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Effect of Covid-19 on Audit Evidence Collection and Its

Relationship with Fraud Detection


Hisyam Ramadhan Nurendy Candra Gen Norman Thomas
Accounting Department, School of Accounting Department, School of Accounting Department, School of
Accounting, Bina Nusantara Accounting, Bina Nusantara Accounting, Bina Nusantara
University, Jakarta, Indonesia University, Jakarta, Indonesia University, Jakarta, Indonesia
hisyam.ramadhan@binus.ac.id nurendy.candra@binus.ac.id gen_nt@binus.ac.id

ABSTRACT their work. In early March 2020, the Indonesian government con-
During the COVID-19, mostly human activities were hampered. firmed that this virus had entered and spread to all parts of the
In the heat of the Pandemic, human activities are encouraged to region. The government quickly acted by enacting Work from Home
follow the Work from Home (WFH) policy. This creates obstacles to regulations. Therefore, many aspects of the field are affected. Not
the process of collecting company data by the accountants for audit only in the health sector, but also in the economy and infrastructure.
purposes by the auditors. The Auditors also have to make sure of The auditors are no exception to the impact of this regulation. Work
the sufficiency and relevancy of the audit process that has been from Home affect the implementation of the audit. This pandemic
determined. In addition to collecting data for auditing, the auditor has had an impact on several changes to the auditor’s working
must also have to be able to detect potential fraud that occurs, With mechanism. However, with advances in technology and informa-
the Work from Home (WFH) policy which indirectly affects the tion, auditors can work remotely. This is what makes it interesting
movement of the auditors due to the existence of these limitations for us to research more about what auditors face while working
become it becomes a new challenge for auditors to continue to be from home. As we know, auditors work directly and sometimes are
able to detect potential fraud and it is hoped that later the results of required to go directly to the field. This research is important to
the audit will meet with the financial statements users expectation. do because it can be a measure of how effective work from home
regulations are on the effectiveness and efficiency of the work of
CCS CONCEPTS auditors. We also need to see further whether working from home
can create new problems for auditors in fraud detection and report
• Human-centered computing → Accessibility; Accessibility
misstatement.
technologies; • Applied computing → Law, social and behavioral
The difference between this research and previous research is
sciences; Economics; • General and reference → Document types;
to look at audit quality during the pandemic, which is influenced
Surveys and overviews.
by audit data collection. This study places more emphasis on how
auditors perform remote audits and avoid fraud that might occur
KEYWORDS during remote audits. This research is expected to be able to find out
Keyword: Covid-19, Auditing, Fraud Detection, Audit Evidence what needs to be addressed in the shortcomings and shortcomings
of remote auditing. Especially in the last 2 years, we hope that the
ACM Reference Format:
Hisyam Ramadhan, Nurendy Candra, and Gen Norman Thomas. 2022. Effect auditors have more preparation while working at home, such a
of Covid-19 on Audit Evidence Collection and Its Relationship with Fraud good connection and save travel costs.
Detection. In 2022 The 8th International Conference on Industrial and Business
Engineering (ICIBE 2022), September 27–29, 2022, Macau, China. ACM, New 1.2 Research Question
York, NY, USA, 5 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3568834.3568909 • How do auditors collect audit data during the Covid-19 pan-
demic?
1 INTRODUCTION • Did the auditors experience problems in the process of col-
lecting audit data during the Covid-19 pandemic?
1.1 Research Background • What is the relation between Audit Evidence and Fraud
At the end of 2019, the whole world was shocked by the emergence Detection?
of the Covid-19 virus which was spreading very quickly. Even this • How do auditors detect fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic?
virus is feared to interfere with human activities in carrying out • Has there been a change in the way auditors detect fraud
during the covid-19 pandemic?
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or
classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed
for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation 1.3 Research Objective
on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM During the COVID-19 pandemic, people in many countries world-
must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish,
to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a wide experienced some form of negative emotional experience. The
fee. Request permissions from permissions@acm.org. concept of “new normal” that emerged with COVID-19 has dramat-
ICIBE 2022, September 27–29, 2022, Macau, China ically affected the individuals’ life quality [1]. The purpose of this
© 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-9758-2/22/09. . . $15.00 research is to further analyze the effects of working from home
https://doi.org/10.1145/3568834.3568909 regulations in terms of the effectiveness of auditor performance.
ICIBE 2022, September 27–29, 2022, Macau, China Hisyam Ramadhan et al.

The auditor must work with strong and realistic physical evidence, rank their relative importance [9]. Skousen,C.J., Smith,K.R. and
it is necessary to know whether the current regulations that have Wright,C.J. [10] according to Cressey’s theory pressure, opportunity
been applied for the last 2 years can provide better audit results, or and rationalization are always present in fraud situations. Review
in fact many errors occur, for example omissions in presentation previous research to identify possible indicators of fraud. If the
data, lack of valid information. It is hoped that this research can auditor finds discrepancies in the data such as numbers that do not
find balanced results and do not harm anyone. Also, we hope that match, the auditor needs to notify the more competent party to
the current technology will give a lot of advantages for the auditors. carry out further investigations.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.4 Work From Home During Pandemic


2.1 Auditing Situation
W Robert Knechel [2] regulations on the audit profession are in- During the pandemic situation, all sectors of work be hindered
creasing significantly and rapidly. However, despite the significant from work. Auditors are no exception. Auditors need to adapt again
improvement in audit quality and complaints about excessive au- in adjusting audit procedures so that the quality of the audits pre-
dits, there are still concerns that audit quality will be lower than sented does not decrease in quality. Chandrasekar [11] states that
some stakeholders would like. Ultimately, the question of good when building a work environment, both the roles of Organiza-
exam quality depends on your point of view. It may be helpful tion are needed to increase employee productivity and benefit the
to rethink what the term “audit quality” means in order to adjust organization. The working environment is usually done by office
for potentially conflicting views on audit quality. Whittington, O. workers, but during this pandemic almost all workers work from
Ray dan Kurt Pann [3] Audit is an independent accounting firm’s home. Organisational and job-related factors are more likely to
examination of a company’s financial statements. The audit con- affect WFH employees ’ satisfaction and perceived productivity
sists of an investigation looking for accounting records and other than work styles and household characteristics [12]. The auditors
evidence to support the financial statements. Auditors determine usually use internet while working from home. Kraut and Burke
whether financial statements provide fair and equitable financial [13] stated that positive or negative Internet usage relates to how
statements by understanding the company’s internal controls, re- individuals use the Internet, what they talk about with others when
viewing documents, observing assets, conducting internal and ex- using the Internet, and whom they talk to.
ternal investigations, and performing other operating procedures.
Gather the evidence you need to do. An overview of the company’s 3 METHOD
financial position. companies and activities during the audit period. This research will use the qualitative method, with descriptive
Basically, Auditing is the process of collecting and investigating studies as the study design. Qualitative research. The data will be
evidence about information to determine and report the degree of analyzed by using thematic analysis [14], The researcher will collect
agreement between information and specified criteria. data from the voice recordings or zoom recordings and then The
researcher will decide whether the interview results are relevant
2.2 Audit Evidence to the research objectives, because the results of this study will
Morariu, Ana et al. [4] Auditors quality depends upon the pro- provide an overview of a phenomenon, namely Audit Evidence
fessional judgment concerning the audit technical standards, the Collection and its relationship with fraud detection during the
accounting references and nevertheless upon the auditor’s ethics. Covid-19 pandemic, a descriptive study is utilized.Primary and
This is one of the reasons for which the financial audit is one of secondary data were employed in this research. During the Covid-
the edges of economical research, highlighting the credibility of 19 pandemic, primary data was gathered by conducting interviews
financial statements. [5] The financial statements are prepared by with informants who provided explanation about the collecting of
management using the accounting records of the organization. It audit evidence and its relationship to fraud detection.
is the duty of the auditor to acquire audit evidence by testing the The researcher employed a semi-structured interview in which
accounting records that support the financial statements created respondents were permitted to respond based on their own expe-
by management and by acquiring other audit evidence. In general, riences and the interviews were performed to address the given
methods should be used to check the accounting records. If the audi- themes [15]. Secondary data is sourced from documents that can
tee has a sufficiently potent motivation for committing fraud, both complement primary data and can provide an overview in achiev-
inherent risk and audit risk increase with audit evidence [6]. The ing research objectives. Secondary data collection techniques using
chance of detection continually rises as audit evidence does. When non-behavioral observations, analysis of records using documents
the auditor has audit evidence, audit risk increases if the auditor related to accounting standard and audit guideline.
has a sufficiently strong motivation to prevent false rejection. Hery
[7] Audit evidence is divided into 7 types there are Physical ex- 4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
amination, Observation, Confirmation, Interview, Documentation, In this study, the researcher will explain the results of the data ob-
Analytical procedure, and Recalculation. tained through face-to-face interviews and virtual interviews using
online media (Zoom) and have been examined. Interview questions
2.3 Fraud Detection were given to auditors who carried out the audit process during the
One method of detecting fraud is to check for suspicious changes Covid-19 pandemic. Research questions get 6 interviewees (Table
in user behavior [8]. Identify financial statement fraud factors and 1) consisting of 2 partners, 1 manager, and 3 senior auditors with a
Effect of Covid-19 on Audit Evidence Collection and Its Relationship with Fraud Detection ICIBE 2022, September 27–29, 2022, Macau, China

Table 1: List of Interviewee satisfied with the results of the examinations they do so that the
audit evidence obtained is as much as possible and indeed true.
Interviewees Audit Experience Interview Duration 4.1.2 Confirmation And Interview. Confirmation is the process of
Mr. AS 26 years 54 minutes receiving a response from a third party, both verbally and in writing
Mr. S 10+ years 27 minutes it can also be an interview or question and answer with clients is
Mrs. R 23 years 41 minutes an effort to obtain information orally and in writing from clients
Mr. A 5 years 19 minutes as a form of response to questions posed by the auditor [6]. during
Mrs. L 25 years 11 minutes the pandemic where auditors cannot carry out the confirmation
Mr. Z 5 years 17 minutes process and direct interviews with clients, they will do so via email,
telephone, and video conference. Auditor Ali stated to us that:
“For Confirmation we send a form to the client and then the
client sends it to the third party finally the third party make the
range of experience working as an auditor from 5 years to 26 years confirmation and send it to the Auditor the method is the same . . ..
obtained from 2 different non-big four KAPs and all respondents For the interview we usually use Skype or zoom”
are domiciled in Jakarta.
4.1.3 Documentation. Hery [6] stated that the auditors review or
investigate client documents and records to support the information
4.1 Audit Evidence Collection During the presented or should be reported in the financial statements. In
Pandemic pandemic conditions where auditors are unable to process physical
Covid-19 pandemic and there are some additional challenges to documents directly, auditors are more likely to request softcopy
acquire those evidence therefor some adjustment needed to be client document files but often if auditors are not satisfied with
made especially during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic the softcopy documents, they will ask for hardcopy documents
or when there is a spike of Covid-19 infection in the region where (photocopy documents) to the client, but sometimes, if necessary,
there are strict restrictions in place. Illuzzi, K., Landes, C., Durak, the auditor can request the client’s original documents to be sent
R., & Groskopt, T., [16] Stated that now it is expected that auditors to the auditor. Auditor Ade stated that:
are using technology in performing audit procedures more than “Ideally, we have softcopy and hardcopy, but for certain clients
ever.Auditor Reanita stated to us that: who may be difficult to visit or limiting visitors, we have the soft-
“In the early days of the pandemic, we set everything to virtual, copy and we then print it into hardcopy”
now that we’re (Auditors and Clients) vaccinated, it’s okay if they Auditor lisa also stated that:
want to meet up” “Because by regulation the auditor must have working papers
Auditor Ade Simatupang also stated to us that: so the auditor will still ask for documents from the client”
"It also depends on the client decision, indeed there are also clients 4.1.4 Analytical Procedure and Recalculation. Hery [6] stated that
who don’t want to be visited so we communicate by email, com- analytical procedure is a Comparisons and linkages are used in
munication by email and Zoom meeting without the presence of analytical techniques to see whether the account balances or other
the client because the client is limiting access on site, but there are data that appear is reasonable or rational and for recalculation Re-
other clients of mine that keep welcome to me if we have a visit (in calculation or recalculation involves re-checking the sample count
regards of Social Distancing and Health Protocol).” that has been done by the client. for these two things there is no
significant difference during the pandemic because both only re-
4.1.1 Physical Examination and Observation. If during the physical
quire data from the client and will be carried out by the auditor
examination and observation, the auditor cannot come on site, the
directly. Auditor Zainal stated to us that:
inspection will be carried out virtually using available technology
“Analytically, the procedure is not too different because it can be
to check inventory counts, auditors may want to use technology
done at home or at the auditor’s office, so there is no need to go here
such as camera systems with live video feeds.Auditor Sandy stated
and there, the data from the client in the form of softcopy is already
to us that:
in excel, so we make an analysis from it. . . for recalculation, it’s
“Using two-way video communication can be via whatsapp and
the same as analytical procedure from softcopy of financial reports.
with two device one is held by the counter (Focus on the assets)
they give the details we and make the recalculation.
and the other records the person who counts it (Surrounding view)
so we can be sure that the item is really there” 4.2 Obstacles faced and things to pay attention
Auditor Reanita also stated that:
“For observation the method is almost the same (virtually using
to on colleting audit evidence during the
video or video conference), but if there is something that needs to covid-19 pandemic
be clarified, there will be a virtual meeting with the client to discuss During the Covid-19 pandemic, the most significant obstacle was
it.” things that were usually done in person or on the spot. [17] There
And if there are things that need to be clarified, the auditor will is nothing that replaces the process of seeing directly, being able to
hold a virtual meeting with his client to get confirmation about the pay attention to the smallest details such as seeing body language,
results of the Physical Examination and Observation and conduct smelling smells, and being able to pay attention to the surroundings
additional discussions so that the auditor feels comfortable and as a whole. Especially if the auditee is not ready or does not have
ICIBE 2022, September 27–29, 2022, Macau, China Hisyam Ramadhan et al.

the technology to facilitate the way the auditor works. As auditor The significance of audit evidence in detecting fraud is quite
Ade explained: high because when the auditor finds a discrepancy between the
“The most affected are activities that are require direct visits audit evidence obtained and the financial statements they provide,
such as Observation and Physical Examination” from there the auditor will ask for further information and discuss
In addition, communication becomes hampered with the auditee with the client first before concluding that there is fraud or not.
it makes it difficult for auditors to pay attention to the process of the
company as a whole so that the auditor cannot provide potential 4.5 Obstacles faced on detecting fraud during
useful information. Therefore, auditors are expected to adapt to the the covid-19 pandemic
conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic and must pay more attention
to details in order to obtain optimal audit evidence. Auditor Ade During a pandemic where the auditor is unable to collect audit
also mentioned that: evidence on site, it creates obstacles in detecting fraud because
“Able to adapt to the need for obtaining audit evidence ... because when completing the documents and data required by the auditor
sometimes the client provides incomplete data and often does not
the Covid-19 condition should not reduce or not limit the auditor
match what the auditor asks for so It takes longer for the auditor to
in obtaining audit evidence outlined by the standard, although the
auditor must remain careful as I said earlier if we are unable to explain and communicate to his client, while the client himself also
check the on site auditor must communicate with the client that takes longer to process instructions from the auditor and provide
we must still obtain audit evidence, how do we get it? well, we the right documents and data.Auditor Lisa Stated that:
must discuss it with the client... in terms of physical observation, “The obstacle is in the form of yet another limitation, the lim-
we must discuss what is the best method that both parties can find itation is in the form of time and a health protocol is needed for
a win-win solutions” tracing evidence (if the auditor has to visit a client) so that it takes
longer time to trace fraud”
And to overcome the existing obstacles to detect fraud during the
4.3 Audit Evidence Quality During the covid-19 pandemic, the auditor must be more careful in carrying
Pandemic out each audit process, especially in taking audit evidence during
Nugraha and Syafdinal, S. [18] stated that the effect of audit evi- the pandemic, besides that the auditor must be able to establish
dence on audit quality is significant. This means that the higher optimal communication with his clients so that if there are things
the audit quality, the more dependable the audit evidence obtained that need to be discussed further problems can be resolved quickly
by the auditor is. There is no change in the procedure of taking the and accurately in the other hand clients are also need to facilitate
audit evidence because the quality of the audit evidence obtained auditors during auditing process took place. auditor sandy stated
just have little or no changes between the quality of audit evidence to us that:
in the period before and after the pandemic. Auditor Rianita stated “The solution is we must be able to communicate with man-
to us that: agement to fulfill the needs of the audit process...the advice is for
“It’s just the same (quality of audit evidence) the quality of audit management to be ready if the auditor needs additional information
evidence depends more on how we use technology and we are more or documents.”
active in tracking down supporting documents that haven’t been There for the cooperation between auditor and the client or the
received...but the quality is the same between remote audits and management is required more than ever in situation like covid-19
conventional audits... but I’m more satisfied for those before the pandemic in order to collect audit evidence, detecting fraud, and
pandemic... conservatively, I’m more confident (on taking audit audit process in general correctly and accurate.
evidence before the pandemic)”
It’s just that because of the pandemic, auditors must adapt to 5 CONCLUSION
existing problems either on site or remotely there are new chal- During the audit process, especially in term of collecting audit
lenges and have to use a different way in the process of taking audit evidence and detecting fraud, the auditor experienced the most
evidence, this tends to result in a process of taking audit evidence severe difficulties or obstacles at the beginning of the Covid-19
that is more complicated and takes more time. pandemic that happened in 2020 in Indonesia where this situation
had a shock effect on human activity, this had an impact on how
4.4 Audit Evidence on Fraud Detection auditors and their clients work so that both auditors and auditees
Septarini, Dina F. [19] stated that to uncover fraud using audit evi- have to make some modifications and adapt according to the condi-
dence, the auditor must collect and evaluate sufficient, competent, tions they have and their capability to respond to those changes.
and relevant evidence also The impact of audit evidence on indepen- From the results of our interviews (table 2) and data processing,
dent auditors’ opinions in order to provide an opinion on audited we found that during the early days of the pandemic the auditors
financial statements and detect fraud varies greatly. Auditor Sandy and auditees were still able to carry out the audit process, espe-
stated to us that: cially in taking audit evidence and detecting fraud in accordance
“The role of audit evidence in fraud detection is significant be- with existing audit standards by using a combination of remote
cause from the financial statements to the SOP and then continues auditing and on-site auditing if necessary.Partial Remote Audit is
to audit evidence if there has been something odd, maybe it will be the audit will be conducted utilizing a combination of remote and
detected from there, but to find out more about this we need more on-site methods, with the remote portion of the audit following
specific audit to accurately detect fraud.” the traditional audit course while employing technology means
Effect of Covid-19 on Audit Evidence Collection and Its Relationship with Fraud Detection ICIBE 2022, September 27–29, 2022, Macau, China

Table 2: Result of the interviews

Audit Evidence Impact


Physical Examination and Observation Medium impact, Because the auditors can use technology like video call, zoom meeting,
google meet and any other apps that support 2 way live communication.
Confirmation and Interview Small impact, because during the pandemic the auditors can still carry out the
confirmation process and direct interviews with clients, they will do so via mail,email,
telephone, and video conference.
Documentation Small impact, auditors are more likely to request softcopy client document files but the
auditors could still get their client data via courier
Analytical Procedure and Recalculation No impact, because there is no significant difference before pandemic and after work
from home policy because the work could be done remotely
Audit Evidence Quality Medium impact, because the procedure of collecting the Audit Evidence needed is not
that different its just there need to be an extra process or steps on how the Auditors
collect and make sure that the audit evidence is reliable whitout having to be on site.
Audit Evidence on Fraud Detection Medium impact, The Auditors could still maximized their fraud detection process using
audit evidence as one of their tools using live video conferences.

to obtain the relevant evidence [20]. With the experience gained [9] Shaio Yan Huang, Chi-Chen Lin, An-An Chiu, David C Yen. Fraud detection
by auditors and auditees in 2020, they can refine and make better using fraud triangle risk factors. Information Systems Frontiers 19 (6), 1343-1356,
2017
audit plans so that audit evidence collection and fraud detection [10] Skousen, C.J., Smith, K.R. and Wright, C.J. (2009), "Detecting and predicting
carried out in 2021 and 2022 can be carried out more easily and financial statement fraud: The effectiveness of the fraud triangle and SAS No. 99
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[12] Baker, E., Avery, G. C. & Crawford, J. (2007), Satisfaction and Perceived Produc-
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