Week 2
Data in Business
Understand data dimensions, sources (internal vs. external), structure, storage solutions, cloud environments, and audit standards.
This week
Welcome to Week 2! This week we dive into business data. We will examine the characteristics of big data (the 5 Vs), compare internal operational systems with third-party external data, and learn the differences between structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. We will also introduce data storage architecture (databases, data warehouses, and data lakes), the cloud environment, and the AICPA Audit Data Standards.
Learning objectives
- Identify the 5 Vs of big data and how they apply to accounting scenarios.
- Compare the control and scope trade-offs of internal vs. external business data.
- Differentiate between structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data formats, citing examples of each.
- Explain the differences between wide and long data formats and their use cases.
- Compare the features and database types used in data warehouses vs. data lakes.
- Explain the purpose of the AICPA Audit Data Standards (ADS) in auditing analytics.