Professional impact of digital audit - thinking beyond the realm of audit standards

Auditors in the private and the public audit sector, be they internal or external, seem to be realising more and more that they need to grasp the opportunities that the digitalisation of their work environment offers. But how should they reconcile these ‘digital’ developments with the audit standards they normally work with, and which often serve as crucial beacons for an auditor’s day-to-day work? Giuseppe D’Onza is Professor of Risk Management and Financial Auditing at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Pisa. Federica De Santis is a lecturer and researcher at the same department. They have both contributed to the last and previous ECA summer school programmes. They identify some key opportunities for auditors that digitalisation offers and argue that standards should not be a straightjacket and an end as such, but a means to provide quality work.