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CAAT - or - j NIK. Electronic papers for audits (authors: Paweł Banaś , Piotr Madziar , Wiesław Sawicki ). Tradition. Supreme Chamber of Control – 1919 roots in early XIX century indispensable element of modern democratic Poland. Complex Audit Procedure.
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CAAT - or - jNIK Electronic papers for audits (authors: Paweł Banaś, Piotr Madziar, Wiesław Sawicki)
Tradition • Supreme Chamber of Control – 1919 • roots in early XIX century • indispensable element of modern democratic Poland
Complex Audit Procedure • most audits are multi-location type • documents: • Audit Plan • Protocol(per location) • Management letter (per location) • Report • quality requirements sometimes resulted in massive documents
Figure 1 General Scheme of the NIK Audit Procedure – documents produced and archived in MSWord format Planningrisk assessment analysis of external information and documents of NIK no yes Decisionof theNIK Board Audit Procedures Audit Procedures Audit Plandraft Protocol Protocol no no Appeal Phase Appeal Phase MS Word yes yes ManagementLetter ManagementLetter NIK Report no no Appeal Phase Appeal Phase yes
Computerisation & Financial CAAT • mid-90’s NIK underwent rapid computerisation • late 90’s NIK has been using CAATs • Auditor Assistant • other basic computing tools
More needed • IT tool most extensively used – MSWord • not calibrated for the auditor needs • auditor has to play the role of a professional brochure-maker • problem with internal or bilateral documents • focus the attention on the content • simplest solution – calibration of the MSWord • standardize the documents’ layouts, • easy retrieve analytical data with ‘styles’ and pre-made macros
Is Word Processor a CAAT? • can‘hardly be a CAAT’ in financial audit • can be ‘much more a CAAT’ in the performance or VFM audit
Desired Functions and Features • replace an ‘empty page’ with a flexible electronic form • free the auditor from the duty of text formatting • treat audit documents as data collections • free our data repositories from formatting code of word processor
Flexible and Open Source • no solution available on the market • something much more flexible then the product prêt-a-porter • many difficulties in construction • the risk that the new tool will deform our way of work • the long and expensive process of outsourcing our individual project • XML and Java
CAAT or jNIK: technology • first version of CAAT‑or‑ jNIK – Summer 2003 • technology of jNIK • user interface is written in Java Swing • internal XML processing is based on DOM standard being part of JAXP • tree with each branch connected to e-form (part of the XML file) • XML file can be: • full Audit Plan, next used as the Protocol • visualised in HTML, PDF format
Figure 2 Technology of jNIK. JAVA HTML SWING DOM XML XSLT
CAAT or jNIK: key features • e-form, not text editor • disciplines the audit teams to relate to all points in the Audit Plan • means much more easier screening of the teams’ work • organizes and stores the data as XML documents
Hierarchy of Document • dictionary of XML elements and limit the number of levels • 3-level hierarchyof the Audit Plan: • auditee(s) • areas • subjects • next levels of the ‘problem’ branches: • groups of findings • findings
Results • user obtains a set of XML data: • Audit Plan • Protocol • elements to construct the Management Letter and the Report • much less disc space that MSWord files • light software • applied to the SCC audit procedure • ... but very flexible
Figure 6. General Scheme of the NIK Audit Procedure – use of jNIK and MSWord Planningrisk assessment analysis of external information and documents of NIK Audit Plandraft final version:xhtml / pdf no Decisionof theNIK Board jNIK yes Audit Procedures Audit Procedures Protocol Protocol final version:xhtml / pdf data reports no no Appeal Phase Appeal Phase findings yes yes ManagementLetter ManagementLetter XML to Word no no Appeal Phase Appeal Phase NIK Report Analytical Data Word to XML yes MS Word
Conclusions • fits into real needs of the organisation • cost-free • home-grown support teamto fill gaps • supports open source environment • more money on IT training
Future plans • gain fully stable version • internationalization of the Java code • make jNIK publicly available by GPL licence