The Impact of E-Business on the Audit Process: An Investigation of the Factors Leading to Change

Abstract

This study seeks to further understand the implications of e-business for financial audit practice by exploring: the pressures leading to the adoption of new or different audit practices; the specific features of e-business that affect the appropriateness of traditional auditing practices and techniques; and how technical audit work is changing in response to the increasing adoption of e-business models. By using semi-structured interviews and a postal questionnaire survey, the perceptions of financial auditors and information technology (IT) audit practitioners were sought. The findings identify factors affecting, and pressures leading to, audit change in response to e-business as perceived by these auditors. Overall, the most obvious aspect of e-business audit change was felt to be the extensive use of IT-driven practices and techniques, and this change could not only be attributed to technical factors, but they also thought that competitive and professional factors were also important drivers of audit change.