An Exploratory Study into the Use of Audit Data Analytics on Audit Engagements

SYNOPSIS This study explores the use of audit data analytics (ADA) in current audit practice. First, we interviewed the heads of professional practice of five international public accounting firms in Norway. We find that they differ in strategies on how to implement ADA and the heads report significant uncertainty about the supervisory inspection authorities' response to the use of ADA. Second, we administered a questionnaire to 216 engagement partners and managers about their perceptions of ADA and their actual ADA use on 109 audit engagements. Overall, the attitudes toward ADA usefulness are positive. Analysis of the audit engagements suggests use of ADA is relatively limited and use of more “advanced” ADA is rare. More ADA are used for clients with integrated ERP/IT systems and for newly tendered audit engagements. We also provide details of ADA use on each phase of the audit. We discuss our findings from an institutional theory perspective. Data Availability: The data used in this study are confidential by agreement with the participants.