（2001）Continuous Audits and Assurance Services：Are Accounting Firms Prepared？.docVIP

Continuous Audits 1 Running head: CONTINUOUS AUDITS AND ASSURANCE SERVICES Continuous Audits and Assurance Services：Are Accounting Firms Prepared? Cyndi D. Hess Jamie Johnson September 10, 2001 ACCT 4033 Continuous Audits 2 Accounting firms of today must be prepared to meet the long- and short-term demands of their clients. Such demands have shifted away from the historical transactions of the past to present and future concerns, such as Continuous Auditing. This new direction in accounting is forcing firms to migrate to higher value-added services, which must profoundly rely on new accounting information systems in order to develop the professional services so demanded. In the accounting world of today there is a sense of urgency for financial security, causing CPA firms across the United States to institute assurance services in order to provide better services to clients, both large and small. On their website /assurance, the AICPA defines assurance services as: independent professional services that improve the quality or context of information for decision makers. With this definition, the AICPA encompassed several facets of the accounting field: independent to represent the client’s trust placed with CPAs; professional services to represent judgment used by CPAs that cannot be replaced with software or nonprofessional competitors; information represents financial or non financial data to meet individual needs; and decision makers represent the users of the information. On its Web page, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, CICA, defines continuous auditing as: a methodology that enables independent auditors to provide written assurance on a subject matter using a series of auditors’ reports issued simultaneously with, or a short period of time after, the occurrence of events underlying the subject matter.