December 2002

Access Accounting, Process Attestation and Continuous Auditing

Access accounting uses information technology (IT) to give stakeholders real-time access to an entity’s financial and other information to create custom reports suited to decision-making needs. A necessary condition for the widespread adoption of access accounting is a mechanism to assure the quality, credibility and reliability of financial information delivered in real time. The providing of real-time information needs to take into account unscrupulous companies that are willing to forfeit their values for the economic incentive of making their financial information look better than it is. How can independent assurance be provided on a real-time basis when current audit practice is to conduct the financial audit months after the fact, when detection is of minimal significance to the needs of the intended users of the financial statements?

The answer is through process attestation, which centers on the reliability of the system that produced the information, rather than the information itself. Another tool in the auditor’s arsenal is continuous auditing. The term refers to the placement of virtual software agents and daemons inside the technology that perform assurance functions, as well as expert systems that rely on artificial intelligence to alert individuals to unusual conditions and anomalies.

Drawing from ideas outlined in the June 1997 Accounting Horizons article “The Future of Accounting, Part IV: Access Accounting,” as well as those in the March 2002 issue of Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, the New York State Society of CPAs’ Technology Assurance Committee will present a Jan. 23, 2003, continuing professional education (CPE) evening presentation on access accounting and process attestation that will cover the following topics:

Access accounting: What is it?
Process attestation: Why will it supplant traditional GAAS audits?
Continuous auditing: The future of auditing: feasibility and economics, steps to take and challenges ahead.

Date: Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003
Time: 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: registration, networking, free sandwiches and soft drinks
6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: CPE session
Presenter: Bruce H. Nearon, CPA
Location: NYSSCPA headquarters, 530 Fifth Ave. (between 44th and 45th streets), fifth floor, New York City

About the Presenter

Bruce H. Nearon is the director of IT security audit for The Cohn Consulting Group, a division of J.H. Cohn LLP, in Roseland, N.J., and is chair of the NYSSCPA Technology Assurance Committee. He also is a member of the NYSSCPA Auditing Standards and Procedures Committee, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and an associate member of the Information Security Committee, Science and Technology section of the American Bar Association.

He received the American Institute of CPAs’ Elijah Watt Sells Award for performance with high distinction on the May 1989 CPA exam and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s of accountancy from the University of Florida.
Mr. Nearon is a frequent speaker at professional auditing and information technology seminars, and has published numerous articles in professional publications on IT auditing and network security.

Additional Information

This NYSSCPA/Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE) CPE evening presentation 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 Mr. 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 “01/23/03 — Access Accounting, Process Attestation and Continuous Auditing” located under the Free IT CPE banner.

Acknowledgments

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