As more and more organisations rely on data to make strategic decisions, audit analytic tools have become an essential tool for internal and external auditors
What are data analytics tools in auditing?
Data analytics tools for internal audits can directly interact with systems and extract data. They also allow every transaction and balance to be analysed and reported. Computerisation and higher transaction volumes are steering audits from traditional to data-driven methods for increased effectiveness.
However, implementing analytics within an audit team can be exhausting. You need the budget, the resources and the skill set to even think about getting started. Once you have those in place, choosing the best tool for your needs can seem even more daunting.
There are a few options on the market, some offered by audit software providers and some more generic. This article guides your organisation in choosing the right analytics tool.
What to look for in audit analytics tools
As you consider which audit analytic tool to purchase, here are some factors you’ll want to keep in mind:
- Functionality: The audit analytics tool should be able to perform the necessary data analysis tasks for your specific audit needs, such as data profiling, risk assessment, and sampling. It is essential to identify which features are the priorities for your organisation.
- Ease of use: The tool should have a user-friendly interface and be easy to learn and use. This will help to minimise the learning curve for users and improve efficiency.
- Data sources: The tool should be able to handle various types of data sources, including different formats and sizes. This is especially important if you are dealing with large volumes of data.
- Integration: The tool should integrate well with other software and tools you use in your organisation. This will make it easier to share data and insights across departments.
- Customisation: The tool should allow for reports and analytics customisation to meet your organisation’s and stakeholders’ specific needs.
- Price: Analytics software can be expensive. It deals with highly specialised and complex functionality. Some offer enterprise pricing because multiple departments may use them, while others vary in price to meet more niche needs.
How does ACL analytics from Diligent compare to other audit analytic tools
When comparing ACL Analytics from Diligent and other audit analytic tool solution providers, here are some key differences to consider:
- Functionality: Diligent designed ACL Analytics explicitly for audit analytics, incorporating features tailored to auditors’ needs, including data profiling and sampling. In contrast, broader-functionality solutions lack explicit design for audit analytics.
- Ease of use: Diligent’s ACL Analytics boasts a user-friendly interface, making it generally easier to learn and use compared to other options. Though more scripting is required for ACL Analytics, a robust library of predesigned scripts is readily available for hundreds of standard audit and control tests.
- Data sources: While other solution providers do analytics for a broader range of use cases outside of audit and controls, the data sources for ACL Analytics from Diligent are specific to audit use cases.
- Integration: ACL Analytics from Diligent integrates directly with our audit management system, Diligent HighBond, to provide the analytics results directly into the audit project. Other solutions function as standalone analytics tools, requiring you to separate the results or import the data to an audit management system.
- Customisation: Like many other solution options, ACL Analytics from Diligent allows for customisation of reports and analytics.
- Price: The functionality is more targeted since ACL Analytics from Diligent focuses on governance, risk and compliance (GRC) use cases. As a result, it’s often more cost-effective to purchase than the other options on the market.
Ultimately, your choice of an audit analytics solution will depend on your organisation’s specific needs and preferences. If your company strongly focuses on audit analytics, ACL Analytics from Diligent may be the better choice due to its particular audit-focused functionality.
Contact us to book a demo.