Understanding Data
The substantive tests described in this section involve extracting data from accounting
files for analysis. To do this task, the auditor needs to understand the systems and controls
that produced the data as well as the physical characteristics of the files that contain
them. Much of this chapter was devoted to explaining various expenditure cycle configurations
and their control implications. Chapter 8 described several common file structures
and their audit implications. The discussion that follows presumes that the auditor
is using ACL for performing the audit tests. Before we proceed, however, we need to review
a few salient points regarding file preparation.