of financial and non-financial information on a real-time or near real-time basis. The purpose of continuous reporting is to allow external parties access to information as underlying events take place, rather than waiting for end-of-period reports. The adoption of XBRL by companies makes the release of continuous reporting information more feasible. Continuous reporting also benefits users under Regulation Fair Disclosure. Continuous reporting is a point of constant debate. Some parties, including analysts and investors, are interested in knowing how a company is doing at a given point in time. They argue that near real-time information would provide them with the ability to take advantage of important business moves as they happen. However, opponents are skeptical of how the raw information can be useful and fear information overload, or that there would be too much irrelevant information out there. Additionally, some companies are fearful that continuously reported financial information would give away important strategic moves and undermine competitive advantage. Implementation Generally, the implementation of continuous auditing consists of six procedural steps, which are usually administered by a continuous audit manager. Knowing about these steps will enable auditors to better monitor the continuous audit process and provide recommendations for its improvement, if needed. These steps include: Establishing priority areas. This entails choosing which organizational areas to audit. When performing the actions listed above, auditors need to consider the key objectives from each audit procedure. Objectives can be classified as one of four types: detective, deterrent (also known as preventive), financial, and compliance. A particular audit priority area may satisfy any one of these four objectives. Identifying monitoring and continuous audit rules. The second step consists of determining the rules or analytics that will guide the continuous audit activity, which need to be programmed, repeated frequently, and reconfigured when needed. In addition, monitoring and audit rules must take into consideration legal and environmental issues, as well as the objectives of the particular process. Determining the process' frequency. Continuous auditing need not be literally continuous. Auditors need to consider the natural rhythm of the process being audited, including the timing of computer and business processes as well as the timing and availability of auditors trained or with experience in continuous auditing. Configuring continuous audit parameters. Rules used in each audit area need to be configured before the continuous audit procedure (CAP) is implemented. In addition, the frequency of each parameter might need to be