging and Tertiary Monitoring of Continuous Assurance Systems”, Information Systems Control Journal , Vol. 1, pp. 37–39.
• Alles, M., Kogan, A. and Vasarhelyi, M. (2004), “Restoring auditor credibility: tertiary monitoring and logging of continuous assurance systems”, International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 183–202.
• Alles, M., Kogan, A. and Vasarhelyi, M. (2008), “Putting Continuous Auditing Theory into Practice: Lessons from Two Pilot Implementations”, Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 195–214.
• Boyda¸s, H. and Hazar, B. (2021), “New Paradigm in Auditing: Continuous Auditing”, Ethics and Sustainability in Accounting and Finance, , Vol. II, Springer, Singapore, pp. 253–268.
• Coderre, D. (2005), “Continuous Auditing: Implications for Assurance, Monitoring, and Risk Assessment”, in Auditors, T.I. of I. (Ed.), Global Technology Audit Guide, The Institute of Internal Auditors, Florida.
• Ezzamouri, N. and Hulstijn, J. (2018), “Continuous Monitoring and Auditing in Municipalities”, Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research: Governance in the Data Age, ACM, New York, NY, USA, available at:https://doi.org/10.1145/3209281.
• Hargadon, A. and Fanelli, A. (2002), “Action and possibility: Reconciling dual perspectives of knowledge in organizations”, Organization Science, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 290–302.
• IIA. (2021), “About Internal Auditing”, available at: https://global.theiia.org/about/about-internal-auditing/pages/about-internal-auditing.aspx (accessed 26 January 2022).
• Kuhn, J.R. and Sutton, S.G. (2006), “Learning from WorldCom: Implications for Fraud Detection through Continuous Assurance”, Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 61–80.
• Littley, K., Minnaar, D., farineau, D., Soles, R., Nardin, D., LoPiccolo, D.D., Asher, J., et al. (2010), What Is Driving Continuous Auditing & Continuous Monitoring Today?, edited by KPMG, KPMG, USA.
• Marques, R.P. (2019), “Continuous Assurance and the Use of Technology for Business Compliance”, in Khosrow-Pour, M. and D.B.A. (Eds.), Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Business Operations and Management, IGI-Global, Hershey, PA, USA, pp. 429–441.
• Marques, R.P. and Santos, C. (2017a), “Continuous monitoring in contexts of continuous assurance of organizational processes: A bibliometric analysis”, Atas Da Conferencia Da Associacao Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informacao, Vol. 17, available at:https://doi.org/10.18803/capsi.v17.385-388.
• Marques, R.P. and Santos, C. (2017b), “Research on continuous auditing: A bibliometric analysis”, Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, CISTI, available at:https://doi.org/10.23919/CISTI.2017.7976048.
• Marques, R.P., Santos, H. and Santos, C. (2015), “Monitoring Organizational Transactions in Enterprise Information Systems with Continuous Assurance Requirements”, International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 13–32.
• Marques, R.P., Santos, H. and Santos, C. (2016), “Evaluating Information Systems with Continuous Assurance Services”, International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector, Vol. 8 No. 3.
• Martinez, L. and Ferreira, A. (2007), Análise de Dados Com SPSS Primeiros Passos, 1^a Edição., Escolar Editora, Lisboa.
• Minnaar, D., Littley, J. and Farineau, D. (2008), Continuous Auditing and Continuous Monitoring: Transforming Internal Audit and Management Monitoring to Create Value, edited by LLP, K., KPMG LLP, New York.
• Murcia, F.D.-R., Souza, F.C. de and Borba, J.A. (2008), “Continuous Auditing: A Literature Review”, Organizações Em Contexto, Vol. 4 No. 7, pp. 1–17.
• PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2006), State of the Internal Audit Profession Study: Continuous Auditing Gains Momentum, edited by Advisory, P.W.C.Internal Audit - State of the Internal Audit Profession, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
• Santos, C., Inácio, H. and Marques, R.P. (2019), “An Overview on Mobile Cloud Computing”, in Marques, R.P., Santos, C. and Inácio, H. (Eds.), Organizational Auditing and Assurance in the Digital Age, IGI-Global, pp. 120–136.
• Soedarsono, S., Mulyani, S., Tugiman, H. and Suhardi, D. (2019), “Information Quality and Management Support as Key Factors in the Applications of Continuous Auditing and Continuous Monitoring: An Empirical Study in the Government Sector of Indonesia”, Contemporary Economics, University of Finance and Management in Warsaw, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 335–351.
• Tronto, S. and Killingsworth, B.L. (2021), “How internal audit can champion continuous monitoring in a business operation via visual reporting and overcome barriers to success”, The International Journal of Digital Accounting Research, Vol. 21, pp. 23–59.
• Vasarhelyi, M., Alles, M. and Williams, K.T. (2010), Continuous Assurance for the Now Economy, 1st ed., Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, Sydney.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.