Prior CAAT research has primarily been descriptive and has focused
on the Audit Command Language (ACL), a commercially available CAAT.
For instance, Braun and Davis (2003) surveyed governmental auditors
regarding their use of ACL. They found thatwhile participants perceived
the potential benefits associated with ACL, they displayed a lower confidence
in their technical abilities to use ACL. Similarly, Pennington,
Kelton, and DeVries (2006) suggest that auditors resist the use of ACL
when they perceive that the task at hand is too complex and that
adequate training has not been provided. On the other hand,
Debreceny et al. (2005) interviewed external auditors in Singapore
and found they often did not adopt CAATs because of their lack of
knowledge of CAATS; they defended their non-use of CAATS arguing it
was inapplicable to the nature of testing the financial statement assertions
or the extent or quality of computerized internal controls.