ACL Blog – Did You Complete Your Audit Plan?

2009-09-01

Did You Complete Your Audit Plan?

By Mike Vilimek

If Ernst & Young’s Global Internal Audit Survey in 2008 was any indication, then it’s safe to assume most audit leaders would say no.

“Only 21% of respondents were able to complete the prior year Internal Audit plan, and only 24% completed up to 80% of the plan.”

Now granted that survey is over a year old, but have things changed for internal audit? Since then we have experienced the largest recession that many of us have seen. It brought reduced head counts, budget reductions and all sorts of renewed fraud concerns that often arise during recessions. It’s no wonder in a recent blog post titled Internal Audit Solutions for Tough Times , Richard Chambers, President & CEO of the IIA, listed ‘Leveraging technology to achieve greater efficiencies’ as among the 10 most significant challenges facing internal auditors this coming year. It stands to reason, if you’re not getting enough done and you don’t have additional resources, you’re going to need to work more efficiently, and the right technology can help you do that.

Key areas for efficiency gains through the use of ACL technology include:

• Data Access: Access data quickly and easily from virtually any system.
• Automation: Eliminate manual repetitive analysis by automating analytics to run on a continuous basis.
• Centralised content management: Store and manage all audit content in one central repository where the entire team can share and leverage each other’s work.
• Prioritise areas for more in-depth audits: Sometimes the best way to tackle an ever-growing list of to-dos is to focus on what’s really important. Data analysis can be used to determine the areas of greatest risk and materiality, allowing audit to focus resources on high-priority audit goals and objectives.

Find out more: ACL Blog