August 4, 2021

August 4, 2021 Posted by: Category: Audit No comments

Virtual Audit is the need of the Hour. In this blog we are trying to make the reader understand what is Virtual Audit and how an organization especially the MSMEs to get prepared for the Virtual Audit by understanding the basic requirements.

What is VIRTUAL AUDIT?
Virtual audits are paperless, electronic audits that are conducted without face-to-face interaction. All data is exchanged in electronic formats such as MS Word, Excel, PDF files, text files and EDI files.

It is also known as Remote audit, and conducted remotely, using electronic methods such as video conferencing, email and telephone to obtain audit evidence, just like done during an on-site audit.

What are the types of Audits?
The Audits may be financial audits like Internal Audit, External Audit or Internal Revenue Audit. There may be other audits like Quality Audits or Company Audit etc which may also relate to the above definition.

Why Virtual Audit becomes important today?
• This is the digital era and most of the accounting and administrative documents receiving in business are already digital.
• The Work from Anywhere is the mantra today especially during and after the pandemic.
• Digital storage leads to less printing and encourage saving space, energy and earth.
• Constraints with manual filing system and delay in decision making.
• Dependency on people and place of work, makes it increasingly difficult.
• e-Assessment of Income Tax and other Services are going to make everyone to face Virtual Audit by keeping digital records easily accessible.

What is the future of Virtual Audit?
Remote audits have many advantages and are unquestionable over the traditional methods, although there are still some barriers to overcome. Traditional audits, even when they have been well planned and executed, may cause a certain amount of inconvenience and disruptions to the organization being audited. Virtual Audits in addition, increasingly finding very attractive, by reductions in costs, saving time and resources.

How to get ready for Virtual Audit?
Organizations have to get ready for the Virtual Audit by keeping the records and documents easily available in digital form and also to access remotely to facilitate Work from Anywhere concept.
This requires the implementation of Virtual Audit Tools and Digital Document Management Software System to suite the various requirements of an Organization. The repository system of digital documents must be secured and safe for the audit purpose. It is important that these documents to be retrievable easily using various tools depending on the requirements. Needless to mention that the connectivity with the Office systems and various applications to be taken care for a smooth operation.

How to implement Virtual Audit for TALLY Software?
One of the most important area where the record keeping is crucial for any Business is the financial accounting. TALLY being a most preferred accounting software among the MSMEs, it is important to have a safe, secured, compressed and encrypted documents storage system for support documentation of data vouchers to facilitate smooth Virtual Audit with TALLY.

This involves various features like following to work with TALLY.
• Scan/ attach supporting documents to Accounting Vouchers.
• Viewing documents efficiently.
• Exporting documents.
• Printing documents, when needed.
• Making single document for a voucher for quick view to Audit.
• Quick audit of document from Ledger.
• Sending email of document along with Voucher for any query from Management or Audit Team.
• Exporting documents for Auditor along with TALLY data.
• Import documents to Auditor machine.
• Easy Tools to view documents from Auditor System along with TALLY data.

For advanced TALLY Users, bills passing and documentation can be processed through a simple workflow in the Document Management Software and finally attached with TALLY for Virtual Audit.
There may be many Digital Document Management Software and it is pertinent to mention that one software called CABiNET eDMSS with TALLY Integration is well suited and capable of managing almost all features mentioned above to set up a VIRTUAL AUDIT with TALLY.

Contributed by:
Mr. Jayaprakash Thindiyote

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