Emergence Of A New Audit Era

Internal auditors are undergoing a variety of changes in how they carry out their work as a result of the profession's evolution.

Using the risk-based auditing strategy

Previously, auditors have approached auditing from a controls-based perspective. Begin with business goals, the risk-based auditing approach moves the evaluation of control effectiveness to the level of strategy, process design, implementation, and the legality of policies and procedures.

This implies that organisations can approach their work in a more intelligent and holistic manner than just being proactive, reactive, or linear. However, a company needs to have a strong risk management framework in place before they can successfully use risk-based audits.

Using data to support audit

Internal auditors are no longer restricted to basing judgements exclusively on manual controls and small datasets because they now have access to enormous amounts of data. To provide statistical confirmation of exceptions, it is simpler to provide insights based on numerous data sources and to improve sampling methods.

A data-driven audit practise has a number of advantages, including the following:

1. Ongoing assessment, risk indicator, and process performance monitoring.
2. Prompt risk pattern and anomaly identification.
3. Routine task automation.
4. The ability to adapt audit strategies to include evolving risk trends
5. Better visibility thanks to one-click dashboards and reporting.
   

Becoming dependable advisors

Gaining the trust of stakeholders is crucial as you transition from assurance provider to advisor. The Institute of Internal Auditors' (IA) President and CEO, Richard Chambers, says that trustworthy advisors must "offer insight and foresight, not simply hindsight."

A trusted adviser is someone who "provides value-added services and proactive strategic counsel to the business well beyond the effective and efficient execution of the audit plan," according to PC's Internal Audit Advisory report.

Internal auditors are already well on their way to becoming trusted consultants by adopting a risk-based, data-driven approach. Imagine the potential when you add agile audit to the mix.