Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Auditing: A Commentary

We are living in an age of transformation. Audit firms are exploring new technologies to improve effectiveness and efficiency, thus improving audit quality. Among many technologies, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is one of the most often mentioned technology because of its adaptability to audit procedures. A bot can perform many tasks a human can do on a computer. There are some characteristics to help a practitioner decide whether a job is feasible for RPA to accomplish. A repetitive task is a good candidate for RPA to automate. RPA can speed up the execution of those processes to increase efficiency. RPA works best for the rulebased, standardized task. RPA cannot self-learn to respond to various inputs. It can only follow the way a designer configured it strictly. Structured data can help reduce errors and debug efforts.