Newark, N.J. — Buoyed by a grant from KPMG, Rutgers University will establish an auditing and continuous business reporting lab that will research and serve as a testing forum for next-generation technologies and methods for continuous business reporting and auditing.
Named the Continuous Assurance and Reporting Laboratory, or CAR-Lab, the center will be housed at the Rutgers Accounting Research Center, here, and work to develop experiments that use actual corporate information to test continuous auditing techniques.
The center will attempt to hone audit procedures by publishing its findings in research reports and presenting live demonstrations of new technologies to business executives, policy-makers and regulators.
“While continuous auditing was first proposed in 1990, research on the topic has been mainly conceptual until now,” said Miklos Vasarhelyi, a Ph.D. at RARC and director of the CAR-Lab. “The lab will undertake applied research using real-life data from complex corporate information systems to test concepts and demonstrate working examples.”
“KPMG will also provide individuals to help conduct the research and apply the lessons learned in experiments that one day may help companies present relevant corporate information in a more timely fashion,” said Stuart Campbell, managing partner at KPMG’s Audit and Advisory Services Center, a research facility for KPMG International and its member firms.
The center also will have an advisory board comprised of professionals in accounting, auditing, information systems and technology.
