Guide 3: Continuous Auditing: Implications for Assurance, Monitoring, and Risk Assessment

Organizations are continually exposed to significant errors, frauds or inefficiencies that can lead to financial loss and increased levels of risk. An evolving regulatory environment, increased globalization of businesses, market pressure to improve operations, and rapidly changing business conditions are creating the need for more timely and ongoing assurance that controls are working effectively and risk is being mitigated. These demands have put increased pressure on Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) and their staff.

Continuous auditing is a method used to automatically perform control and risk assessments on a more frequent basis. Technology is the key to enabling such an approach. Continuous auditing changes the audit paradigm from periodic reviews of a sample of transactions to ongoing audit testing of 100 percent of transactions. It becomes an integral part of modern auditing at many levels.

This guide, Continuous Auditing: Implications for Assurance, Monitoring, and Risk Assessment, focuses on assisting Chief Audit Executives identify what must be done to make effective use of technology in support of continuous auditing and highlights areas that require further attention. It provides continuous audit guidance that will benefit the organization by significantly reducing instances of error and fraud, increasing operational efficiency, and improving bottom-line results through a combination of cost savings and a reduction in overpayments and revenue leakage.

Download Continuous Auditing: Implications for Assurance, Monitoring, and Risk Assessment (PDF, 956KB).