Impact of Robotic Processing Automation in the Auditing Field

Technology continues to have a great impact on society. The field of auditing and
accounting is not immune to the changes brought about by technology. Technology is
increasingly coming up with new ways that mimic activities previously only done by humans
and take on repetitive tasks with higher speed and accuracy compared to humans. Auditing has,
for a long time, incorporated tools and processes that are dependent on technology. Robotic
process automation (RPA) uses software tools to transform auditing into a smooth assembly-line
process. Auditors are thus able to operate at a much higher level. RPA will lead to increased
efficiency by saving on cost and time and enhancing controls and visibility.
RPA will have a robot manage to conduct full analytics. This will allow professionals to
carry out internal audits to get greater coverage of all departments across the organization. They
will have access to more transactions and more data; thus, it will be easy to analyze large data
populations. The auditors will be able to get closer to absolute assurance as they will find
anomalies with much ease and thus be able to focus more on outliers.
Further, RPA will allow departments to automate project tracking and reporting. This will
facilitate on-demand visibility among auditors, and they will be able to check performance per
department against both key performance indicators as well as the laid down plans. Internal
auditors will be able to easily track the progress of ongoing projects. Overall, teams carrying out
the internal audit will benefit largely from RPA as they interact and coordinate with external
auditors. RPA will allow for the automation of auditing, and internal auditors will play a pivotal
role in supporting external auditors.