Auditing: Industry 4.0, GDPR, VUCA, NOCLAR

This document discusses various topics related to auditing including Industry 4.0, GDPR, VUCA, and NOCLAR. It provides an overview of each topic and its significance in the field of auditing.

Running head: AUDITING
AUDITING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
AUDITING
Table of Contents
Question No 1............................................................................................................................3
1.1...........................................................................................................................................3
1.2...........................................................................................................................................3
1.3...........................................................................................................................................3
1.4...........................................................................................................................................4
Question No 2............................................................................................................................4
Going Concern Concept.........................................................................................................4
Professional Scepticism in Business......................................................................................5
Question No 3............................................................................................................................6
What is an Auditor.................................................................................................................6
Beware of the Auditor – they only tick boxes........................................................................6
Question No 4............................................................................................................................8
Four Organization Constraints Impact Auditor Decision....................................................10
Reference..................................................................................................................................11

2
AUDITING
Question No 1
1.1
Industry 4.0 is the subset of fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 encompasses
arear that are not classified as industry in standard terms such as smart cities. These refer to
the concept of factories in which machines augmented with wireless technology and sensors
that connected to a system, which can visualise the production line-up and thus make a
decision on its own (Coppage & Shastri 2014). These describe the trend towards the data
exchanges and automation in regards to manufacturing technologies. Industry 4.0 includes
many concepts such as smart manufacturing, smart factory and light out which also known as
dark factories.
1.2
General Data Protection Regulation is a kind of regulation in EU Law in regards to
data protection and privacy for all the individual citizen of European Union and European
Economic Area (DeFond & Zhang 2014). It even addresses the transfer of personal data
outside of EEA and EU areas. The main aims of this regulation are to give control to
individual in regards to personal data. These also able to simplify the regulatory environment
for international business by making changes in EU. GDPR was adopted on 14 April 2016
and became enforceable in the beginning 25 May 2018.
1.3
VUCA stands for Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Each element of
VUCA serves to enhance strategic significance. Volatility denotes about the nature and
dynamics of change and the spend and nature changes of forces (Eilifsen & Messier Jr 2014).
Uncertainty is the lack of predictability organisation not able to predict the events and to get
surprised with each event. The sense of awareness and understanding of issue and events in

3
AUDITING
business. Complexity is the multiplex of force and the issue which surrounded in the
organisation, the confusion which lies in the company business.
1.4
NOCLAR defined as an act or omission committed by the client may be intentionally
or unintentionally. These standard addresses the regulation and law that are generally
recognised to have a direct effect on the determination of materiality in company account and
the disclosure made in client financial statement (Elder et al., 2013). These also addresses
other regulation and law, which are fundamental in regards to client business. NOCLAR aims
to raise the ethical bar for the global accountant and to increase the duties and responsibility
of Pas’ in this area.
Question No 2
Going Concern Concept
Going concern principle state the company will carry its operation in future unless
there is some evidence to affect the going concern principle in company financial statement.
Auditor carries its audit procedure to examine the accounting record, so the auditor must
ascertain the audit evidence in regards to the going concern concept in company business.
Auditor found out any details which can affect the going concern concept which should be
recorded in the auditor report and auditor should consider the information while giving its
opinion upon company financial statement (Furnham & Gunter 2015). The going concern not
presented in auditor opinion but it presented in Emphasis Matter Paragraph which is formed
by the auditor in respect of ASA 706. The Indicator of potential going concern problem are:
 Company has negative trends which include sales, recurring loses, increasing cost and
adverse financial ratio

4
AUDITING
 Lack of proper employee in the business, more amount of strike and other labour
difficulties in the business
 Inadequate account system which affects the overall accounting information of
company business
 Company indulged in many legal cases which are affecting the company goodwill and
brand value in the market.
 Sale of company fixed asset that denotes company is not having proper finance in the
business.
 Loss of reputed client in the business or loss of significant supplier in business
 Company has been defaulting in payment of a loan or unable to get proper finance for
its business.
The above mention parameters are there to know whether the company is having application
of going concern or not. The company having any point mentioned above that will let the
auditor to report the going concern matter in the Emphasis Matter Paragraph of auditor
report.
Professional Scepticism in Business
Professional Scepticism is a behaviour which should be maintained by the auditor
while carrying an audit process in the company financial statement. Auditor has to ask many
questions to the company management in regards to the audit issue which is faced by the
auditor (Goh, Krishnan & Li 2013). As per auditing accounting standard an auditor should
behave in professional scepticism which helps the auditor identify the risk in company
financial statement and materiality in the business.
An auditor can carry professional scepticism by keeping some distance with company
management that will help it to carry all the audit process in the company financial report

5
AUDITING
easily. These help the auditor to carry the independent principle in the business as if the
auditor is not having any influence of management; this lets it give an independent opinion
upon company financial statement.
Question No 3
What is an Auditor
An auditor is a person who is authorised to check the accuracy of company financial
reports and ensure to know that the companies are complying with all the rule and regulation
in company financial statement (Griffiths 2016). They help the business to protect from fraud
and also help the company to carry accounting method properly in the business. The auditor
assesses the financial report of company and ensures that the organisation is running
efficiently. They analysis the company cashflow and verify how the company is utilising its
fund in the business operation. In regards to the public companies, the main aim of the
auditor is to check whether the company is complying with generally accepted accounting
principles or not. The check this requirement it has to inspect the accounting data, operational
aspects and financial records of company financial statement (Jacoby and Levy 2016).
Auditor has to make notes of each step which is also known as audit trail. Auditor after
carrying all its audit process in the business gives its opinion that whether the company
financial statement is showing true and fair view or not.
Beware of the Auditor – they only tick boxes
The statement signifies that the auditor only carries the minimum amount of auditing
process in the company financial statement. They only check what is mandatory as per the
law and the auditor takes no other steps in regards to company financial statement. Auditor
usually checks the minimum stuff of the company and based on which can make its opinion
that the company is showing true and fair view (Knechel & Salterio 2016). These lead to

6
AUDITING
increase the scam in the economy as the company is not having proper liquidity, but the
auditor has not analysis the financial statement due to which auditor is unable to know the
real position of the company in the business.
A scam which has taken place has lead to affect the confidant of public upon the
profession of auditor as the financial users are unable to get confidence upon the company
financial statement and able to decide on their research framework about the company
business (Louwers et al.,2015). These affected the existence of the auditor as if the financial
user is not willing to trust the auditor’s report then there is no point to carry audit process in
the company financial statement. These lead to an increase in the rules and regulation in
regards to the auditor that will help the auditor to increase the audit quality in the audit
process.
The auditor should examine the financial statement properly which will help the
auditor to gather audit evidence in company statement. Auditor has to vouch all the company
expenditure which will help the auditor to know how the company is carrying its accounting
operation in regards to the expenditure. The auditor should vouch all the financial asset and
liability in the business which will help the auditor to know how the company is accounting
their asset in the business (Müller-Burmeister & Velte 2016). The auditor should also check
the disclosure which is given by the company in their financial statement which will help the
auditor to know how the company is carrying its business operation. The company has given
proper amount of disclosure in the company business which will help the financial user and
auditor to know how the company can operate its business activities in the business.
The auditor should also check the internal control system of the business. The internal
control system is the system which helps the company to reducer or minimises the business
risk. It helps the company to carry its business operation properly. As the company is having

7
AUDITING
is low internal control system so it will increase the risk which associated in company
financial statement. The auditor should carry proper substantive procedure to obtain the
details of risk which associated in company business and how the auditor can ascertain the
materiality in company business (Power & Gendron 2015). The auditor should also plan the
materiality involve in company business as this will help the auditor to plan the audit process
in the business. It helps the auditor to carry all the audit procedure in company business.
Question No 4
The ten things which can affect the auditor decision are:
Anchoring – It is the use of irrelevant information in company financial statement. The
company is using some information which is not necessary to take into consideration in
regards to the decision-making process of the company. These can affect the auditor work as
the company is using wrong information in preparation of financial statement this will affect
the company opinion in the eyes of auditor (Reid 2015). Auditor has to carry many
procedures to filter the required information in company business and help the auditor to take
proper decision in the business. These will affect the auditor decision as if the auditor is
unable to locate the anchoring information so the auditor may give the wrong opinion by
keeping the wrong information in its decision-making process.
Attributional Bias – Company is using many personal judgements in regards to estimation
in the financial statement. It has to carry many estimations while preparing the accounting
policies in the business. Auditor work is affected by the judgement as this let the auditor
check all the financial statement which made based on human judgement and to know
whether the company is having proper estimation or not in the financial statement. The
auditor is affected by human judgement. As a result, the decision taken by it is also affected,
and it takes wrong decision in regards to company financial statement.

8
AUDITING
Behavioural Confirmation – The confirmation which is taken by the auditor in regards to
company financial statement. The auditor takes some confirmation so due to these the overall
audit process is also affected, and the auditor gives the wrong opinion upon the company
financial statement.
Bias Blind Spot – It is a cognitive bias of recognising the impact of bias on another
judgement while failing to see the impact of biases on own judgement. Auditor carries its
audit process; this can lead a conflict between the auditor and management judgement that
will directly affect the auditor opinion in the business (Sandvig et al., 2014). These will also
affect the auditor decision as the auditor is not able to convince with management decision
that can reflect upon the auditor opinion.
Confirmation Bias – It is the bias in which the auditor gathers new evidence instead of using
the old one. These can lead to increase the audit scope which will affect the auditor
performance of carrying audit process in the business. The auditor may not agree upon the
confirmation which has been provided by the management. As a result, it will give a qualified
report to the company.
Disconfirmation Bias – It refers to the tendency of people to carry more procedure upon the
information obtained in the business activities. Auditor has to carry many tests of control
upon the information which is provided by the company as confirmation. These help the
auditor to know whether the information provided by the company is correct or not. It also let
the auditor take proper amount of decision in company business which will help the auditor
to gather proper audit evidence in company business.
Endowment Effect – These show that the individual gives more importance to its product
than to other product. Auditor collects all then audit evidence which helps the auditor to
know how the company is performing in their business (Wang, Li & Li 2014). Auditor takes

9
AUDITING
the proper amount of decision on the audit evidence gathered by carrying different audit
evidence in the company business.
Farming Effect – It is an effect in which the brain of individual decides as per the
information provided. These will affect the auditor work as the company is showing material
misstatement. The auditor is having trust on the base of financial statement and giving its
opinion upon the same. It will affect the auditor decision as it may happen that the company
does not have proper valuation in company financial statement. These will lead auditor to
give a bias decision to company financial statement.
Group Serving Bias – This bias show that the auditor thinks that all the process carried upon
the company are correct it can decrease the quality of audit. The auditor may give a proper
audit report to company which is having high amount of fraud in the business.
Halo Effect – It is the effect under which the overall impression of person can influence the
decision of the auditor. Auditor getting effect by halo effect can lead to decrease in overall
audit procedure in company business as the auditor will get influence by the management and
will give a decision as per the instruction of the management.
Misinformation Effect – The company is not having proper information which can lead a
misinformation effect to the auditor. The auditor is not able to know the amount of required
information it decides the amount of information which is provided by the company. It can
lead to wrong report to company financial statement.
Four Organization Constraints Impact Auditor Decision
 Resources which are there in the company business can affect the auditor decision
making process.
 Liquidity in an asset can also affect the decision of the auditor
 Organisation culture can also affect the auditor decision making process

10
AUDITING
 Regulatory Compliance in Industry, as each industry has its norms which can affect
the decision of the auditor.

11
AUDITING
Reference
Coppage, R., & Shastri, T. (2014). Effectively Applying Professional Skepticism to Improve
Audit Quality. The CPA Journal, 84(8), 24.
DeFond, M., & Zhang, J. (2014). A review of archival auditing research. Journal of
Accounting and Economics, 58(2-3), 275-326.
Eilifsen, A., & Messier Jr, W. F. (2014). Materiality guidance of the major public accounting
firms. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 34(2), 3-26.
Elder, R. J., Akresh, A. D., Glover, S. M., Higgs, J. L., & Liljegren, J. (2013). Audit sampling
research: A synthesis and implications for future research. Auditing: A Journal of
Practice & Theory, 32(sp1), 99-129.
Furnham, A., & Gunter, B. (2015). Corporate Assessment (Routledge Revivals): Auditing a
Company's Personality. Routledge.
Goh, B. W., Krishnan, J., & Li, D. (2013). Auditor reporting under Section 404: The
association between the internal control and going concern audit
opinions. Contemporary Accounting Research, 30(3), 970-995.
Griffiths, P. (2016). Risk-based auditing. Routledge.
Jacoby, J. and Levy, H.B., 2016. The materiality mystery. The CPA Journal, 86(7), p.14.
Knechel, W. R., & Salterio, S. E. (2016). Auditing: Assurance and risk. Routledge.
Louwers, T. J., Ramsay, R. J., Sinason, D. H., Strawser, J. R., & Thibodeau, J. C.
(2015). Auditing & assurance services. McGraw-Hill Education.
Müller-Burmeister, C., & Velte, P. (2016). Increased materiality judgments in financial
accounting and external audit: a critical comparison between German and

12
AUDITING
international standard-setting. International Journal of Critical Accounting, 8(3-4),
227-245.
Power, M. K., & Gendron, Y. (2015). Qualitative research in auditing: A methodological
roadmap. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 34(2), 147-165.
Reid, L. C. (2015). Are auditor and audit committee report changes useful to investors?
Evidence from the United Kingdom.
Sandvig, C., Hamilton, K., Karahalios, K., & Langbort, C. (2014). Auditing algorithms:
Research methods for detecting discrimination on internet platforms. Data and
discrimination: converting critical concerns into productive enquiry, 22.
Wang, B., Li, B., & Li, H. (2014). Oruta: Privacy-preserving public auditing for shared data
in the cloud. IEEE transactions on cloud computing, 2(1), 43-56.