RRL

Old to new normal

 This pandemic length confirms that the On-line will dominate the OFF-line, as
Guștiuc A. and Guștiuc L. (2020) point out considering that the personal or group
meetings will be minimized dramatically, the managers being put in the situation
of organizing meetings with employees’ attendance only when this is absolutely
necessary and important, the rest of the meetings being prepared online.
 As a result of the challenges and restrictions springing up from COVID-19,
voluntary sustainability standards have needed to either postpone audits (and
extend the validity of existing certifications) or introduce remote auditing. Remote
auditing (or remote assessment) is described as “the facilitation of assessment of
a Conformity Assessment Body from a location apart from that being physically
present” (Castka et al., 2016)
 Fischer (2020) The shift to remote auditing during the pandemic could either
exacerbate current issues or pressure even more wide-reaching and lasting
change in the auditing of Voluntary Sustainability Standards

Old normal
 It should be stated that accounting professional training have been, earlier than
COVID19, primarily "traditional", this taking place mainly in the form of lectures
for large groups, tutorials for small groups, workshops or round tables (Sangster
A., Stoner G. & Barbara Flood 2020).

New normal
 Accounting is overwhelmed by a professional identity based on permanent
availability for the client’s needs, in spite of an illusion of a flexible program.
There is a phenomenon named “customer service ethics” (Ashley and Empson,
2016). Telework got to be required and became mandatory during the pandemic.
This needs professional accountants’ availability in to the clients and the
employer during and outside working hours (Cooper and Lu, 2019). Telework has
two contradictory impacts. On the one hand, it gives the flexibility and adaptability
to work from anyplace. In addition, professional activity is mixed with personal life
and can influence it. “Invisible” working hours materialized (Cooper and Lu,
2019), employees should be available at any time to solve specific tasks, which,
though short-lived, fragment free time. The phenomenon has been named
“excessive availability for work.”
  As countries starts to reopen their economies, the early signs indicates that
these business practices have already reshaped the ‘new normal’ in the
aftermath of the pandemic. For instance, review from China after its reopening
suggest that the way people work is probable to change; new office designs now
accommodate regulations requiring “six feet” of social distancing, and more
corporations are integrating remote working into their daily operations (Toh,
2020).
 There is a developing interest in the literature on technology-enhanced auditing
(TEA). In TEA, technologies are employed to strengthen audits rather that
replicate traditional auditing processes, with an emphasis on enhancing the
veracity and timeliness of audits (Castka, Searcy, Mohr, 2020). TEA has
emerged as a vital issue in dealing financial audits, non-financial audits in the
context of environmental management and social responsibility and as an
essential strategic resource in supply chain management (Rose et al. 2017).
(Gale et al 2017) At a simple level, remote audits contain technologies such as
audio-visual equipment, videoconferencing, or drones, with the favored outcome
of essentially replicating an on-site visit. At a more advanced level, technology-
enhanced audits can consist Big Data and artificial intelligence to intensify what
is typically done in a traditional audit.

Work from home

Lack of interaction
 The travel restrictions and lockdowns left the VSS with three simple options: (1)
suspend all auditing activities until the restrictions are lifted, (2) establish remote
audits during the crisis, or (3) a combination of both. Generally, the move
towards suspension or remote auditing was affected by two factors: (1) a client
being in a place of a health risk due to COVID-19 (demonstrated through
verifiable public sources; e.g., official travel warnings or restrictions) or (2) the
auditors have been banned from travelling by internal policies or primarily based
on restriction of public authorities at their region. (Castka, Searcy and Fischer
2020)
Lack of cohesive communication

Competency of accountants during the pandemic

 Professor Robert-Aurelian Șova brings out very well the relationship among the
impact of COVID-19 and the activity of professional accountants, underlining the
truth that given the function of professional accountants as reliable advisors to
entrepreneurs, they are at the forefront ( just like the doctors from hospitals) in
the combat against the economic effects of Coronavirus as this virus has also an
 economic nature, trying to identify solutions for the rapid healing of businesses in
the public interest (Frumusanu & Martin, 2020).
Workloads
There are areas of activity accompanied by “dominant Heavy Work Investment culture.”
Employees will automatically work overtime to manage and cope with the volume of
activity and not look for other (Snir, 2018).
Work Set up
 Travel restrictions, as well as the practice of social distancing, which have
emerged during the COVID-19 crisis have affected the very core of Voluntary
Sustainability Standards’ operations, i.e., on-site auditing and inspections, that
are the foundations of VSS certification and accreditation. (Bennett, 2017)
Using Software
 The certification industry has been thinking about the role of information
technologies in auditing for a while. For instance, the IAF has incorporate remote
auditing in their guidelines on audit time and has additionally supplied a
“mandatory document” on the use of ICT in remote assessment (IAF, 2018). The
IAF documents focus on the performance of a remote audit, where technologies
are used on the factor of existing audit processes. Essentially, ICT reproduce the
characteristics of the traditional, on-site, in-person audit process, “in which
demonstration of evidence, conformity or traceability can be confirmed via
electronic means” (IAF, 2020)

 According to Heizelmann, R. (2018). The IT system presents the central means

of organizing suitable behaviour in case organization (” identity regulation”). At
the same time, the IT system acts as a sense-giving tool (“identity work) – the
vital reference factor for management accountants to make sense of their work.
For some case, the International Accreditation Forum produced IAF MD 4:2018,
a document discussing the use of Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) for auditing and assessment purposes (AIF, 2018). A similar definition is
offered by ISO 19011 (IAF, 2020), which states that “remote audits confer with
using of ICT to gather information, interview an auditee, etc., when “face-to-face”
methods are not possible or desired”. Remote auditing is a form of technology-
enhanced auditing (TEA), which Castka et al. (2020) outline as “employing
technologies for the purposes of the audit records collection, recording & sharing,
and analysis”. It is essential to observe that Voluntary Sustainability Standards
do not directly audit organizations interested in acquiring certification to their
standards; rather, audits (whether they are remote or on-site) are performed with
the aid of accredited arms-length third-parties that assess whether the
organization conforms to the Voluntary Sustainability Standards’ requirements.
 Moreover, in April 2020, ISO and IAF made guidance on remote audits that
aligns with the practices explained in this paper in the context of Voluntary
Sustainability Standards (IAF, 2020). Studies on Voluntary Sustainability
Standards and their use of technologies in auditing can consequently have
implications for a very broad set of standards, certifications, and accreditation
which might be essential mechanisms for international trade (Blind, 2018).

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