Date of Defense

10-30-2023

Date of Graduation

4-2024

Department

Accountancy

First Advisor

Sunday Bonifas

Second Advisor

Cari Burke

Abstract

As accounting software has evolved over time, so have the procedures and expectations associated with those programs. Similarly, cloud-based platforms have become more and more prevalent, and theoretically, there ought to be more procedures and expectations associated with these platforms. While there are many sources of regulation for the accounting industry, audits are given careful consideration due to the influence they have on the decision of external users of financial statements. One such place where the procedures and expectations are explicitly defined is for audits of public companies through the Auditing Standards created by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

This paper looks at the effect of cloud-based platforms on the Auditing Standards of the PCAOB. This is done through first determining the relevance of the Auditing Standards to the topic at hand. This is due to the fact that not all Auditing Standards have meaningful information regarding the accounting software used by accountants. After the Auditing Standards have been vetted and chosen for relevance, the first iteration of the chosen Auditing Standards is examined for the purpose of determining if there is specific language regarding cloud-based platforms as a system. Then, the chosen Auditing Standards are examined and compared across the different iterations of Auditing Standards that are published to see if an impact has been made due to cloud-based platforms. Finally, this paper performs an analysis on if cloud-based platforms have impacted the Auditing Standards put forth by the PCAOB.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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