（2008）How Continuous Auditing and XBRL-GL Work Together to Provide Improved Business Value.docVIP

How Continuous Auditing and XBRL-GL Work Together to Provide Improved Business Value Written by Nigel Matthews????? Posted on May 19, 2008 Nigel Matthews is Senior Product Manager at ACL Services Ltd..? He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and has over 15 years experience implementing audit analytics in North America, Europe, and Asia. Mike Willis of PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote in last October’s issue of Internal Auditor that “There are many pervasive [information] supply chain problems that exist today due to the lack of an open information standard and proprietary formats…XBRL enhances the work of internal auditors by addressing these information problems and enabling them to do more at a lower cost.” Much of the recent discussion on XBRL has focused on the technology’s application to solving interactive financial reporting problems, most notably the SEC’s initiative to XBRL-enable EDGAR filings. But there’s a lot more to the XBRL concept than EDGAR. Mike’s comment highlights the tremendous potential of XBRL-GL to address one of the fundamental challenges facing auditors today: How can the average non-specialist auditor find and make sense of complex, often poorly documented, but nonetheless vital enterprise data — without getting deep into the weeds of IT technology????So why is continuous auditing important, and how can it work together with XBRL to provide improved business value? Continuous auditing gives auditors the ability to notify the organization, on a timely and ongoing basis, about errors and other situations that affect financial performance. Properly implemented, continuous audit and monitoring strategies can go a long way toward ensuring day-to-day adherence to internal business policies and external regulatory requirements — for example, correct handling of VAT on goods purchased and sold. (Note that the terms continuous auditing and continuous monitoring can be used somewhat interchangeably. Depending on who in the