The objective of this thesis is to determine if data mining tools can directly
improve audit performance. The selected test area was the sample selection step of the
test of control process. The research data was based on accounting transactions
provided by AVH PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy. Various samples were extracted from
the test data set using data mining software and generalized audit software and the
results evaluated. IBM’s DB2 Intelligent Miner for Data Version 6 was selected to
represent the data mining software and ACL for Windows Workbook Version 5 was
chosen for generalized audit software.
Based on the results of the test and the opinions solicited from experienced
auditors, the conclusion is that, within the scope of this research, the results of data
mining software are more interesting than the results of generalized audit software.
However, there is no evidence that the data mining technique brings out material
matters or present significant enhancement over the generalized audit software. Further
study in a different audit area or with a more complete data set might yield a different
conclusion.