Business Intelligence for Continuous Auditing

Continuous auditing assumes an increasingly important and proactive role in organizations, being required to continuous managing of risk, predict incidents, and analysis of integrated data, however with the massive production of data in real-time, it’s imperative to use technology to allow information to be produced and analyzed in a timely manner. Tools of business intelligence, namely digital dashboards, through the dynamic representation of indicators, may constitute a solution to respond to these challenges. This study aims to understand which indicators are pertinent to include in a dashboard for continuous auditing, and which components are most appropriate to represent them. To achieve these objectives, a dashboard with indicators selected from the existing literature was conceptualized and proposed, and internal auditors were asked to respond to a survey for its validation. This study found that most internal auditors understand that dashboards are important to their functions. As for the indicators, this work allowed us to conclude that the auditors favor those who present the risk to different areas of control, the monitoring of projects/procedures/processes, and the economic and financial ratios.