Applying Case-Based Reasoning to the Accounting Domain

Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is rapidly emerging as a rich and powerful artificial intelligence approach that can overcome some inherent weaknesses of traditional expert system technology. Several successful CBR systems have been developed in a variety of fields and CBR applications are beginning to emerge in accounting research and practice as well. As sophisticated and user-friendly CBR shells emerge, CBR is more likely to be used to solve complex, real-world problems. This paper provides a broad overview of case-based systems and the principles on which the field is founded. Accounting applications of case-based reasoning and future research issues are identified.     

企业风险基础审计中的专业判断

为风险战略决策提供基础参考并对风险管理执行情况进行测试评价的风险审计 ,被期望和要求做出更为科学的专业判断。风险审计的专业判断包括 :审计域、审计资源的配置、风险类别、风险程度、风险处理手段合理性等     

A Case-Based Reasoning System for Indirect Bank Lending

By implementing case-based reasoning (CBR) systems, business organizations can utilize past cases—a key data resource—for future decision making. CBR is particularly suitable for business domains that have available a large amount of historical data. One such domain is indirect bank lending. In this paper, we present a case-based system that operates in the bank lending domain. The system recommends whether an indirect loan application should be approved or denied, based on past experiences. We describe how the system was developed and explain how the system functions. The system was empirically evaluated using actual loan cases. The positive results of the evaluation confirm our hypothesis that CBR is an attractive decision-making methodology for the bank lending domain.     

Case-Based Reasoning: Application Techniques for Decision Support

Decision-support systems can be improved by enabling them to use past decisions to assist in making present ones. Reasoning from relevant past cases is appealing because it corresponds to some of the processes an expert uses to solve problems quickly and accurately. All this depends on an effective method of organizing cases for retrieval. This paper investigates the use of inductive networks as a means for case organization and outlines an approach to determining the desired number of cases—or assessing the reliability of a given number. Our method is demonstrated by application to decision making on corporate tax audits.     

审计判断偏误的形成及其防治

在审计实务当中,尽管有正式颁布的《独立审计准则》可供遵循,但仍需要审计人员在审计各阶段、在确定重要的审计目标、确定重要性水平和评估各种审计风险、评价内部控制的有效性、选择实质性的审计程序、评价证据的适当性以及在评价被审计单位是否遵循企业会计准则和会计制度等各环节上,都需要作出审计判断。审计判断的正确与否直接关系着审计结论的正确性和会计信息使用者的正确决策。而审计判断偏误的存在是导致审计判断错误的主要原因之一。因此,研究审计判断偏误的产生机理、形式及其防治就显得十分必要了。 审计判断偏误…     

对改善审计判断的思考

我国对审计判断的研究很少考虑审计判断主体的多样性.要提高审计判断的质量,就应根据不同层次审计人员的具体情况,分析影响其职业判断能力的主要因素,采取有效措施提高其专业判断能力.     

PLANET: An Expert System for Audit Risk Assessment and Planning

PLANET is an expert system for audit risk assessment and audit test selection. At present it is undergoing worldwide field testing by Price Waterhouse audit teams. As a case study, PLANET illustrates a complex interplay of audit methodology issues and expert systems development techniques, and reinforces the validity of many of the widely reported lessons learned about successful expert systems development during the 1980s. However, the experience also challenges elements of this received wisdom while exposing special issues arising in the development of expert systems in the field of auditing.     

经验、任务性质与审计判断质量

审计过程中,审计判断是最为重要的因素,其质量高低直接影响着审计质量。经验作为影响审计判断质量的一个重要因素一直备受关注。本文采用实验研究方法,以我国会计师事务所的审计人员为被试,以判断的共识、稳定性和自我洞察力三个指标作为审计判断质量的衡量标准,检验经验对两类不同性质任务判断质量的影响。实验结果表明,在作为一般任务的内部控制风险评估中,有经验审计人员和缺乏经验审计人员在稳定性和自我洞察力方面不存在显著差异,但有经验者的共识显著高于后者;而在作为高级任务的分析程序风险评估中,有经验的审计人员的共识和稳定性均显著高于缺乏经验者,但两者在自我洞察力方面没有明显差异。     

论导致审计判断失误的主要因素

审计人员是审计判断的主体,导致审计判断失误的因素因审计人员层次的不同而有所差别。对高层审计人员而言,主要表现为职业道德素养低下;对一般审计人员而言,则在于其职业知识的匮乏和职业技能的欠缺。     

政府背景大客户与审计费用——基于供应链风险传递视角

本研究利用2007-2015年上市公司客户信息数据,首次基于供应链风险传递视角,探究了中国国情下政府背景的客户群体对企业审计费用的影响。结果表明,政府背景大客户的存在有助于降低企业的审计费用,进一步的检验还发现,持续性越强、政治层级越高的政府背景大客户可以更好帮助企业获得较低的审计收费,且这一关系在融资约束程度较高的企业当中尤为明显。最后,本文还从影响路径的角度揭示了政府背景大客户的存在能有效缓解企业面临的审计风险,进而降低其审计费用的机制。     

SCAN: A Case-Based Reasoning Model for Generating Information System Control Recommendations

This paper describes SCAN, a case-based reasoning model for generating information system control recommendations. The purpose of the paper is to explain how a case-based reasoner may be used to support inexperienced information system auditors in evaluating controls and proposing audit recommendations. As a case-based reasoner, SCAN functions by reasoning by analogy to similar past cases. SCAN models audit experience as traces of past cases which are stored in a case knowledge base. In addition to a database of past audit cases, SCAN consists of indices for storing and retrieving cases, a similarity metric for measuring case similarity, and rules for using similar cases to generate control recommendations. SCAN uses past cases to remind the user of previous control failures, to set expectations about case features and controls, to use as a pattern against which to compare a client's controls and to help justify or explain its recommendations. SCAN's recommendations were judged to be more like those of an experienced auditor than either a student or a textbook model.     

The Business Risk Audit Approach and Audit Production Efficiency

Essentially, this study asks: Does the business risk audit (BRA) approach increase audit production efficiency? To answer this question empirically, direct and indirect tests are employed using proprietary, working paper data from the larger clients of a major Australian public sector audit provider and an efficiency frontier analytic methodology, data envelopment analysis (DEA). Results based on this proprietary, audit hours data for audit engagements carried out just after BRA approach implementation show that they have high levels of production efficiency and are risk-adjusted, with no significant difference in production efficiency between higher and lower business risk audit engagements. Results based on audit fees data for audit engagements carried out shortly before and after BRA approach implementation show that overall production efficiency significantly improves. Importantly, while this improvement is significant for lower-risk audit engagements, there is no significant improvement for higher-risk audit engagements. In the context of this study's research site, this is consistent with the BRA approach addressing inefficiencies created when lower-risk audit engagements are being over-audited. That is, the BRA approach can result in both risk-adjusted and more efficiently produced audits. With the re-emergence of the BRA approach in the literature and in practice, this study provides empirical evidence to support the claim that this audit approach can lead to ‘creating auditing efficiencies’ (Bell et al., 1997, p. 1).     

浅议风险意识在审计实务中的渗透

~~上,进行比较分析,一来可进一步判断整体业务的可信度,二来以便对客户采用的会计核算方法是否恰当作出判断,找出其关键控制点,做到有的放矢。2.充分认识审计证据的取证工作。由于注册会计师主要依据审计外勤时各审计人员所作的记录和相关证据作出判断,一般情况下不再进行取证。因此造成审计外勤时的取证是否充分、恰当,对审计意见的形成有着至关重要的作用。在取证时,绝不能满足于客户自行提供的资料,关键要获取强有力的外部证据,多角度地取证、印证。比如,看似简单的银行存款项目,对账户完整性至关重要,但往往在审计中却疏于取证;期末余额…     

关键审计事项的结论性评价与投资者的投资判断

审计准则要求披露关键审计事项,但对于关键审计事项有无结论性评价并无明确要求,在实践中,出现了四种形式:没有结论性评价,结论性评价为"合理的"、"可以接受的"和"没有发现重大问题"。我们分析和检验了有无针对关键审计事项的结论性评价以及不同结论性评价对投资者投资判断的影响。我们发现,有针对关键审计事项结论性评价的情况下,投资者判断的投资吸引力更高;针对关键审计事项的结论性评价表述为"合理的",投资者判断的投资吸引力要高于表述为"可以接受的"和"没有发现存在重大问题"两种情况,且在后两者之间投资者判断的投资吸引力没有差异。我们还发现,投资者对关键审计事项的信心,中介了关键审计事项结论性评价与投资者投资判断之间的关系。     

Evidence of Fraud,Audit Risk and Audit Liability Regimes

We investigate the effectiveness of proportionate liability in reducing the probability of fraud and audit risk relative to joint and several liability in two strategic audit settings: one that provides conclusive evidence of fraud and one that provides inconclusive evidence of fraud. In both settings the auditor makes an audit effort choice, but in the second setting the auditor also evaluates the audit evidence. Our results show that when the auditor chooses only effort, a proportionate liability rule with large marginal liability relief decreases audit risk. However, when the auditor also evaluates the audit evidence this result no longer holds.     

Knowledge Representation Issues in Complex Decision Domains: an Example from Inherent Audit Risk Assessment

There has been significant discussion in artificial intelligence and expert systems concerning different representation systems for complex domain knowledge. This article discusses the strengths, weaknesses and psychological validity of two common systems, associational or rule- and model-based, and presents a computer model which incorporates both approaches into a hybrid system. The computer model reasons in the complex decision domain of inherent audit risk assessment.     

试论审计风险及其控制

审计风险是审计人员在制定审计计划、执行审计程序、出具审计报告等阶段必须随时加以考虑的一个重要因素.探讨审计风险的含义、种类、存在形态以及审计风险、审计证据与重要性水平关系,对控制审计风险及避免审计失败有重大意义.     

认真应对审计风险积极完善审计风险准则

审计风险准则针对的是重大错报风险的识别、评估和应对问题。中注协借鉴国际审计风险准则起草的《财务报表审计的目标和一般原则(修订)》《、审计证据(修订)》《、了解被审计单位及其环境并评估重大错报风险》和《针对评估的重大错报风险实施的程序》等4个准则项目,现已发布了第二次征求意见稿。下面对这批准则项目的基本情况作一简要介绍。审计风险准则的起草背景近年来,随着全球化和科学技术的影响日益加深,企业环境不断发生变化,企业组织结构及其经营活动的方式日益复杂,会计准则要求的判断和估计日益增加,企业管理当局进行财务舞弊的动…     

时间压力、责任与审计判断绩效:一项实验研究

近年来,我国注册会计师面临的时间压力和责任日益增加,而时间压力和责任都是影响审计判断绩效的重要环境因素。本文采用实验研究方法,以我国注册会计师为被试,研究了时间压力和责任对我国注册会计师审计判断绩效的影响。研究发现,时间压力显著降低了注册会计师的审计判断效果,但同时提高了判断加工速度,责任能显著提高审计判断效果但对判断效率和判断加工速度没有显著影响。在高责任的情况下,审计判断效果不受时间压力的影响,高责任抑制了高时问压力带来的审计判断效果下降。     

论企业内部风险管理审计

企业经营中会遇到各种各样的风险,尤其在经济国际化、全球化的背景下,企业的经营环境变得越来越复杂,企业的持续经营风险大幅增加,因而内部审计参与风险管理有其客观必然性,是环境因素与企业自身生存和发展的客观要求。当企业管理转向以风险管理为重点时,为了把握发展机遇,就要使内部审计在风险管理工作中发挥应有的作用。内部审计部门要对企业经营的各个环节进行风险管理和再监督。企业针对风险管理工作的评价和监督,即风险管理审计,在一定程度上决定企业风险管理的有效性。