April 2003

Continuous Auditing: The New Business Reporting Model

The business reporting model of the future is online with real-time disclosures to stakeholders. With the rapid pace of today’s business environment, rising marketplace demands for more relevant up-to-the-minute information, and the need for such information in managing investment and credit portfolios, many question the value of today’s kind of business reporting.

Stakeholders want data on demand, with technology formats that allow quick access and analysis to help make better decisions. Auditors are faced with maintaining the relevance of the annual audit in an environment that thrives on instantaneous information. With recent pronouncements, such as SAS 94, that consider the impact of technology on financial reporting, much progress has been made to define the type of control environment that would need to exist to provide an audit opinion. Even if technology is able to deliver audited data on demand, would stakeholders be willing to pay for such assurance?

Hear a variegated perspective on the changing demands placed on the profession and the profession’s response to these challenges by attending a May 6 continuing professional education (CPE) panel discussion organized by the New York State Society of CPAs’ Technology Assurance (TA) Committee. The panel is composed of an American Institute of CPAs senior vice president, an academic and a Big Four practitioner.

Date: Tuesday, May 6
Time: 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m
Panelists: Alan Anderson
Yossef Newman
Dr. James Lawler
Location: NYSSCPA headquarters, 530 Fifth Ave. (between 44th and 45th streets), fifth floor, New York City

About the Panelists

Alan Anderson, CPA, is the AICPA’s senior vice president for member and public interests. He is responsible for all of the Institute’s technical standards and services to the accounting profession, including the profession’s self-regulatory and CPA examination developmental activities. Since joining the AICPA in 1997, he has been especially active in developing initiatives to prepare the profession for the future, working to develop continuous audit and assurance approaches as well as expanding system auditing using Systrust. Mr. Anderson was line partner and national director of audit with McGladrey and Pullen, LLP, in Minneapolis, prior to joining the AICPA. He is a member of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, the Minnesota Society of CPAs and the AICPA.

Yossef Newman, CPA, is an audit manager at Deloitte & Touche LLP and a member of the A&A Audit Technology Team. He specializes in securities and banking practice and serves a broad range of brokerage and financial services clients, including companies specializing in government securities, soft dollar brokerage, mortgage banking, financial record keeping and fiscal/transfer agency.

Dr. James Lawler, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Pace University’s Graduate School of Computer Science and Information Systems. He can be reached at jlawler@pace.edu.

Additional Information

This NYSSCPA/Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE) CPE panel discussion is free to NYSSCPA members and $15.00 for nonmembers to qualify for one hour of CPE credit.

At the session you will get the chance to network with the profession’s and the industry’s IT leaders. Advance registration is encouraged, because seating is limited.

For additional information, contact Gary E. Carpenter at 315-487-4567 or gcarpenter-cit@worldnet.att.net or Bruce H. Nearon at 973-403-6955 or bnearon@jhcohn.com.

For more information on the Technology Assurance Committee, visit www.nysscpa.org, click on the Find Committees tab on the left-hand side of the page and then scroll down to the Technology Assurance Committee link.

Registration

To register: contact FAE at 212-719-8383 or -800-537-3635 or visit the Society’s website at www.nysscpa.org (you will need your Society member number to register). Go to the Technology Assurance Committee homepage and select “05/06/03-The New Business Reporting Model” located under the Free IT CPE banner.

Acknowledgements

J.H. Cohn LLP and Carpenter Information Technologies, Inc., helped provide the funding and resources for the free continental breakfast, marketing and publicity, and administration of this event.