Attributes of good audit management in planning
We recently set out to identify the skills and characteristics good internal auditors must possess to perform well in their jobs. We found that some, like curiosity and integrity, are typically characteristics that are just part of our personality or not. Others, like technological know-how and communication abilities can be learned and honed through professional development and training courses. Others lie somewhere in the middle. Show This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are many other skills and attributes not listed here, such as knowledge of the business, project management capabilities, and relationship building that are important to thriving as an internal auditor. Yet these are the qualifications chief audit executives, senior managers, and board members cite most often as the key abilities they are looking for in good internal auditors. Regardless of how we acquire them, and in no particular order, here are the top six characteristics internal auditors should possess: 1) Great Communication Skills So, while the pandemic has made communicating across the organization harder, it’s never been more important. Operational and strategic risks are growing in complexity and intensity and the speed with which they can emerge has quickened. Since business managers own the risks (not assurance functions like internal audit and compliance) auditors need to be excellent communicators to discuss and come to an understanding of those risks through the line managers that own them. It doesn’t stop there. Internal auditors have many constituencies to serve. From their audit customers to senior management and the board, they must be able to navigate many relationships within the organization and sometimes bridge seemingly conflicting views on what’s important to the company. That takes great communication skills and any internal auditor that doesn’t possess them will likely falter in their roles. 2) Unyielding Curiosity Such intellectual curiosity doesn’t just serve good internal auditors well in the pursuit of fraud and wrongdoing, either. It helps them fully understand how controls, processes, and business units work, so they can make recommendations to improve them. It is their curiosity and the need to know how things work that drive them in their jobs and push them to get to the bottom of things. With the importance of root cause analysis, the curious internal auditor keeps digging until they find the answers they are looking for. 3) Technological Savvy While it’s important to embrace the more recent technologies that internal audit is increasingly coming to rely on to execute its duties, a digital revolution is taking place in just about every facet of the organization. To complete audits of nearly any process or function will require a working knowledge of increasingly complex technologies. It’s true too, that the top risks in any organization typically involve areas like cybersecurity, data governance, and information security, all of which require internal auditors to be tech savvy. Other aspects of technology that internal auditors must conquer are those that help automate elements of internal audit, including continuous monitoring and robotic process automation (RPA), that help internal audit free up time to take on higher-level functions, such as providing more advisory and consulting work, that increase the value they provide to the organization. 4) Ability to Work Independently and on a Team That doesn’t mean they no longer have to be able to work well with others. More recent work models, particularly agile audit, require lots of interaction and coordination. This harkens back to the importance of communication abilities, but good internal auditors are also team players. They must be able to motivate others, display leadership, and understand how their roles fit into the bigger picture. Hence top auditors are able to work alone and equally well as a member of a team. 5) Drive to Be Life-long Learners The fact that internal auditors get exposure to lots of different aspects and units of the business is certainly one of the benefits of the job, but it comes with challenges. They must be able to constantly digest new information and learn new parts of the business. No two audits are ever the same and without the desire to learn something new, it will be difficult for an internal auditor to approach each new assignment with the sponge-like ability to absorb new knowledge and come up to speed quickly on a process or function. 6) Integrity and Courage Even more challenging is the idea that the individual or individuals who need to be confronted could be senior executives, such as the CFO or CEO, to whom the internal audit leader reports. Those are the situations that require courage. As part of the internal audit lexicon we are increasingly hearing about the need for a culture of ethics and “tone at the top.” A good internal auditor can’t push for those things without having integrity and the ability to earn the respect of others in the organization that goes with it. One more thought on integrity and courage: We often think of these things in terms of big crises and scandals, where the internal auditor stands up to an accounting fraud that is taking place in the organization or a CEO who is up to no good. Yet it more often integrity and courage will be called up for small things, where someone is looking to cut a corner or isn’t treating others with respect. This is when integrity, along with a good moral compass can help an internal auditor push past a roadblock and get an audit back on track. What are the attributes of good audit management?What are the qualities of a good auditor?. They show integrity. ... . They are effective communicators. ... . They are good with technology. ... . They are good at building collaborative relationships. ... . They are always learning. ... . They leverage data analytics. ... . They are innovative. ... . They are team orientated.. What are the key attributes of audit?The auditor should ensure that any communication made by them has the six important qualities of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, timeliness, clarity and completeness.
What are the factors to be considered by the auditor in planning their audit?Audit plan. the nature, timing and extent of planned risk assessment procedures.. the nature, timing and extent of planned further audit procedures at the assertion level.. other planned audit procedures that are required to be carried out so that the engagement complies with ISAs.. What makes a good audit plan?Good audits will demonstrate how the audit team have applied high-quality judgement to assess the evidence they have obtained. Such evidence should be both corroborative and contradictory. A robustly executed audit will utilise an appropriate variety of audit tools to provide an effective audit approach.
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