The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is inching closer to audit data standards that are intended to make audits more efficient and more effective for everyone involved.
The Emerging Assurance Technologies Task Force of the AICPA’s Assurance Services Executive Committee has finalized two audit data standards for subledgers, focused on order to cash and procure to pay. Companies that voluntarily adopt such audit data standards, which provide a common framework covering data fields and files commonly requested by auditors, could find the work to fulfill auditors’ file requests trimmed from days to hours, says Amy Pawlicki, director of business reporting at the AICPA. In addition to facilitating information transfers, they also facilitate the use of data analytics, the AICPA says.
