Lecture Resources Topics
1 Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 1 - Introduction to Introduction to the courseMock quiz
the course Introduction case ‘Street Basics’
Case ‘Street Basics’
2 Read and formulate questions: RSSW 1, 2, and 10 Internal control and accounting
information systems Quiz
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 2 – Internal control
and accounting information systems
3 Read and formulate questions: RSSW 9, 12, and 13 IT control Quiz
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 3 – IT control
4 Read and formulate questions: RSSW 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 Transaction cycles: revenues,
expenditures, production, human
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 4 – Transaction resources management, and general
cycles ledger and reporting systems
Quiz
5 Read and formulate questions: Vaassen Blockchain and other distributed ledgers
Quiz
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 5 – Blockchain and
other distributed ledgers
6 Guest lecture by Prof.dr. Theo-Jan Renkema Read and Data engineering Quiz
formulate questions: RSSW 4 and 6
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 6 – Data engineering
7 Read and formulate questions: Dickey; Zhang; Sandu et al. Robotic process automation and artificial
intelligence
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 7 – Robotic process
automation and artificial intelligence Quiz
8 Read and formulate questions: RSSW 8 and 11; Hardy Continuous monitoring Quiz
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 8 – Continuous
monitoring
9 Guest lecture by Prof.dr. Theo-Jan Renkema Read and Data analytics in accounting, control, and
formulate questions: RSSW 5 and 7 auditing QuizKick-off data analytics mini-
hackathon
Watch and formulate questions: Lecture 9 – Data analytics in
accounting, control, and auditing (including data analytics
techniques)
Inhoudsopgave
Lecture 1 – Introduction to the course.......................................................................................................................3
1
,Lecture 2 Internal control and accounting information systems..............................................................................12
Lecture 3 IT control..................................................................................................................................................23
Lecture 4 – Transaction cycles.................................................................................................................................34
Lecture 5 – Blockchain and other distributed ledgers..............................................................................................43
Lecture 6 – Data engineering...................................................................................................................................56
Lecture 7 – Robotic process automation and artificial intelligence..........................................................................64
Paper Dickey et al. (2019) Dickey, G., S. Blanke, and L. Seaton (2019). Machine Learning in Auditing, Current and
Future Applications. CPA Journal, Vol. 89, Iss. 6, June. pp.16-21..............................................................................69
Paper Sandu et al. (2022) Sandu, M.I., M. Wiersma and D. Manichand (2022). Time to audit your AI algorithms.
MAB, 96, No.7/8, July/August...................................................................................................................................70
Paper Zhang (2019) Zhang, C. (2019). Intelligent Process Automation in Audit. Journal of Emerging Technologies in
Accounting. Vol. 16, No. 2, Fall, pp.69-88.................................................................................................................72
Lecture 8 – Continuous monitoring..........................................................................................................................75
Paper Hardy & Laslett (2015)....................................................................................................................................79
Hardy, C.A. and G. Laslett (2015). Continuous Auditing and Monitoring in Practice: Lessons from Metcash’s
Business Assurance Group. Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 29, No. 2, Summer, pp.183-194...........................79
Lecture 9 – Data analytics in accounting, control and auditing................................................................................83
Internal control and accounting
information systems
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,Lecture 1 – Introduction to the course
This lecture
- Setting the scene
- Accounting information systems
- Internal control
- Data analytics
Why information? Why organizations need information?
The three uses of information:
- Delegation and accountability
- Decision making
- Operating the business
Information is at the heart of this course. So first of all, we must ask ourselves the basic question why
organisations need information?
The three uses of information: Organisations need information for delegation and accountability, decision
making and operating their business.
An example: kiddie entrepreneur part 1
Example: Imagine yourself at age eight being already a true entrepreneur. You buy candies in the store and
sell them to your friends at home in the garage of your parents house for double the cost price. As long as
your friends are willing to pay this price, your capital increases and your wealth grows. You may eventually
become a millionaire. Internal control in this little business is easy since you are the only employee and you
perform all the tasks, including purchasing cash disbursements, stock keeping, selling cash receipts and
making deposits to your bank account. Yet by counting your candy inventories and your cash and
comparing this to your purchases and sales, you find out that there is some money missing. Did you make
mistakes? Was money stolen from you? Was candy stolen? Did all your friends pay? Did you give
discounts? You realise that you need a booklet to write down all your business activities just to keep track
of the flows of candy and money. Moreover, you realise that the tax authorities will also want part of your
earnings. That booklet is an accounting system and the process is aimed at safeguarding your candies and
cash. Recording reliable information in your booklet and compliance with laws and regulations, such as tax
laws are your controls.
The invention of double-entry accounting
- Luca Pacioli (1447 – 1517) was the first to publish detailed material on the double-entry system of
accounting
- Most of the accounting principles and cycles described by Pacioli are still in use to this very day.
- His documentation includes journals, ledgers, year-end closing dates, trial balances, cost
accounting, accounting ethics, and extensive work on the double entry-accounting system. Every
financial fact had to be recorded twice (debet and credit side).
The most common way organisations maintain their accounting systems is double entry accounting. The
inventor of this system was the Italian monk and mathematician Luca Pacioli, who wrote the book
summary of arithmetic, geometry, proportions and Proportionality in 1494. His documentation included
journals, ledgers, year end closing dates, trial balances, cost accounting, but also accounting ethics and
extensive work on the double entry accounting system.
The whole idea behind double entry accounting systems was that every financial fact had to be recorded
twice. One on the debit side and one on the credit side. As such, the system contained built in checks and
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, balances because at the end of a reporting period, debit always had to be equal to credit. A famous quote
by Piccoli is A person should not go to sleep at night until the debits equal the credits. But importantly,
most of the accounting principles and cycles described by him are still in use to this very day.
Relationships in double-entry accounting
The relationships and double entry accounting that Pacioli describe can be depicted in a matrix that
contains starting and ending positions and events that happen in between these starting and ending
positions. Since double entry accounting is a financial system, these events represent financial facts,
meaning that they can be expressed in monetary values.
Trade company that purchases goods from its vendors, keeps these goods in its warehouses for a while,
and then sells them at a price higher than the cost price. The company does not do cash on delivery
payments to its vendors, nor does it receive cash on delivery payments from its customers. This implies
that there are accounts payable, the creditors and accounts receivable the debtors. Eventually the debtor
should pay and eventually the company should pay its creditors.
Accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory and cash positions that can only change when events
occur that affect these positions. For this company, these events are purchases, sales, cash disbursements
and cash receipts.
We now can clearly see the relationships in the resulting matrix:
- inventory of goods at the beginning of the reporting period plus purchases minus sales should be
the inventory of goods at the end of the reporting period.
- The cash position at the beginning of the reporting period, minus cash disbursements plus cash
receipts should be the cash position at the end of the reporting period.
- Accounts payable at the beginning of the reporting period plus purchases minus cash
disbursements to creditors should be accounts payable at the end of the reporting period
- accounts receivable at the beginning of the reporting period plus sales minus cash receipts from
debtors should be accounts receivable at the end of the reporting period.
Should there be a mistake in one single component, then this system will automatically reveal it.
Double entry accounting also found its way into the literature. A famous quote on double entry accounting
stems from the German author, Johann Wolfgang von Gouda. He wrote: ‘What advantages does double
entry accounting offer to the merchant! It is one of the most beautiful inventions of the human mind, and
every good master of the house must implement it in his business.’
Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre
Quote: ‘Welche Vorteile gewährt die doppelte Buchhaltung dem Kaufmanne! Es ist eine der schönsten
Erfindungen des menschlichen Geistes, und ein jeder gute Haushalter sollte sie in seiner Wirtschaft
einführen.’ What advantages does double-entry accounting offer to the merchant! It is one of the most
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