Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) Part 3: Business Knowledge for Internal Auditing — Question 150

During a review of the accounts payable process, an internal auditor gathered all of the vendor payment transactions for the past 24 months. The auditor then used an analytics tool to identify the top five vendors that received the highest sum of payments.

Which of the following analytics techniques did the auditor apply?

Answer options

• A. Process analysis.
• B. Process mining.
• C. Data analysis.
• D. Data mining.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

The correct answer is C, Data analysis, as the auditor analyzed payment transactions to find patterns in vendor payments. Process analysis and process mining focus on evaluating and optimizing workflows rather than simply aggregating data. Data mining typically involves discovering patterns from large datasets, but in this context, the auditor was specifically analyzing existing data rather than mining it for hidden insights.