Auditing
The traditional role of auditing has been to evaluate the accuracy and completeness of a
corporation’s financial statements. In recentyears, however, the individuals working in
CPA firms would probably argue that they are actually in the assurance business—i.e., the
business of providing third-party testimony that a client complies with a given statue, law,
or similar requirement. Historically, the growth of such assurance services can be traced
to a conference of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 1993, which
created a Special Committee on Assurance Services to identify and formalize some other
areas (besides financial audits) in which accountants could provide assurance services.
Figure 1-10 describes the first six areas identified by the committee...
Today, there are several new areas in which auditors now perform assurance work,
many involving accounting information systems. One example is to vouch for a client’s
compliance with the new HIPAA laws—e.g., the privacy requirements of the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Another example is CPA Trust Services,a
set of professional service areas built around a set of common principles and criteria related
to the risks and opportunities presented by ITenvironments. Trust services include online
privacy evaluations, security audits, testing the integrity of information processing systems,
assessing availability of IT services, and systems confidentiality testing....
Despite the rise in ancillary assurance services, auditors mainly focus on traditional
financial-auditing tasks. As noted earlier,computerized AISs have made these tasks more
challenging. For example, automated data processing also creates a need for auditors
to evaluate the risks associated with such automation. Chapter 14 discusses the audit
of computerized accounting information systems and the ways in which auditors use
information technology to perform their jobs..
In addition to the auditing and assurance .businesses mentioned above, many CPA firms
also perform management consulting tasks—e.g., helping clients acquire, install, and use
new information systems. The AIS at Work feature at the end of this chapter describes one