University of Economics, Prague
Faculty of Finance and Accounting Study programme “Finance and Accounting”
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M a s t e r T h e s i s E v a l u a t i o n Reviewer form
Student name: Tatiana Bibicheva
Title of the thesis: Use of Technology in Audit Year of the defence: 2021
Supervisor name and affiliation:
Vladimír Králíček, Department of Financial Accounting and Auditing
Reviewer name
and affiliation: Michal Šindelář, Department of Financial Accounting and Auditing
THESIS CONTENT SUMMARY:
Submitted thesis “
Use of technology in audit” describes the new possibilities in audit automation and robotization and in the practical part the thesis analyses the opinions of selected auditors on this topic. The thesis deals with new possibilities of using blockchain technology in the audit of financial statements and also presents some risks associated with these new technologies.
After the introduction of the thesis, which defined the issue and introduced the methodology
of the questionnaire survey, the thesis presents a literature review. This literature review is
primarily based on blockchain technology and the cyber security and new risks. In this part
the author also briefly defines the regulatory environment (incl. the ethics issues) in the field
of audit and the use of IT technologies. The next part (the practical part) presents the results
of questionnaire survey among 15 auditors – Big 4 and Non-big 4 firms from 3 countries
(Czech Republic, Russia and USA). The last part (the conclusion) summarize the findings
and also presents possibilities for future research.
Page 2/3 OBJECTIONS AND REMARKS:
In my opinion, this thesis is satisfactory result of intensive involvement of Tatiana Bibicheva during her MIFA study. Thesis should be useful for all who wish to learn about the development of audit automation. I see the greatest benefit of the thesis in the practical part, where the author managed to prepare a questionnaire survey among auditors and analyse the answers received, although the conclusions are based on only 15 replies received.
On my view there are some partly deficiencies in this thesis:
1) The formal arrangement of this thesis should be better – eg. justify text, spreading table on two pages.
2) The thesis contains parts that do not belong to it, resp. their description is superfluous in the thesis eg.:
Page 10: “The systematic literature review represents one of the main parts of each research work. It ensures the validity, timeliness, reliability and non-repeatability of the work. In order to make it scientific, the author must ensure the quality of the information reviewed and transposed.”
3) In the "Literature review" section, the individual paragraphs are arranged without critical evaluation by the author.
QUESTIONS FOR THE DEFENCE:
1) Can you explain the assumptions, when auditor can use the blockchain technology during audit? Can you simulate how the “smart contracts” can be used during the audit?
2) Discuss for which assertions, in your opinion, it will be possible to take advantage of blockchain technology and smart contracts and for which assertions, on the contrary, the professional judgement of the auditor will still be necessary.
3) Discuss whether, based on the questionnaire survey, opinions differ on blockchain technology and, in general, the shift in audit automation and robotization, between representatives of Big 4 and Non-big 4 firms.
