General Theory of Cost Minimization Strategies of Continuous Audit of Databases

Abstract

The minimization of cost is an important issue in the domain of continuous auditing (CA) research (Pathak, Chaouch & Sriram, 2005). This cited study of continuous audit of databases motivated us to work further and provide a general, complete and precise solution. In the present study, we propose an efficient algorithm as a general theory in terms of long term cost for counting and periodic strategies of continuous auditing as suggested by Pathak et al. study. Another novel feature of this paper is that we do not assume independence of validation time process. We have also offered analytical and computational results for practitioners and the professionals of database audit for practical implementation of our algorithms. The improved algorithms in the form of general theory contribute to accounting literature in general and continuous audit in particular in the form of general theory proposed for minimizing the cost of CA of databases. This study also makes significant contribution to the enterprise policy as cost minimization is an important component of policy studies in accounting area.

Keywords: Continuous Audit (CA), Minimization of Cost, Database Auditing

JEL Classification: C93, M41