Risk factors for an audit process in the developed IT environment: The concept of research based on experiences from small audit practices in Poland

Small-and Medium-Sized Audit Practices (SMP) in Poland face many challenges nowadays which are related to the legislation framework, public demands on quality of services, expectation of customers regarding low prices, competitors and impact of new technologies on accounting, financial reporting and auditing. Polish SMP are on the way to prepare their activities in order to meet regulations of ISA which are much more rigorous than polish ones in areas such as, for example, documentation of an audit process, quality assurance system and risk based approach. The use of Computer Assisted Audit Tools (CAAT) or Generalized Audit Tools (GAS) seems to be a crucial subject on which audit practices in Poland should concentrate for the coming years. SMP needs to learn how to use ICT for decreasing audit risk in highly developed IT environment.