Internal Audit

Public companies could face a series of indirect ramifications related to updated focus areas for the nonprofit board that oversees audits of these companies. Attorney Ron Kral explores the three areas of most interest for organizations. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in June released its planned focus areas for 2022 inspections of public company audits. While most of its targeted areas aren’t of special interest to those outside of accounting firms, a few of them will have indirect...

Sarbanes-Oxley turns 20 years old this summer. Jack Kristan of auditing firm Plante Moran wonders why many companies still haven’t modernized SOX compliance — and offers an object lesson in the power of technology-aided auditing. When I first entered the workforce two decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon for financial analysts to be asked to cut large checks needing to be mailed immediately, without much explanation about what they were for and why they were so urgent. That kind of money...

How is this for a grim scenario? As business becomes inexorably more technology-driven, audit and assurance teams need more sophisticated technology, but technology requires talent — and technology talent is growing ever more costly and scarce. Dire enough? There are no easy solutions, but as Leslee McKnight, Gartner’s senior director of research, lets us know: at least audit executives are aware of and working on the challenges. In Q3 2021, Gartner surveyed 166 audit leaders to identify their top challenges...

Businesses have learned over the past couple of years that the only constant is change — and if they haven’t, they’re probably falling behind. A new study by Protiviti reveals the extent to which even mission-critical functions like internal audit are ripe for innovation and transformation. The consulting firm’s 16th annual report on the state of internal audit reveals that internal audit teams in companies across the globe are keenly focused on innovation and transformation, with about two in three...

Over the course of your career as an internal auditor, you will eventually encounter a difficult auditee. In these instances, emotional intelligence can help diffuse any swollen egos. But if these difficulties occur with any frequency, you may want to audit your own body language and behavior.  We’ve all encountered difficult auditees at one point in our career. Whether they were stubborn, angry, apathetic or withdrawn, many of us have seen it all. Oftentimes, emotions overrule logic. This is especially...

A new survey of decision-makers across Europe has revealed that the need to rethink tools and processes is a key priority for audit and compliance leaders. Research by Sinequa, an enterprise search engine platform, reveals that 85 percent of compliance and audit workers in large organizations in Europe consider access to information to be difficult or fair — at best. Increasing regulations, accelerating digitalization and broader use of artificial intelligence tools have put new pressure on compliance, legal and audit...

A majority of companies are beginning to feel the long-term impacts of COVID, many of which are here to stay. This week, AuditBoard, the innovative cloud-based platform transforming how enterprises manage risk, released the results of a survey of Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) that reveals how COVID is impacting operations and the profession at large. The survey uncovered five key trends respondents believe will have lasting impact on IA teams, including: 91 percent of survey respondents believe the use of...

Stamford, CT (August 31, 2021) – Audit functions that fail to adapt well to hybrid auditing risk a loss of effectiveness and influence at a time when real-time assurance has never been more vital to the wider organization, according to Gartner, Inc. With hybrid audit engagements here to stay for the foreseeable future, audit leaders must ensure audit processes are still effective and staff remain engaged. “Audit leaders had to switch abruptly to remote audits during the pandemic and Chief...

Audit Organizations Should Improve Their Visibility into Change but They Should Also Strive to Deploy Audit Resources Faster Stamford, CT (August 4, 2021) – A February 2021 survey of 200 audit business partners revealed that over half (56%) of respondents said they were facing more changes in the last two years, and a large majority agreed these changes were both bigger (81%) and faster (74%), according to Gartner, Inc. The pace of change is set to continue with 65% of...

With internal audit, any disruption to the tried-and-true tends to raise hackles. But emerging governance, methodologies and technologies are allowing teams to grow more agile and efficient. Brian Christensen weighs in on some actionable steps to carry teams through this transformation. A global pandemic, a growing number of stakeholder demands, rapidly changing business models and a risk landscape with shorter cycle times — internal audit teams are dealing with a lot of changes. There are new methodologies and enabling technologies...

Most companies change audit firms eventually, but the process isn't easy and can present many challenges during and after the fact. Ron Kral describes steps you can take to mitigate them. Was your annual audit or quarterly filing process with the SEC more painful than usual? Did you hear more about petty issues rather than meaningful insights? Did you have to reorient a new team of auditors just like last year? There are a multitude of reasons to consider a...

Global consulting firm Protiviti has released its 2021 Next-Generation Internal Audit Survey, finding that most chief audit executives (CAEs) and senior internal audit leaders and their teams are still in the early stages of, or have yet to embark on, their next-gen internal audit journeys. The benchmarking survey polled 874 executives in Q1 2021, including CAEs and audit managers and directors across industries globally. Highlights from the findings include: 66 percent of survey respondents report plans to increase their focus on innovation and...