8 out of 10 Corporate Accounting and Finance Officers Say "COVID-19 Negatively Affects Audits"

EY Hanyoung Announces 'Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Auditing and Perceptions of Digital Auditing'

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Eight out of ten domestic corporate accounting, finance, and audit personnel expressed concerns that the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) would negatively impact the accounting audit field this year. Additionally, more than 60% of respondents said that the COVID-19 pandemic should serve as an opportunity to shift from traditional audit methods to ‘untact audits’.

On the 6th, global accounting and consulting firm EY Hanyoung released the results of the ‘Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Accounting Audits and Perceptions of Digital Audits.’ EY Hanyoung conducted an online survey from September 9 to 16, targeting a total of 581 practitioners, department heads, and executives responsible for accounting, finance, and audit tasks within domestic companies.

The survey results showed that 77.6% of respondents believed COVID-19 would have a negative impact on accounting audits this year. Only 20.8% answered that there would be no impact. When asked about the ‘most concerning issues due to COVID-19,’ respondents cited △ increased burden in responding to audit tasks (36.9%) △ delays in audit schedules (27.7%) △ resurgence of COVID-19 at audit sites (25.4%).

Furthermore, 63.8% of respondents stated that audit methods and approaches should change due to COVID-19. In particular, 66.1% answered that ‘untact audit’ techniques, which strengthen non-face-to-face functions, should be expanded. Only 12.2% said there was no need to expand non-face-to-face audit methods. Meanwhile, 21.7% responded that the necessity of untact audits was ‘average.’

Respondents viewed ‘digital audits’ as an alternative that enables non-face-to-face accounting audits and minimizes face-to-face audit tasks. Digital audits refer to the concept of transferring traditional audit procedures?such as workspaces, paper documents, and communication channels?onto a single digital platform. Based on this digital platform, various new technologies, including big data analytics tools, are integrated to precisely detect errors during the audit process while enhancing efficiency, representing an advanced accounting audit technique.

Regarding the anticipated advantages of digital audits (multiple responses allowed), respondents most frequently cited ‘minimizing face-to-face contact’ (71.8%). This was followed by ‘minimizing unnecessary audit response tasks’ (46.5%) and ‘systematized audits’ (45.6%).

Meanwhile, EY Hanyoung uses a digital audit platform called EY Canvas, developed by EY Global. Additionally, they have introduced a digital audit tool (EY Helix) that can detect ‘anomalies’ in corporate ledgers early using big data analysis principles and apply it to audits.

Lee Kwang-yeol, Head of the Audit Division at EY Hanyoung, said, “The EY Canvas platform, developed with a $500 million investment by EY Global, is currently used by 145,000 EY audit personnel in 134 countries worldwide. We plan to apply more in-depth digital audit techniques to over 200 listed companies audited this year.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.