Assessing data quality in accounting information systems

Using a decision support systems (DSS) approach combining human judgment and model-based procedures allows auditor-determined variability in establishing quality thresholds. Accounting information systems (AIS) maintain and produce the data used by organizations to plan, evaluate, and diagnose dynamics of operations and financial circumstances. In addition to intraorganizational usage, the data produced by these systems is reported to external stakeholders such as stockholders or government agencies. The data quality assessments of AIS are conducted by professional assessors known as auditors. The DSS approach does not attempt to mathematically model the entire quality assessment process, it is able to address the problem in a computationally tractable manner. Its use of model-based tools that recommend quality assessment plans with known error detection properties provides assessors with assurance about the quality of their assessments. The ability to use the tool either to recommend control testing plans or to evaluate assessor-proposed plans.