An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association American Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting August 6–9, 2006 Washington, D.C.

Stewart A Leech
University of Melbourne

Carlin Dowling
University of Melbourne

Abstract: Although several studies have investigated factors that influence decision aid use in auditing, very few provide empirical evidence on the types of decision aids used by audit firms. Furthermore, technological changes and audit firm mergers over the last decade raise the question as to whether the audit decision aids reported in prior research are representative of the types of decision aids currently deployed in audit firms. To address this issue, a study was conducted of the audit support systems and decision aids currently used by five major international audit firms. The results show that there are substantial differences in the types of decision aids used by different firms. In order to guide future research, prior studies were mapped to the decision aids currently used by the firms, and many research questions relevant to the use of decision aids in each of the four audit phases were identified.

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