For many organisations, an internal audit is their first line of defence – a way to test their systems, processes and controls, and ultimately, to drive risk from the business.
Management teams face rapid change, mainly from new technology and increased regulation. This brings new risks, and in order to maintain optimum internal control, a regular audit of your internal business functions is essential.
An internal audit will:
- Focus on methodology and test any new thinking or innovation.
- Ensure that all staff are working towards the same level of quality and service – this is particularly useful if staff are located in multiple locations.
- Give consideration to any changes or risk exposure.
- Anticipate the needs of any third parties or stakeholders.
- Ensure you have the correct regulatory structure in place, so that should any internal controls fail, you are in a position to address and mitigate any risk.
Our Approach
The role of internal auditors has undergone a pragmatic change over the last few years, with increasing emphasis being given to a risk based approach to internal audit, in order to provide requisite assurance to management and other stakeholders on the timely mitigation and effective management of risks that can impact the attainment of business objectives.
Our Firm bases its internal audit approach on the aforesaid and an in-depth understanding of our clients’ businesses, strategies, processes and internal control systems. We consider these to be the key means by which we can undertake an effective analysis of the components of the internal controls and consequent risks, to deliver business value to our clients.
In particular, while undertaking the internal audits, we will focus on:
- Building on our understanding of the Company’s business processes and information systems;
- Identifying specific risks and anticipating the manner in which they should be treated;
- Testing compliance with established processed and operation of controls for a sample of transactions and/or through an analysis of business data. Consequently, controls that need to be tested for their operating effectiveness will be segregated on the basis of the frequency of the performance of control (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly or annual); & analysing the root causes for weaknesses and issues.
