Audits of Future

Dear BCAS Family,

As more and more entities are undergoing digital transformation, it is now becoming increasingly important to include the technology tools as part of our audit procedures. The term coined nowadays for the way audits would be undertaken in future is Continuous Auditing.

Amongst firms, especially small and medium sized firms today, there is a struggle for adequate technology staff / support; there is also a lack of understanding of the technological advancements which can ease their execution and lack of technologically proficient staff. The above challenges for such firms are on account of lack of allocation of adequate financial resources to attract skilled staff and / or conduct upskilling / reskilling initiatives for existing staff. Smaller firms are also concerned about the increasing exposure to cybersecurity risks as audit firms’ increased access to clients’ data which is requested, obtained and stored online.

This month, I attended the 1^st NFRA international conference. Certain key areas which this conference touched upon were Audit fees charged by auditors are too low and need to be addressed, use of technology in Audits is ever increasing, role of independent auditors and directors needs course correction, importance of training and upskilling of audit staff is need of the hour,