The Remote Audit

ABSTRACT: Audit practitioners have been progressively adopting communications and analytic technology to extend the scope, change the timing, and reduce the costs of audit processes. These efforts have been mainly ad hoc, lacking an integrative theoretical positioning. This paper redefines the concept of the “remote audit” as the process by which internal auditors couple information and communication technology (ICT) with analytical procedures to gather electronic evidence, interact with the auditee, and report on the accuracy of financial data and internal controls, independent of the physical location of the auditor. Building on research on virtual teams and an analysis of internal audit activities, we present a research framework identifying areas where ICT and automated audit analytics enable auditors to work remotely, reduce travel costs and latency, and increase efficiency and coverage.