Continuous auditing

Continuous auditing is the application of automated tools to provide assurance on financial and non-financial data within a company. Continuous auditing uses a set of tools to check whether a company’s financial information is handled correctly and if internal controls are functioning to prevent errors and fraud (Wikipedia).

According to ISACA, continuous auditing has been defined as a methodology or framework that enables auditors (external and internal) to provide written results on the subject matter using one or a series of reports issued simultaneously. The ability to report on events in a real-time or near real-time environment can provide significant benefits to the users of audit reports. Continuous auditing is therefore designed to enable auditors to report on subject matter within a much shorter timeframe than under the traditional model. Theoretically, in some environments it should be possible to decrease the reporting timeframe to provide almost instantaneous auditing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzT1Y8cYp_g