Amos Olusola AKINOLA2024-05-282024-05-282022-12Kate TurabianPh.DPhDhttps://repository.lcu.edu.ng/handle/123456789/409There had been extensive discuss of external audit process in a manual accounting system environment but this is not the case when the same is to be discussed in an automated accounting system. Similar to this is auditors need to embrace big data analytics in this era of big data. In the light of this, this study examined the effect of automated accounting system (AAS) and big data analytics (BDAs) on external audit process in South-west, Nigeria. A descriptive (cross sectional) survey design was adopted for this study while primary data was sourced with the aid of structured questionnaire drawn on four Likert scale and and a total 514 copies questionnaire were physically/virtually administered to auditors in private engagement in six states of South west, Nigeria. Collected data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentages and means while partial least square structural equation. Findings show that AAS has significant effect on audit independence (Adjusted R 2 =0.728; p<0.05. AAS has significant effect on audit quality (Adjusted R 2 of 0.841; p<0.05. Also, AAS has significant effect on determination of audit fees (Adjusted R 2 = 0.785; p< 0.05) while AAS is equally found to have significant on audit evidence (Adjusted R 2 of 0.798; p< 0.05) and the effect of BDAs on both audit quality and audit evidence is found to be significant (Adjusted R 2 = 0.687; p<0.05) and (Adjusted R 2 = 0.868; p<0.05) respectively. The joint effect of AAS and BDAs on external audit process is equally found to be significant (Adjusted R 2 = 0.868; and p<0.05). The study recommends that corporate institutions in South-west, Nigeria should embrace automated accounting system, while audit firms especially those in mid-tier should embrace capacity building in form of training of every staff members in engagement team on the application of BDAs. Keywords: Accounting automation; Audit evidence; Audit fees; Audit independence; Audit quality; Big data analytics; External audit process. Words Count 298enThesis