An experienced (albeit elderly) audit partner was heard to make the following statement:

‘I do not know why all this fuss is being made about audit trails when clients are implementing a new system. If advances in technology mean that there is less documentation, surely that must be a good thing. I think that there is a problem if auditors cannot audit a set of financial statements produced by a computer system without needing reams of paper, especially with such auditing tools as analytical review now available to assist in auditing balances.’

Required

Comment on the partner’s statement. In particular, address some of the problems with a lack of an audit trail that can be caused by advances in technology.