Information technology (IT) use can directly impact audit judgment and ultimately audit effectiveness and efficiency. Although IT has significantly changed the audit process, few studies have examined the perceived importance of IT use across a diverse group of audit firms. Our descriptive study explores audit IT use and its perceived importance across several audit applications. To address regulator concerns about barriers to entry in public accounting and to advance auditing research, we examine whether audit IT use and perceived importance of IT varies by firm size. A field-based questionnaire was used to collect data from 181 auditors representing Big 4, national, regional, and local firms. Our results indicate that auditors extensively use a variety of audit applications including analytical procedures, audit report writing, electronic work papers, Internet search tools, and sampling. Auditors perceive several applications as important (e.g., fraud review), but use them infrequently. In addition, IT specialists use is infrequent, even by auditors who examine clients with complex IT. Finally, findings suggest that audit IT use and perceived importance vary by firm size. These results describe audit IT use, but do not allow us to infer causality.

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We provide data on the extent to which computer-related audit procedures are used and whether two factors, control risk assessment and audit firm size, influence computer-related audit procedures use. We used a field-based questionnaire to collect data from 181 auditors representing Big 4, national, regional, and local firms. Results indicate that computer-related audit procedures are generally used when obtaining an understanding of the client system and business processes and testing computer controls. Furthermore, 42.9 percent of participants indicate that they relied on internal controls; however, this percentage increases significantly for auditors at Big 4 firms. Finally, our results raise questions for future research regarding computer-related audit procedure use.

SYNOPSIS The business use of data analytics is growing rapidly in the accounting environment. Similar to many new systems that involve accounting information, data analytics has fundamentally changed task processes, particularly those tasks that provide inference, prediction, and assurance to decision-makers. Thus, accounting researchers and practitioners must consider data analytics and its impact on accounting practice in their work. This paper uses the organizing principles from Mauldin and Ruchala's (1999) meta-theory of accounting information systems (AIS) to identify current data analytics use, examine how data analytics impacts the accounting environment, and discuss challenges and research opportunities.

Many companies today utilize interactive data visualization to present accounting information to external users on their investor relations websites and to internal users in applications such as enterprise resource planning, Balanced Scorecard, network security, and fraud detection systems. We develop a taxonomy for examining the current state of interactive data visualization research related to accounting decision making. We organize our review around three themes: the relationship between task characteristics and interactive data visualization techniques, the relationship between decision maker characteristics and interactive data visualization techniques, and the impact of interactive data visualization techniques on decision processes and outcomes. The review categorizes relevant research, describes the research questions addressed, and suggests avenues for further research.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently mandated that publicly traded companies furnish their financial statements in XBRL format. However, researchers and practitioners question whether companies are adequately prepared to implement XBRL, and whether software tools and guidance exist to lead preparers through the process of creating XBRL-related documents. This paper describes how early mandate adopters implemented XBRL reporting. Four themes emerged from our analysis: management support and involvement, implementation approach, organizational readiness or expertise, and control over the XBRL reporting process. Our study contributes to a more complete understanding of how companies implement XBRL by providing a basis for accounting researchers to identify current implementation issues and future research opportunities. Furthermore, we provide educators with a characterization of how companies implement XBRL, thereby facilitating their classroom coverage of this important topic. Data Availability:  Data used in this study are available from the authors upon request.

This paper evaluates the implications of the proposed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule (33-8496) which encourages companies to file reports in the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format. We examine the impact of the proposed rule in three domains: (1) the role of XBRL in financial reporting, (2) concerns with XBRL taxonomies, and (3) the impact of XBRL on the SEC's filing program. The paper adopts a descriptive approach to generate normative and prescriptive propositions with implications for research that will guide preparers, users, and regulators of XBRL-tagged information.