Tactical audit planning: A survey and classification of mathematical programming models

Abstract

Audit scheduling-determining the audit timetable of a firm by assigning auditors to tasks over a planning horizon-is a crucial yet complex planning activity. Audit information is vital to guarantee operational efficiency and ensure the conformity of firm practices with the legal panorama. Nevertheless, audit departments are expensive, hence frequently under-dimensioned. Depending on the size of a firm and how constrained resources are, even finding a feasible audit schedule can be challenging. This paper reviews and systematizes mathematical programming models for tactical audit scheduling. Research directions are devised, considering the gaps that the systematization allows to reveal. Findings suggest that modelling and solving problems from real organizations and accounting for travel times and auditor eligibility, for a given audit activity, are the most appropriate directions for researchers to channel their efforts.