A importância de Continuous Assurance: a perspetiva dos auditores internos

Abstract

As a result of the increasing demand on the credibility of the financial information disclosure, internal auditing has been playing an increasingly important role in organizations. Currently, there is a need to ensure the compliance of organizational transactions in real time in order to increase the reliability of the information and to reduce risks. In this context, the concept of Continuous Assurance has emerged, allowing to reduce potential errors and risks and obtain useful information in real time, supporting more effectively the decision making. As a central objective of this dissertation, we sought to understand the importance and the use of Continuous Assurance services from the perspective of the internal auditor.

The methodology used is exploratory-descriptive, of a qualitative nature and used a questionnaire survey.

The main results demonstrate, among other findings, that the Continuous Assurance services are considered by the internal auditors as very important. Despite this, its implementation in the organizations does not follow the importance assigned to it, and is still far from being fully deployed. The dimension of the audit department is an influential factor im the use of some

Continuous Assurance services.