Digital Audit Tools and the Reconfiguration of Internal Control: A Decade Review and the DACI Model (2015–2025)

Abstract

This review critically examines how digital audit tools—TeamMate+, ACL Analytics, and CaseWare IDEA—have reshaped internal control systems over the period 2015–2025. By positioning these technologies within accountability theory and the COSO framework, the study explores how analytics and workflow platforms are redefining assurance processes and the governance of organisational transparency. Adopting a structured scoping-review methodology, forty-eight peer-reviewed studies, professional standards, and industry reports were analysed to map tool capabilities, operational mechanisms, and their correspondence with COSO components. The review synthesises both academic and professional evidence to delineate the boundaries and mechanisms of digital assurance. The evidence reveals a marked transition from periodic, sample-based auditing toward continuous, data-driven assurance. ACL and IDEA enable population-level testing, parameterised scripting, and anomaly detection, while TeamMate+ integrates analytical outputs into risk registers, issue workflows, and governance dashboards. As a result, internal control is re-conceptualised as a digitally mediated accountability system—an ongoing interaction among data, auditors, and oversight bodies. The effectiveness of these systems depends on technical competence, robust data governance, and disciplined model validation. In the digital age, capitalism itself becomes a symbolic form that converts experiences and relationships into data commodities, embedding an implicit logic of control and valorization in algorithmic infrastructures (Anamofa, Sartini & Ariani, 2025). The paper develops the Digital Audit–Control Integration (DACI) Model, which links technological capabilities to operational mechanisms, COSO components, and measurable outcomes. It advances a theory-led structure that clarifies how digital audit tools transform accountability and provides a conceptual basis for empirical testing in future research. Organisations should institutionalise reusable analytics, embed workflow-based accountability for exception handling, and formalise model-validation and data-governance routines to achieve continuous assurance at scale. The review draws primarily on English-language and publicly accessible sources. Future research should expand linguistic, geographic, and sectoral coverage to enhance the model’s generalisability and contextual relevance.