The management of High Limited is concerned with the reporting requirement cast through Rule 11 of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014…

CA Final · Advanced Auditing, Assurance and Professional Ethics · PYQS · May 2024
The management of High Limited is concerned with the reporting requirement cast through Rule 11 of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014 for the financial year 2023-24 with regard to the Audit Trail (edit log). Audit trails may be enabled at the accounting software level depending on the features available in such software or same may be captured directly in the database underlying such accounting software. Consequently, the management of the company approached CA J and asked him to suggest them list of internal controls which may be required to be implemented and operated to demonstrate that the Audit trail (or Edit Log) feature was functional, operated and was not disabled. Help CA J.

Suggested Answer and Working Notes:

In order to demonstrate that the audit trail feature was functional, operated and was not disabled, a company would have to design and implement specific internal controls (predominantly IT controls) which in turn, would be evaluated by the auditors, as appropriate. An illustrative list of internal controls which may be required to be implemented and operated are given below: Controls to ensure that the audit trail feature has not been disabled or deactivated.Controls to ensure that User IDs are assigned to each individual and that User IDs are not shared.Controls to ensure that changes to the configurations of the audit trail are authorized and logs of such changes are maintained.Controls to ensure that access to the audit trail (and backups) is disabled or restricted and access logs, whenever the audit trails have been accessed, are maintained.Controls to ensure that periodic backups of the audit trails are taken and archived as per the statutory period specified under the provisions of the Act.

Topics: Digital Auditing & Assurance

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