ERP Financial Systems Auditing Training Course

Course Introduction

The ERP Financial Systems Auditing Training Course provides a comprehensive and practical framework for auditing enterprise resource planning environments that support financial accounting, reporting, transaction processing, budgeting, procurement, revenue, assets, inventory, payroll, and management decision-making. The course equips participants with the knowledge and techniques required to evaluate whether ERP-enabled financial processes are reliable, secure, controlled, compliant, and capable of producing accurate and complete financial information.

The programme examines the relationship between ERP architecture, financial processes, automated controls, information technology general controls, application controls, master data, user access, system configurations, interfaces, workflows, and financial reporting. Participants will learn how auditors can move beyond traditional transaction testing to assess the technology-enabled control environment and identify risks arising from system design, inappropriate configurations, unauthorized access, weak segregation of duties, data integrity issues, ineffective change management, and poorly controlled interfaces.

Participants will develop practical capabilities for planning and executing ERP financial systems audits using risk-based audit methodologies. The course addresses audit scoping, process walkthroughs, control identification, configuration reviews, access assessments, data analytics, exception testing, audit trail examination, system-generated reports, automated control validation, and evidence evaluation. Particular attention is given to integrating information systems auditing techniques with financial, operational, compliance, and internal audit objectives.

The course also explores auditing major ERP-enabled financial cycles, including procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, record-to-report, fixed assets, inventory accounting, treasury, budgeting, payroll, expense management, and financial consolidation. Participants will learn how to evaluate automated workflows and control points across interconnected modules, identify risks created by system interfaces and integrations, and determine whether financial transactions are appropriately authorized, processed, recorded, reconciled, and reported.

Modern ERP environments increasingly incorporate cloud platforms, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, mobile applications, advanced analytics, application programming interfaces, third-party applications, and continuously changing configurations. The course therefore addresses emerging risks associated with cloud ERP, automated decision-making, data migration, cybersecurity, privacy, system resilience, third-party service providers, AI-enabled functionality, and evolving digital financial reporting requirements.

Through practical audit scenarios, case-based exercises, control assessments, analytical procedures, and evidence evaluation techniques, participants will strengthen their ability to identify significant ERP financial risks and translate findings into meaningful recommendations. The programme is designed to support auditors, finance professionals, risk specialists, IT auditors, compliance teams, and control owners in improving the reliability, security, governance, and effectiveness of ERP-enabled financial operations.

Duration

10 days

Who Should Attend

• Internal auditors responsible for reviewing ERP-enabled financial and accounting processes.

• External auditors conducting financial audits involving complex ERP environments and automated controls.

• IT auditors evaluating financial applications, system configurations, access controls, and technology risks.

• Finance managers responsible for financial systems, reporting processes, and ERP-enabled accounting operations.

• Financial controllers overseeing transaction processing, reconciliations, reporting, and financial control environments.

• Accounting professionals seeking to understand the audit implications of ERP-based financial processing.

• Risk management professionals assessing technology-enabled financial and operational risks.

• Compliance officers responsible for evaluating financial systems against regulatory and organizational requirements.

• Information security professionals involved in protecting ERP applications, financial data, and user access.

• ERP administrators responsible for system configuration, security, workflows, and financial application support.

• Enterprise risk professionals evaluating technology, process, and financial reporting risks within ERP environments.

• Internal control specialists designing, testing, and monitoring automated and technology-enabled financial controls.

• Audit managers and supervisors responsible for planning, reviewing, and reporting ERP financial systems audits.

• Finance transformation professionals involved in ERP implementation, optimization, migration, and process redesign.

• Consultants supporting ERP governance, internal controls, financial process assurance, and audit readiness.

Course Objectives

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of ERP financial system architecture and its implications for financial reporting, internal controls, audit planning, governance, and risk management.

• Understand how ERP modules, workflows, interfaces, master data, configurations, and automated processing interact to create financial information and control dependencies.

• Apply risk-based auditing techniques to identify, assess, prioritize, and document risks arising from ERP-enabled financial processes and technology environments.

• Evaluate IT general controls covering access management, change management, system operations, backup procedures, incident management, and technology governance within ERP environments.

• Assess automated application controls, validation rules, approval workflows, system calculations, configuration settings, and exception mechanisms supporting financial transaction processing.

• Examine user access rights, privileged accounts, segregation of duties, role design, authentication mechanisms, and inappropriate access risks affecting financial systems.

• Apply data analytics techniques to ERP transaction populations to identify unusual entries, duplicate transactions, anomalies, unauthorized activity, control exceptions, and financial reporting risks.

• Evaluate the integrity, completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of financial data transferred between ERP modules, external applications, banking platforms, reporting systems, and third-party interfaces.

• Audit major ERP financial cycles including procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, record-to-report, fixed assets, inventory, payroll, treasury, budgeting, and financial consolidation.

• Assess ERP implementation, system migration, configuration changes, upgrades, patches, customizations, and new functionality for financial control and audit implications.

• Examine emerging ERP technologies including cloud platforms, artificial intelligence, automation, application programming interfaces, analytics, and mobile financial applications from an audit perspective.

• Strengthen the ability to communicate ERP audit findings, evaluate control deficiencies, develop practical recommendations, and support continuous improvement of financial governance and system controls.

Comprehensive Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of ERP Financial Systems Auditing

• Evolution of ERP platforms and their changing role in accounting, financial reporting, transaction processing, and organizational governance.

• Key principles of ERP financial systems auditing, including audit objectives, risk assessment, control evaluation, evidence gathering, and reporting.

• Relationships between financial controls, IT controls, automated processing, system configurations, data structures, and financial statement assertions.

• Developing a risk-based ERP audit strategy that aligns technology risks with financial, operational, compliance, and reporting objectives.

Module 2: ERP Architecture, Modules, and Financial Process Integration

• Understanding ERP architecture, databases, application layers, modules, interfaces, workflows, reporting tools, and integrated financial processing environments.

• Mapping relationships between general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, procurement, inventory, assets, payroll, treasury, and consolidation modules.

• Identifying financial reporting risks created by integrated processes, shared master data, automated postings, system dependencies, and cross-module transactions.

• Performing ERP process walkthroughs to understand transaction flows, control points, automated activities, system dependencies, and audit evidence sources.

Module 3: ERP Governance, Risk Management, and Control Frameworks

• Establishing ERP governance structures that define accountability for system ownership, financial controls, security, data quality, and technology risk management.

• Applying recognized internal control principles to ERP environments and connecting financial reporting objectives with technology-enabled control activities.

• Identifying inherent, control, residual, and emerging risks associated with ERP-enabled financial processes and organizational transformation.

• Evaluating management oversight, control ownership, risk registers, governance committees, assurance activities, and escalation mechanisms supporting ERP control effectiveness.

Module 4: IT General Controls in ERP Environments

• Auditing logical access, system operations, change management, backup, recovery, incident management, and other foundational IT general controls.

• Assessing whether IT general controls provide an appropriate foundation for reliance on automated ERP financial application controls.

• Evaluating operational monitoring, batch processing, scheduled jobs, system interfaces, error handling, and technology support activities.

• Identifying weaknesses in IT general controls that may affect financial data integrity, system availability, transaction processing, and audit reliance.

Module 5: ERP Application Controls and Automated Financial Controls

• Evaluating automated controls over transaction authorization, validation, completeness, accuracy, calculations, processing, and financial reporting.

• Testing system-enforced approval workflows, tolerance limits, duplicate checks, validation rules, posting restrictions, and exception handling mechanisms.

• Assessing configuration settings that influence accounting treatment, tax processing, payment controls, revenue recognition, asset accounting, and financial reporting.

• Designing audit procedures for determining whether automated controls operate consistently and appropriately throughout the audit period.

Module 6: User Access, Segregation of Duties, and Privileged Accounts

• Assessing ERP user provisioning, de-provisioning, role assignment, authentication, password controls, privileged access, and periodic access reviews.

• Evaluating segregation of duties conflicts across purchasing, vendor creation, invoice processing, payment authorization, journal entry, and financial reporting functions.

• Auditing administrator and super-user access to identify risks associated with unrestricted system capabilities and inadequate monitoring.

• Using role analysis, access matrices, user activity records, and exception reporting to identify inappropriate or excessive financial system access.

Module 7: ERP Master Data and Financial Data Integrity

• Auditing customer, supplier, employee, chart of accounts, bank, asset, inventory, tax, and other master data supporting financial transactions.

• Assessing controls over master data creation, modification, approval, validation, duplicate detection, ownership, and periodic review.

• Identifying data quality risks that may result in inaccurate financial reporting, duplicate payments, inappropriate revenue processing, or unauthorized transactions.

• Applying analytical procedures and exception testing to evaluate completeness, accuracy, consistency, validity, and integrity of ERP financial data.

Module 8: ERP General Ledger, Journals, and Financial Reporting

• Auditing automated and manual journal entries, posting rules, account combinations, period controls, journal approvals, reversals, and financial close activities.

• Evaluating controls over chart of accounts structures, accounting periods, intercompany processing, allocations, accruals, adjustments, and consolidation entries.

• Using ERP data analytics to identify unusual journal patterns, late postings, manual overrides, recurring entries, unusual users, and high-risk transactions.

• Assessing the reliability of system-generated financial reports, management reports, reconciliations, and financial statements produced from ERP environments.

Module 9: Procure-to-Pay and Accounts Payable ERP Auditing

• Auditing requisitions, purchase orders, goods receipts, invoices, three-way matching, payment approvals, and supplier master data within ERP systems.

• Evaluating automated matching rules, approval hierarchies, tolerance settings, duplicate invoice controls, and payment processing workflows.

• Using data analytics to identify duplicate payments, unusual suppliers, split purchases, irregular pricing, unauthorized transactions, and suspicious payment patterns.

• Assessing end-to-end controls over supplier onboarding, procurement commitments, invoice processing, payment authorization, and accounts payable reconciliation.

Module 10: Order-to-Cash, Revenue, and Receivables System Auditing

• Auditing customer master data, sales orders, pricing, credit controls, invoicing, revenue recognition, receipts, adjustments, and receivables processing.

• Evaluating automated credit limits, pricing rules, approval workflows, billing controls, revenue calculations, and exception handling within ERP applications.

• Applying analytical techniques to identify unusual sales transactions, credit notes, revenue adjustments, overdue balances, manual overrides, and customer account anomalies.

• Assessing the completeness, accuracy, authorization, and timing of revenue and receivable transactions throughout the ERP-enabled order-to-cash cycle.

Module 11: ERP Implementation, Migration, Change Management, and Upgrades

• Auditing ERP implementations and evaluating governance, requirements, configuration, testing, user acceptance, deployment, and financial control readiness.

• Assessing data migration controls to determine whether opening balances, master data, transaction histories, and financial records are transferred accurately and completely.

• Evaluating change management controls covering system modifications, patches, upgrades, customizations, emergency changes, and configuration amendments.

• Identifying financial reporting and control risks arising from poorly governed implementations, unauthorized changes, inadequate testing, or incomplete post-implementation reviews.

Module 12: Cloud ERP, Interfaces, and Third-Party Financial Systems

• Auditing cloud-based ERP environments, shared responsibility arrangements, service providers, hosted infrastructure, and technology dependencies affecting financial systems.

• Evaluating application programming interfaces, banking integrations, payment platforms, expense applications, tax systems, and external reporting interfaces.

• Assessing third-party assurance reports, service organization controls, vendor governance, contractual responsibilities, and outsourced financial processing risks.

• Identifying risks associated with interface failures, incomplete data transfers, inconsistent processing, external dependencies, and inadequate monitoring of integrated applications.

Module 13: ERP Cybersecurity, Fraud, and Digital Financial Investigations

• Evaluating cybersecurity threats affecting ERP applications, financial databases, user credentials, privileged accounts, interfaces, and sensitive financial information.

• Identifying fraud indicators through transaction analytics, user activity monitoring, unusual access patterns, abnormal postings, and suspicious master data changes.

• Examining ERP audit logs, system activity records, electronic evidence, workflow histories, and transaction metadata during fraud and control investigations.

• Developing coordinated audit responses to cybersecurity incidents, suspected financial manipulation, unauthorized transactions, data compromise, and control circumvention.

Module 14: ERP Audit Analytics, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence

• Applying advanced data analytics to large ERP transaction populations for continuous testing, anomaly detection, control monitoring, and financial risk assessment.

• Evaluating robotic process automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and intelligent workflow technologies used within financial ERP environments.

• Assessing risks associated with AI-generated outputs, automated recommendations, model dependencies, data quality, algorithmic controls, and insufficient human oversight.

• Designing automated audit tests and dashboards that support continuous monitoring of financial controls, transactions, access activity, and ERP exceptions.

Module 15: Business Continuity, Resilience, Data Recovery, and ERP Availability

• Auditing ERP business continuity planning, disaster recovery arrangements, system resilience, backup controls, recovery procedures, and financial process continuity.

• Evaluating recovery time objectives, recovery point objectives, backup integrity, restoration testing, alternative processing arrangements, and critical financial dependencies.

• Assessing resilience risks associated with cloud providers, infrastructure failures, cyber incidents, system outages, data corruption, and third-party service disruptions.

• Developing audit procedures to determine whether organizations can maintain critical accounting, payment, reporting, and financial control activities during major disruptions.

Module 16: Advanced ERP Financial Systems Audit and Emerging Trends

• Developing advanced ERP audit programmes that integrate financial audit, IT audit, cybersecurity, data analytics, compliance, operational risk, and governance perspectives.

• Evaluating emerging ERP capabilities involving generative AI, intelligent automation, embedded analytics, predictive finance, real-time reporting, and autonomous financial processes.

• Addressing evolving risks involving digital ecosystems, data privacy, regulatory technology, sustainability reporting, continuous accounting, and increasingly automated financial controls.

• Building a forward-looking ERP audit strategy that supports continuous assurance, stronger governance, resilient financial systems, reliable reporting, and sustainable control improvement.

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808

Training Venue 

The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.

Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808

Terms of Payment:

Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.