NATURE AND TIMING OF THE AUDIT PROCEDURES

Nature and Timing of the Audit Procedures

• The nature and timing of the audit procedures to be used may be affected by the fact that some of the accounting data and other information may be available only in electronic form or only at certain points or periods in time.
•  For example, source documents, such as purchase orders and invoices, may exist only in electronic form when an entity uses electronic commerce, or may be discarded after scanning when an entity uses image processing systems to facilitate storage and reference.
• Certain electronic information may not be retrievable after a specified period of time, for example, if files are changed and if backup files do not exist.
•  Accordingly, the auditor may find it necessary as a result of an entity’s data retention policies to request retention of some information for the auditor’s review or to perform audit procedures at a time when the information is available.