“Not only can teams easily sample within minutes, but can also take advantage of over 100 audit functions for a robust analysis, including ageing, duplication detection and Benford’s Law.” “IDEA enables teams to save an enormous amount of time using built-in risk-based sample models that allow for systematic, random and monetary unit techniques, and prioritise areas of elevated risk,” notes Steyn. With IDEA, auditing teams can increase their data coverage by investigating a large number of items and potentially covering 100% of the transactions,” explains Steyn. “It does not matter whether it is due to an error or fraud – if it is a material misstatement, auditors need to identify it.
Steyn says although auditors cannot be expected to identify 100% of fraud in all cases, they have an obligation to find material misstatements that would change the audit opinion. This is because of the explosion of the amount of data available to auditors, together with the fact that risk-based auditing is now the expected standard for external audits, as well as the focus on the analysis and management of risk that’s applied within the risk-based auditing approach.” “It is now more important than ever for auditors to look at all of the data in the audit, rather than just a sample. “Auditing teams spend a significant amount of time selecting samples and analysing clients' data for audit engagements,” says Christiaan Steyn, Assurance Product Manager, CaseWare Africa. Christiaan Steyn, Assurance Product Manager, CaseWare Africa.ĬaseWare Africa, a division of Adapt IT, has released details of its latest product addition, CaseWare IDEA Data Analysis – a comprehensive powerful data analytics tool that guarantees data integrity, accelerates the performance of data analytics and enables faster, more effective, external audits.