Continuous Auditing requires the formalization of business processes, controls and audit exceptions. In general
formalization promotes precision and consistency, improves confidence in audit results and reduces longrun
audit costs. Once a business process has been formalized, it can usually be automated. However, because
many humans resist formal thinking, formalization can be highly laborious and costly, and some complex
judgments are not amenable to formalization. As Alles commented, formalizing manual audit procedures to
facilitate automation is much more difficult than what might have been anticipated (Alles et al., 2006).