Auditing spreadsheets: With or without a tool? Simone Schalkwijk - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Auditing spreadsheets: With or without a tool? Simone Schalkwijk BSc Dr Felienne Hermans Dr Michiel van der Ven Dr Hans Duits RA A joint student project between the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and the TU Delft University of Technology

Why this research? — Excel horror stories — Errors in spreadsheets post a major threat for the auditor in terms of financial damage and image damage — Previous research showed mixed results on the usefulness of spreadsheet tools for auditing in general

What did we want to know? — R1 Are common errors recognized by auditors? — R2 To what extent does PerfectXL contribute to a more efficient and effective audit? — R3 Which functionalities should PerfectXL possess in order to contribute towards a more efficient and effective audit?

How did we perform this research? — Semi-structured interviews with 8 auditors of a big 4 audit firm with a working experience of over four years — PerfectXL demo

What are the results of this research? — Some common errors are agreed upon — Most auditors have a positive attitude towards the visualization functionality — Mixed opinions on the risk analysis functionality whereas most auditors where doubtful on the impact on efficiency and effectiveness of the audit

Visualization: The most valued functionality of PerfectXL

Visualization: Some side effects

Risk analysis: Some auditors doubted the usefulness of this functionality

What did we learn from this research? — Some common errors are recognized by auditors — Visualization is useful in order to perform a more efficient and effective audit — Results might apply to other spreadsheet auditing tools

Suggestions for future research — Quantitative effects could be measured during an experiment — Aim should not be to look at correctly flagging errors by PerfectXL but should rather focus on differences in effectiveness and efficiency within the audit