Consideration of The Computer in Planning the Auditing

Understanding the Accounting System

The auditor needs to obtain and understanding of the path that transactions take through both the manual and computerized portions of the accounting system, consider the anticipated computer—related controls that may contribute to a control risk assessment at less than the maximum level, and document and test controls contributing to the control risk assessment.

An efficient approach to understanding the accounting system is to start at the end rather than beginning. The auditor identifies significant amounts in the financial statements being audited. The transactions that affect those amounts are traced back from the financial statements to their sources. The auditor then identifies the processing points in that flow. These are the points at which transactions are initiated, recorded, calculated, summarized, or reported. Generally, misstatements can occur at any of these processing points, and these are the points at which control procedures are necessary. For significant computerized accounting applications, the auditor obtains the following type of information:

The purpose of the application, including particularly the documents, reports, and updated master files generated by the application and the general ledger account balances affected by the application

The source, volume, and form of input to the application, including particularly the user departments in which transactions originate of their computerized accounting applications that generate input for the application.

The mode and frequency of processing

The form of output of the application and the distribution of output

审计计划中的计算机因素

了解会计系统

审计人员必须了解业务经过会计系统中手工部分和电算化部分的路径，考虑预期的与计算机相关的控制风险估计水平确定在最高水平以下的控制，以及凭证和测试控制对控制风险评估的影响。

了解会计制度的有效的测试方法是从结尾处开始，而不是从开头处开始。审计人员应确定即将审计的财务报表中的重大金额。对影响这些金额的交易从财务报表到其来源进行追查。然后，由审计人员对这一流程的每个处理环节进行确认。在业务中这些处理指开始、记录、计算、汇总、报告。通常，每个处理环节都可能发生错误，因而对这些处理环节设置控制程序也是非常必要的。

在重要的电算化会计应用中，审计师应获取如下信息：

* 应用的目的，包括由计算机应用生成的特定的凭证、报告及审计的主文件和受应用影响的总分类账的账户余额。

* 计算机应用中输入的来源，容量及形式，尤其包括在特定的业务原始发生的使用者部门或其他为应用生成输入数据的电算化会计应用部门

* 处理的方式及频率

* 应用中输出的形式及输出的分布

编译：宋英慧