Internal Audit Service
Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.
Internal audits play a critical role in a company’s operations and corporate governance, especially now that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 holds managers legally responsible for the accuracy of their company's financial statements. SOX also required that a company's internal controls be documented and reviewed as part of its external audit.
Deliverables of Internal Audit Service
To ensuring that a company complies with laws and regulations, internal audits also provide a degree of risk management and safeguard against potential fraud, waste, or abuse. The results of internal audits provide management with suggestions for improvements to current processes not functioning as intended, which may include information technology systems as well as supply-chain management.
Internal audits may take place on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis. Some departments may be audited more frequently than others. For example, a manufacturing process may be audited on a daily basis for quality control, while the human resources department might only be audited once a year.
The Different of Internal Audit and External Audit
Internal and external audits have the same objective. Both types of audits analyze an aspect of a company to determine a specific opinion. However, there are many differences between the two types of audits.
In an internal audit, the company is often able to select its own audit team. As such, the team represents the interests of the company's management team. This may be advantageous to specifically place certain employees with very niche experience on the team. In an external audit, the company can often select the external audit firm; however, the company often does not have a say in the specific employees put on their external audit.
There may be some requirements regarding the external audit staff depending on the audit. For example, in an external financial audit, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) must certify the financial statements. In an internal audit, there is no requirement that any member of the audit team must be a CPA.
The end goal of either audit is an audit report; however, audit reports are used for very different reasons. An internal audit report is usually used by internal management to improve the operations, processes, or policies of the company. An external audit report is often required for an outside reason and is more often used heavier by members outside of the company.
Finally, the nature of the engagement will be very different. During an internal audit, the employees of a company may often freely give advice, discuss unrelated matters with the company, or may have a very fluid consulting agreement. During an external audit, a very defined scope is often set, and the external auditor will often take great care to ensure they do not exceed their audit boundaries.
Why Choose Our Internal Audit Services?
- Experience and Expertise: Our team consists of internal audit experts with experience in various industries. We have a deep understanding of effective internal methodologies and audit techniques.
- Confidentiality and Integrity: We understand the importance of confidentiality in internal audits. We guarantee the confidentiality of all information provided to us and conduct every step of the investigation with the utmost integrity.
- Customization Approach: Every internal audit is unique. We work closely with clients to understand their specific needs and design the right customization approach.
