audit tools
Audit Trails and Anomaly Detection
May 28, 2026 6 min read
Auditing is pattern recognition under time pressure. Tooling that surfaces anomalies changes the economics.
What auditors look for
- Figures that don't reconcile across sections
- References to documents that don't exist
- Entities that appear far more often than expected
- Dates that imply impossible sequences
Why automation matters
The volume of documentation in a typical engagement makes exhaustive manual review impossible. Statistical detection doesn't replace the auditor's judgment — it directs attention to the 5% of the document most likely to hide a problem.