Audit working papers in Electronic Environment

– effective usage and maintenance

CA Roopa Kamath N

Aim Working papers Management – traditionally Technology breakthrough – redefining

audit trail‘Shared drive chaos’Electronic working paper management –

small and medium practitioners perspectiveWay forward Professional avenues

Working papers – traditionally important reference points

for the entire audit lifecycle,a check-list-type-philosophyMyth - working papers only

apply to the fieldwork phase of the audit cycle.

Bulky and deteriorates with lapse of time

Common issuesPeople oriented Pen and paper basedstandards for exactly

what must be included in working papers or how they are prepared are loosely defined, resulting in inconsistent practices and quality issues among audit departments.

Technology - BreakthroughBetter Analysis with the assistance of tools like

spreadsheets, open office, etc Faster and vast coverageRelieves from the routine work Better presentation and unlimited storage

Electronic working paper – is it that simple?

Shared-drive ‘chaos’ organize and store audit

project files on network storage or email servers

Over time, file management becomes unruly, inefficient and costly.

Prone to version control errors. Select, share and/or update a wrong or outdated version of audit report.

Electronic working paper – is it that simple?Different methods of preparing

working papers and reporting status.

inconsistent processes and project workflows that are difficult to track and control.

The result, is inconsistency in the quality of the underlying audit work;

variation in the look and feel of working papers documentation;

unpredictable productivity; inconsistent client experiences;

Electronic Working paper managementAcceptance to change Training the personnel on the

systems and application software's

Standardise Folder structure Where, when, what and how to

storeDefine a file naming conventions

Eg : Name of client_Nature of report_etc

Electronic Working paper managementUse Version control techniqueEffective usage of technology

Calculations, Charts, Pivots, Graphs, Sorting, filters, Formatting.

Digital working paper managementDefine and prepare working paper

preparation manuals,What to record and how to record What is the type of application used

Data capturing mechanism

Electronic Working paper Management Define accessibility and security

guidelinesWho can access what kind of data Encrypting confidential data

Data protection and confidentiality Disabling third party emailing options

Usage of IBM Lotus notes, Outlook. Restricted internet access. Define communication channel

CC and bcc .

Maintaining Regular back ups and storage

Storing in pdf and embedded formats Encrypting and compressing data

Indexing and fragmenting dataMaintain an issue query logMove with the technology updates

Professional gateway Understanding and analysing

trends better and faster - Consultation

Allows to concentrate on the core area of business.

In house user specific design based on industry and clients

Go Green initiative – Less paper to paper less office

Process/work driven task force from people driven environment

Way forward – related areas of professional expertise

Automating few routine audit process.Electronic data is throughout,BCP and DRP techniqueCloud based technique. Attaining ISO for working papersCarbon credits Forensic and Fraud investigation

EmailEmail : : roopanrk@gmail.comroopanrk@gmail.com