Large audit companies transitioned away from hard copy audit files and working papers in the 1980s and 1990s. One of the primary reasons for this move was the difficulty in sharing and collaborating on physical information. Auditors began to primarily utilize word processing documents and spreadsheets to collect and document audit methods, outcomes, and evidence.
However, this resulted in a number of additional issues:
1. Darkening of information in papers or spreadsheets
When data becomes imprisoned in papers, it essentially becomes black data, which is hard to search, reference, analyze, export, report on, or access on mobile devices. Large audit teams must access data through all of these steps in order to give relevant insights and assist decision-making.
2. Documents do not safeguard data integrity.
When audit process metadata (such as tick marks, review notes, auditor commentary—particularly inter-document connections and references) is integrated in document files, data integrity is jeopardized. Documents cannot enforce referential integrity. Because the data may be accessed by different users, the accuracy and consistency of the data may change throughout the course of its life cycle.
3. It is impossible to maintain linkages to other information.
There is no mechanism to construct and maintain associations between data in multiple files since documents are not databases. Then, hyperlinking and other document-embedded capabilities become untrustworthy.
Deep document integration systems are vulnerable to data loss when files are damaged, changed in dispute by different users, or relocated between places, causing references and relationships to break. Documents just cannot perform at the level of database-driven systems, resulting in poor performance.
4. It is not possible to export or archive outside of the papers.
Deep linking requires document-embedded metadata, with references saved in the software system, in order to hyperlink information inside and between documents. Because a connection from one document to another is dependent on this externally stored reference, not only do relationships between documents collapse, but it is also difficult to archive or export an audit project outside of the programme without losing those ties.
5. Manually rolling audits ahead
When main audit documentation is captured in documents, updating programmatically is impossible (or extremely harmful). When using documents to move an audit ahead, you must manually update them to avoid unpredictable behavior. This consumes significant time for your staff.
6. Conflicting software versions and complex upgrades
As Microsoft Office or other document-editing software programmes are updated and file formats change, integration dependencies frequently disrupt audit software compatibility. As a result, scenarios arise in which, for example, a new Office version necessitates an upgrade of the audit programme or modifies the embedded information (again causing data integrity risks). Even in the best-case scenario, upgrades need extensive testing, which creates substantial delays in upgrade implementation.
7. Time-consuming administrative tasks
Creating and maintaining metadata contained in documents necessitates the use of legacy audit systems that comprise a locally installed programme or a complicated online browser plugin. These programmes present considerable administrative challenges for IT because they are hosted independently on local workstations, requiring high-maintenance installation rollouts and updates, as well as compatibility concerns.
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