Computer-assisted audit tools in verification tasks Implementation in Microsoft Excel and in CaseWare IDEA

In the professional context of accountants and auditors there is a permanent need of executing data verification tasks due to the need to check data coherence. Software houses have specific computer-assisted audit tools to execute those procedures: those tools are presented as user friendly and no need of specific background in Information Technologies. CaseWare IDEA is among those tools. Additionally, other general purpose tools, such as Microsoft Excel, can be adequate to data verification tasks, by including some alerts by customizing Conditional Formatting. There seems to be some lack of knowledge about the potentialities of Excel and IDEA, so this paper will address the topic, mainly by comparing both tools in the execution of specific verification tasks and fraud detection.