My thesis addresses to matters of rising connectedness of Accounting and Information Technologies. It describes history of forms and techniques used in Accounting and also the possibilities and trends of Applied Informatics used nowadays in this field. The text accents to efforts of making the process of accounting more effective by reducing the cost, improving the quality and by shortening the time it can be done. The part of my thesis also mentions the level of regulation of the techniques used for processing the accounting from the point of view of national norms and also of International standards.

Die gesetzlich verpflichtende Jahresabschlussprüfung ist in den vergangenen Jahren durch wesentliche Veränderungen gekennzeichnet. Einerseits verlangen gesetzliche Vorgaben als Reaktion auf Bilanzskandale und Finanzkrisen eine zeitnahe Berichterstattung über die rechnungslegungsrelevanten Aktivitäten geprüfter Unternehmen. Andererseits werden Rechnungslegungsprozesse mittlerweile nahezu vollständig mithilfe betrieblicher Informationssysteme, z. B. Enterprise-Resource-Planning-Systeme (ERP-Systeme) und Buchhaltungssysteme, durchgeführt. Dadurch ergeben sich sowohl der Bedarf als auch die grundsätzliche Umsetzbarkeit digitaler, kontinuierlicher Prüfungsansätze. Trotz umfangreicher Vorarbeiten im Bereich der digitalen Prüfung in den letzten 30 Jahren haben sich jedoch bislang keine Ansätze zur flächendeckenden Ausbreitung kontinuierlicher Prüfungsansätze etabliert. Grund dafür sind vor allem Barrieren auf organisatorischer und technischer Ebene. Dies stellt insbesondere kleine und mittelständische Prüfungsgesellschaften vor große Herausforderungen, da diese in der Regel nicht über personelle und fachliche Kapazitäten für die Umsetzung komplexer Prüfungssysteme verfügen. Die gestaltungsorientierte Wirtschaftsinformatik kann mit der Entwicklung von IT-Artefakten einen Beitrag zur digitalen Transformation der Abschlussprüfung leisten. In dieser Dissertation wird der beschriebene Bedarf aufgegriffen und, auf Basis eines dreistufigen Forschungsvorgehens, ein Lösungsansatz für die geschilderte Problemstellung entwickelt: Auf der ersten Stufe wird anhand einer empirischen Grundmethodik der Prüfungsprozess in der Praxis analysiert (Ist-Analyse). Auf der zweiten Stufe werden bestehende Konzepte und Erfolgsfaktoren für die Umsetzung der kontinuierlichen Prüfung untersucht (Soll-Konzeption). Das in der dritten Stufe beschriebene Lösungskonzept „Audit-as-a-Service“ sieht die Integration eines spezialisierten Informationsdienstleisters vor, der als Mediator zwischen Prüfungsgesellschaften und geprüften Unternehmen fungiert und die kontinuierliche Prüfung zu einem Geschäftsmodellansatz erweitert.

傳統的財務報表審計服務，其查核作業的執行時點主要是以會計期間為基準，每季、每半年或一年才針對企業財務揭露，進行事後的交易查核。然而，近年來企業普遍地應用網際網路和全球資訊網技術之後，在沒有任何第三者稽核的情況下，企業的財務資訊幾乎可選擇於任何時點在網路上公開揭露，再加上投資者藉由網路瀏覽器等工具蒐集或分析這些資訊的成本降低，更使得此類資訊被使用的機率大幅增加。由資訊效率的觀點來看，市場投資者使用這些未經查核的資訊，將可能導致因資訊信賴度低而產生的資訊不效率，故傳統期間性的審計服務，顯然亦即當即時性網路資訊環境逐漸形成時，不但已不能提昇資本市場網路時代的資訊品質，同時也會逐漸喪失審計專業一直所強調的審計品質和權威性，故為了因應此一即時性資訊揭露市場的來臨，審計專業該當尋求更符合即時性資訊環境的審計方法。 　　改善資訊效率的方法之一，即所謂連續性審計(Continuous Auditing)的觀念，其目的乃是希望擴充即時線上資訊系統診斷機能至外部審計服務，以達成「交易結束後，立即進行查核；財務報表發布後，立即出具審計意見報告」的目標。但此一課題目前仍屬新興階段，不論是理論或技術架構皆存在許多未盡之處。例如連續性審計是否在任何經濟環境下均較具效率？或是某些經濟條件必須符合時，才適合應用連續性審計方法？此等重要的經濟適用性問題，均無任何研究曾明確地交代。此外，如何有效率地整合各種資訊技術，來實地發展連續性審計技術，以對目前網路財務揭露系統進行連續性審計？而完整的一般化系統架構、技術指引與系統發展方法論又如何建立？這些問題，在相關的文獻中，均皆未能提出適切的答案。 　　本研究即針對上述各項議題分別提出解決方案，首先從資訊經濟學理論的角度，探討在連續性財務資訊揭露的環境下，連續性審計的必要性，並以較嚴謹的定義，來建立連續性審計的理論架構，並討論可能影響連續性審計效率性的各種經濟條件；確認連續性審計的重要性後，其次將整合應用審計專業知識、連續性審計觀念架構與相關的資訊技術，以發展出適用於連續性審計的一般化技術架構；最後則依照連續性審計一般化的技術架構，實地設計出一個應用物件技術的連續性審計雛型系統，以驗證連續性審計理論與技術架構的可行性。 / Through years, regulation parties consistently emphasized the importance of timely accounting information in their formal statements. Despite those highlights from regulation parties, professional accountants can't achieve timeliness due to the lack ofrealtime disclosure technology. However, in the past a few years, situation is changing dramatically. The combined innovative technology on production (such as the on-line transaction processing and the on-line analytical processing) and dissemination (such as the Internet distributed object technology and World- Wide-Web technology) of the real-time accounting information definitely made timeliness feasible. In fact, there is strong evidence to believe there would be more and more public companies posting their timely important financial or operating information on Internet in the near future. Although the increasing provision of timely accounting numbers on the web is expected to strengthen the quality of accounting information, behind the web-disclosure behavior, the information asymmetry problem still will bother both the reporting companies and information users since those web-releases are usually remained unaudited. 　　Recently, in AICPA and CICA's joint report, they emphasized on the importance of continuous auditing as a soluetion to this emerging web-release problem. Unfortunately, besides their awakenings on this material, those official reports did not provide much insight on both continuous auditing theoretic and technical framework. For instance, what exactly is the economic definition and implication of continuous auditing? Would continuous auditing be the most efficient way to audit the real-time information? How to prove it? Also, technically, how to conduct this new approach successfully? Depending on what kind of information technology this approach could be best implemented? 　　From research design view, the above problems are certainly not appropriate to be answered through an empirical research approach since there are still no continuous auditing practice existing. Accordingly, the most emerging research now is to construct a complete continuous auditing theory and technical framework. This paper, based on the motivation to examine both the theoretic and technical framework of continuous auditing, is going to address the following issues. First, some formal modeling tools are adopted to analyze different auditing approaches to show why, from an economic view, continuous auditing would dominate others in different dimensions. Secondly, we derive a generic technical framework from the continuous auditing concepts to guide the implementation of technical issues. Finally, an object-oriented prototype system implemented by Java language is developed to support the proposed theoretic and generic technical framework.

[pt] A auditoria e o monitoramento contínuo visam melhorar a eficiência das operações na empresa, identificando e avaliando riscos de maneira tempestiva e provendo rapidamente informações críticas à alta administração para uma melhor tomada de decisão. Mediante a adoção de ferramentas de controle incorporadas aos sistemas de informação ou a utilização de softwares apropriados, a auditoria e o monitoramento contínuo propiciam o acompanhamento em tempo real dos processos empresariais. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal desenvolver e aplicar em uma empresa do setor elétrico brasileiro uma metodologia para estabelecer e hierarquizar regras de monitoramento de processos de negócio, na perspectiva de implementação futura de uma plataforma tecnológica de auditoria contínua. Mais especificamente, a metodologia compreende a seleção dos processos auditáveis com maior exposição ao risco; identificação de eventos de risco associados a esses processos; e estabelecimento e hierarquização de regras de monitoramento propriamente ditas. A pesquisa pode ser considerada aplicada, descritiva e participativa e teve como estratégia principal a adoção do método de estudo de caso, com a realização de oficinas de trabalho para a coleta de dados primários. Destacam-se como resultados: (i) a revisão crítica da literatura existente sobre auditoria contínua; (ii) uma metodologia para estabelecer e hierarquizar regras de monitoramento associadas a processos de maior exposição a risco para fins do projeto de auditoria continua em uma empresa do setor elétrico brasileiro; e (iii) demonstração da aplicabilidade e efetividade da metodologia proposta, conforme descrito no estudo de caso. / [en] Continuous monitoring and audit aim at improving the efficiency of operations at the company, identifying and timely assessing risks for providing critical information to senior management for better decision-making processes. By adopting control tools embedded in company s information systems or by using specialized software, continuous monitoring and audit provide real-time assessment of business processes. This dissertation aims to develop and apply in a Brazilian power energy company a methodology for establishing and hierarchizing monitoring rules for the purpose of continuous monitoring and audit. The proposed methodology encompasses selection of business processes with greater exposure to risk; identification of risk events associated with those processes; and establishment of monitoring rules themselves. This research can be classified as applied, descriptive, methodological and participatory. Its methodological approach includes the development of a case study and workshops for collecting primary data. The main results can be summarized as follows: (i) critical review of existing literature on continuous audit; (ii) a methodology designed for establishing and hierarchizing monitoring rules with the purpose of continuous monitoring and audit at a Brazilian power energy company selected for this research; and (iii) demonstration of the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology according to the results presents in the case study.

[pt] A Automação Robótica de Processos (RPA) surge como uma nova tecnologia advinda da indústria 4.0, focada na automação de tarefas humanas repetitivas, rotineiras e baseadas em regras. Ela promete eliminar esses processos que consomem mais tempo, sem substituir os sistemas de TI existentes. Consequentemente, reduziria custos e riscos operacionais; e melhoraria a eficiência, os processos internos e a experiência do cliente. Além disso, a RPA tem o potencial de revolucionar a auditoria tradicional, pois minimizaria as atividades tenocráticas, que apresentam baixo valor agregado, e permitiria que os auditores se concentrassem mais em atividades que exijam raciocínio analítico e julgamento profissional. Assim, levaria à ampliação da cobertura dos testes e do monitoramento de transações, aumentando a performance e a qualidade da auditoria contínua. Devido ao exposto, a RPA está sendo vista como um ativo estratégico para enfrentar os desafios da transformação digital. Por ser uma nova tendência, a literatura científica sobre o tema ainda é escassa, mas está crescendo rapidamente. E, nos últimos dois anos, foi amplamente adotada em muitas organizações e instituições financeiras com sucessos e fracassos. Portanto, considerando o modelo das três linhas de defesa, este estudo tem como objetivo propor um framework para implantação da RPA na auditoria interna de bancos brasileiros. / [en] Robotic Process Automation (RPA) emerges as a new 4.0 industry technology focused on the automation of repetitive, routine, rule-based human tasks. It promises to eliminate the most time-consuming processes without replacing existing IT systems. Consequently, reducing costs and operational risks as it improves efficiency, internal processes, and customer experience. Moreover, it has the potential to disrupt the traditional audit model as it minimizes mechanical low added value activities, enabling auditors to concentrate more on assignments that require thinking skills and professional judgment. Thus, it would lead to the expansion of testing and monitoring analytics coverage, enriching continuous audit quality and performance. Due to the above, RPA is being seen as a strategic asset to face the challenges of digital transformation. Since it is a new trend, there is limited literature on the subject, but growing fast. And, in the last couple of years, it has been widely adopted in many industries and financial organizations with successes and failures. Therefore, considering the three lines of defense model, this paper aims to propose an RPA framework for internal audit in Brazilian banks.