The past week or so of my professional life (it’s all a blur) has been taken up with writing a paper for submission to an upcoming conference. If you’ve ever wondered about the process, it’s been painful. If you are interested, read on to read the abstract of what is now a 12 page paper (it started out at 16 pages – cutting down is annoying).
If you aren’t interested – move along, nothing to see here.
Abstract (I’ll leave the title out as it’s A: long and B: it’s meant to be a double-blind review. Suffice to say it’s about auditing and accounting standard reforms, BIS and IT audit).
Information systems are key components of the internal control system that ensure the business entity complies with the requirements of the financial reporting regulatory framework. This regulatory framework consists primarily of accounting and auditing standards. As the regulatory framework changes, so too do the functional requirements of information systems. Compliance with the regulatory framework is essential to the long-term business success.
This paper is a report of a review of the effect of Australian reforms to auditing standards (the ‘audit risk’ and ‘black-letter law’ reforms) and accounting standards (the ‘A-IFRS’ reforms) upon business information systems and information systems audit. This analysis is verified with audit professionals and the final results reported as an exploratory study. The results identify seven significant computer-based registers for businesses to manage in complying with the financial regulatory framework, and identifies the significant relationships between accounting and auditing standards and information systems audit.
The audit and accounting profession requires a deep understanding of the implications of the financial reporting regulatory framework for business information systems design and the role of information systems audit. This paper provides a valuable contribution to this professional need through considered analysis of the auditing and accounting standards.
Keywords: IFRS, ISA, IS Audit, business information systems
This research is a part of the output of my Australian Research Council Project.