Open Source Software in Financial Auditing

Abstract

The auditing software is an essential tool to the auditor, being a mechanism that helps to achieve auditing goals to obtain efficiency, quality, and to increase reliability on data analysis and evidence collection. The auditing software can be proprietary software or free and open source software. The purpose of this chapter is to understand which factors affect open source software adoption. To achieve these goals, a survey aimed at financial auditors was carried through, and 64 complete answers were collected. Results indicate that the most used software is the proprietary software and that 43% of the respondents belong to the first stage of open source software assimilation. Additionally, it was verified that the external environment is the macro factor, which positively affects the adoption of open source software in auditing.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Computer-Assisted Audit Tools (CAATs): Any mechanized tool for auditing, such as general-purpose auditing applications, auditing support software, utility audit programs, and computer-aided audit techniques.

Open Source Software: Like in free software, open source software should comply to the four freedoms. But, while free software emphasizes freedom, Open Source is an approach that more emphasis on software quality.