There have been far-reaching changes in economy and world we live in. We may highlight some of the relevant changes effecting us as accountants/ auditors ? Increasing Globalization and Competition, Availability and quality of manpower support, increasing costs and expectations, increasing use of computers by most business organizations to service their core business functionality, loss of audit trail in transactions being processed through computers, increasing volumes & variety of transactions, more and more requirements to be satisfied. At the same time, it is increasingly becoming difficult to make both ends meet as the revenue streams are not growing adequately.

To compound the problems further, we find that there is increasing turnover of manpower and increasing costs on this front, while revenues are where they are. An important question being asked by many is ? how do we survive and grow in these difficult times.

One technology solution to survive and grow in these difficult times is to start using the General Audit Software (GAS) or Computer Assisted Audit Techniques (CAAT) that we have been hearing and reading about since e such a long long time. Even though we are aware that such tools/ facilities exist, we have not really understood their capabilities and facilities that can assist us in doing our work effectively (100% audit) and efficiently (completing work faster). May of us have neither seen such tools nor used them for work, which is increasingly required today. We need to start using the computer as a tool of audit.

Many auditors use Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access as an Audit Tool! Yes. The reason for this practice is very simple ? these tools are easily available, very user friendly most people today already have a reasonable exposure to the use of these software and that additional investment/ evaluation is not required. They only have to get the exposure to use of the available facilities.

CAAT Tools enable us to import data from multifarious sources for analysis & reporting that inter alia involves following activities:

• Extract Analytical Reports
• Detect Duplicates & Gaps
• Data Sorting & Charting
• Stratification - Numeric, Date, Character
• Summarization
• Field Statistics
• Confirmation of Calculations
• Aging Analysis
• Digital Analysis (Benford?s Law) wherein the large volume of numbers is compared with their normal probability and we can follow-up exceptional item for further analysis
• Pivot Table Reports to present information in a more meaningful way
• Sampling
• Macros ? Record steps for use again and again.
• Have an Audit Trail of analysis performed for review later
• Join Databases for analysis and reporting
• Compare Files for variances

A short list of some of the popular CAAT Tools available in the market is as follows – ACL, IDEA, ActiveData, CAATalyze … This is just a short list, there are more CAAT tools available. You only have to search the Internet for more details.

The Committee on Information Technology of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has compiled a repository of CAAT Tools in the form of CAAT Resources CD for the benefit of members consisting of learning materials (Walkthroughs – Step-by-Step procedure with voice explanations, User Guides, Presentations, Articles) and working copies of some tools to get a hands-on feel for trying out the facilities. This CD is provided to members participating in the CAAT Course and the Post Qualification Course on Information Systems Audit (ISA) and is also available in the Sale Counters of the Institute for a nominal price of Rs. 40/-. We believe that it is a MUST HAVE resource for Chartered Accountants to develop in this field at their own convenience. The version 2 of this CD has just been released.

This is perhaps a very important question in the minds of many of us as we find it difficulty to do it on our own. One of the easiest ways to develop in this field is to start using the CAAT Resources CD and going through the learning materials available on the above noted CAAT Resources CD. 

CAAT Walkthroughs is perhaps the first resources on the CD that you may like to explore on your own. The walkthrough provides exposure to the more important functions and capabilities of CAAT Tools that you can start using straightway at your own convenience even in the middle of the night!

User Guides is the second resource that you would like to explore as they provide step-by-step procedures of undertaking typical tasks. You can follow these step-by-step procedures in trying out the functionality of CAAT Tools by installing and using the working copies of these software available in the CD.

Then, there are Presentations/ Articles/ Success stories that are also available for further details, that you may also like to go through on this interesting topic.

Considering the need for practical exposure in this emerging area, the Committee on Information Technology has also started organizing practical workshops on the following topics - Using MS-Excel as an Audit Tool, Using CAAT Tools, Systems Audit, Systems Audit of Banks. The Committee secretariat would provide necessary assistance to Branches to organize these workshops for the benefit of members. CPE Credit of 6 hours would also be available for a full day workshop. 

On extend all help and provide the background materials and suggest faculty members who can organize these workshops to at Branches where 

It gives me immense pleasure to note that NIRC would be organizing these workshops at its branches for the benefit of members. Members may follow-up with their branch offices to start these workshops at the earliest in collaboration with NIRC. Requests can be sent to nirc@icai.org

The author is a member of the Institute. The views expressed herein are his personal views and do no necessarily represent the views of the Regional Council