Controls, Approach & IT Audit Judgment: A Case

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to reach out to the practitioners, and add the practical suggestions and a model audit program to perform the audit of electronic funds transfers (Keller, 2001; Prideaux, 1999). This goal is achieved in this paper through a comprehensive discussion on the conceptual aspects of internal controls (Fulkerson et al, 2002; Locatelli, 2002) with the identification and examination of information technology (IT) audit approach vis-a-vis IT audit judgment or decision-making during the course of audit. We, the IT audit practitioners and educators need to expand our skill set and knowledge-base to not only cope with the current changes but also the future challenges. Integration of applications (Opie, 2002a; 2002b; Bartheaud, 2002) and the enterprise-wide information systems integration are key trends for future and is surely going to impact the entire set of knowledge, skills, methods, algorithms, and strategies of IT auditors. A comprehensive program instruction set is provided in the case segment for the auditors to perform the audit of online fund transfers amongst the entities and in between individuals and entities.

Keywords: Enterprise-wide Integrated information systems, information technology auditing, Electronic fund transfer (EFT), Auditing online fund transfers, IT Audit Decision-making, Internal Controls, Audit Approach

JEL Classification: M49