Factors affecting reliability in computer aided auditing: A study on independent auditors in Turkey

Modern corporations benefit from technological advances immensely to reach their goals. They do not utilize the electronic environment to run their daily operations only, but also use it for the accounting process and for the preparation of financial statements. The storage of these vital accounts and statements in the electronic environment also requires the auditing of these accounts to be conducted electronically. Even though the existence of electronic information platform has not altered the goal and content of the audit process, it has affected the audit process, audit technique, the collection of evidence, and most importantly the concept of auditing. The changes in these concepts require the auditors to adjust to the new environment and to understand how an effective audit could be carried out in this new environment. It is vital that decision makers understand which factors affect independent accounting auditing, whose reliability is very important. In addition, the detection of the understanding and behavior of the auditor regarding these factors is very important, as well. However, there are no studies investigating the factors that affect the reliability of computer aided auditing, which is relatively in the early stage of its development, for Turkey. This study, which aims to fill this gap in the literature, investigates the factors that affect the reliability of computer aided independent accounting auditing and makes a comparison between these factors and the factors that affect the reliability of traditional independent accounting, by utilizing a survey applied to independent auditors. Previous theoretical discussions and the study findings based on survey results suggest that there are vital differences between the factors affecting the reliability of traditional and computer based independent accounting auditing, in terms of quantities, sources, the degree of importance and classes.