The development of an expert system for managerial evaluation of internal controls

Both practitioners and researchers have devoted significant effort to the study of decision aids, especially expert systems, to assist auditors in internal control evaluations. In addition to being used as a decision aid, researchers have long contended that expert systems could be used to train non-expert users. Even though the professional accounting literature makes it clear that responsibility for maintaining an effective internal control system rests with management rather than auditors, the focus to date has been on expert systems aimed at assisting/training auditors, not an organization’s management. In contrast, this study focuses on management as users of an expert system for internal control evaluation. We describe the development process, explain how the resulting system was evaluated, and discuss results of that evaluation. These results suggest that such a system gives a new way to help managers increase effectiveness and efficiency of a critical organizational process: the evaluation of internal controls. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.