ABSTRACT
Like many (perhaps most) aspects of the process of auditing, the systems approach, despite its image of modernity, can in essence trace its origins back to the earliest professional audits; although again this fact has tended to be overlooked by historians. Lee (1972: 150), for example, stated: ‘Auditing by means of an initial review of the company’s internal control was first generally recognised as a feasible approach to the function in the 1920s and 1930s.’ Yet British auditors were clearly putting some reliance on the client’s internal systems long before then.
