ABSTRACT
Internal auditing historically consisted primarily of interviews, the sampling and inspection of paper documents, verification of approvals, recalculations, and other manual procedures to verify the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness, and timeliness of business activities. Starting in the 1980s, and rapidly accelerating since the 1990s, internal auditors have consistently increased their use and dependence on computers to perform their work. With Computer-assisted audit tools and techniques (CAATTs), which is the use of computers to automate internal auditing procedures, internal auditors can audit the entire population. During audit planning it is important to take time to identify the necessary data. This can be difficult if the internal auditors don't know what is available, where it is stored and in what format. The direction of CAATTs and data analytics in general suggests more automation. CAATTs allow internal auditors to test 100 percent of the transactions in a population, rather than having to rely on sampling techniques.
