Du Pont uses a decision support system to select its audit portfolio

The authors designed a decision support system (DSS) to help select financial audit portfolios for E.I. Du Point de Nemours and Company. Du Pont’s finance department performs audits to ensure that financial control procedures are in place throughout the firm and that they are being followed. The system selects portfolios based on the potential risk of not auditing a specific auditable unit. Audit risk is based on the collective judgment of management. The DSS allows Du Pont to capture and merge individual opinions into a consensus and to select a sample portfolio. Using the audit decision support system, Du Pont reorganized its audit division, greatly reducing the resources required. The system has been in use since 1986 with virtuallly no programming maintenance.