< Home > < In-House Taining > Internal Audit

Internal Audit

Below is a list of the Internal Audit courses we provide most often in-house. Please click the link of the course you want more information on.

100 Ways to Improve Your Audit Reports

Audit Comittee Training

Risk Based Audit

The Developing Internal Auditor

100 Ways to Improve Your Audit Reports

Audit Reports – your shop window

• Challenges of audit reporting
• Who are the reports really for?
• How do you know a good report when you see one?
• What Management expect – recent survey of chief executives
• IIA Professional standards
• The need for reports with impact

  Exercise 1 : What are the factors that distinguish an excellent report from the rest?

The problems with audit reports

Exercise 2 : 25 questions about your Internal Audit reports issued during the last 12 months

• The 25 questions –how did you score?
• What are the factors preventing the achievement of these best practice measures
• Tips, techniques and ideas to help you score 25 out of 25
• Discussion of the implications
• How to assess the needs of the audit customers
• Advice and guidance to help you achieve best practice
• Explanation of a proven method to evaluate your own reports

  Exercise 3 : Analysis of a real report (posted on the Internet)

• Feedback and discussion

Assessment and evaluation of your own reports

• Self evaluation against the model provided (delegates are asked to bring along 2 or 3 recent reports)
• Discussion of findings/ comparison with own evaluation/ identification of opportunities for improvement
• Key challenges and their implications

Best practice internal audit reports – the way forward

• Key requirements of the audit report of the future
• How to draft a report with impact – discussion of banner headlines and their relative impact
• Highlighting the issues that matter
• The psychological problem with reports
• Why audit reports are taken as a criticism of management
• How to get recipients to react positively
• How to write balanced reports
• How to get 95% of your recommendations actioned
• Title pages and indexes
• The Executive Summary –the benefits of writing the Executive summary before the main report.
• Influence and Persuasion

  Exercise 4 : Role play a meeting with senior management to discuss the report

• Discussion of the implications – how to reflect the key issues in the Executive Summary
• Messages rather than content
• Outcomes rather than output
• Solutions not problems
  
  Exercise 5 Re-writing the Executive summary of one of your own reports

The main report

• Audit Objectives
• Scope
• Forming and expressing the audit opinion
• Benefits and deliverables
• Conclusions
• The power of Senior management comments
• Words and phrases to avoid
• Best practice format
• Reducing the number of words
• The power of pictures and graphics
• The need to relate the issues to objectives and risk
• How to deal with sensitive issues in the report.
• Recommendations and actions
• Management Comments
• Action plans
• A Best practice report template will be shared

  Exercise 6 : Redrafting the objectives, scope, opinion and conclusions in the main body of the report

• CIPFA guidance
• Role within Corporate Governance
• Audit Committee Charter
• Structure and Independence
• Chairmanship and other roles
• The need to be independent of Executive and Scrutiny functions
• Reporting lines
• Meetings and suggested agendas

• Corporate Governance
  • Pressures on Local authorities
  • Corporate Governance requirements
  • Members responsibilities
  • The challenges face
• Assessment of Risk Management effectiveness
  • Local Authority developments
  • CIPFA/ SOLACE guidelines
  • Risk standards
  • CPA
  • The need to integrate risk with Corporate planning
  • Identification of risk owners
  • Development of action plans
  • Measuring success
  • Reports for members
  • Linking risks with priority setting
  • Ensuring anti-fraud arrangements are adequate
• External Audit
  • Receiving external audit reports
  • Questions to ask
  • How to evaluate the work completed
  • Assessing the External Audit opinion
  • Monitoring actions taken in response to issues raise
• Internal Audit
  • The need for independent assurance
  • CIPFA guidance
  • The unique relationship between IA and the audit committee
  • Ensuring direct access to the Chief Executive
  • How to evaluate the Internal Audit function
  • Reviewing and assessing the IA work plan
  • Internal Audit Quarterly reports to Audit Committee
  • Reviewing management’s response to recommendations
  • Approving internal audit strategy and plans
  • Relationship with External Audit
  • Separate meetings with Head of Internal Audit
• Financial and Assurance Statements
  • Statement of Internal Control
  • Financial statements
  • CPA reports

RISK-BASED AUDIT

• Definitions
• Trends (from the BRM Internal audit best practice database)
• The transition from systems based to risk based assurance
• The different approaches to audit
• Audit’s primary roles, objectives and concerns
• What is best practice?
• Perceptions of internal audit – various survey results
• The role of the function – policeman, risk assessor or consultant
• Institute of Internal Auditors professional standards
• How to ensure you adopt best practice
• How to get management buy-in
• The key challenges resulting
• The steps needed to embrace a risk based approach

  Exercise 1 Challenges for Internal Audit

Understanding Risk

• Approaches to risk management
• Surprises and Risk
• Risk and your organisations culture
• Assessing the changing risk environment
• Risk averse and risk embracing cultures and the impact on assurance
• Risk as the pulse of the organisation – and how Internal Audit needs to take this pulse

  Exercise 2 a team event to allow you to experience Risk taking in action

Audit Planning

• Risk based audit planning
• The factors you need to consider
• Determining the level of Assurance required
• Getting management input
• Translating key risks from the business risk process into the basis of the audit programme
• Audit challenges resulting
• Determining the audit universe
• Best practice audit risk planning model (an electronic version will be provided to all delegates)

  Exercise 3 Audit planning using the model

Undertaking a Risk based audit (Interactive – exercise 4)

• Several audits will be chosen on the day by the participants for the purpose
• Brainstorm the functional objectives
• Build a picture of the risks
• Consider threats and opportunities
• Plan the assignment
• Determine types of test and techniques to use
• What use could be made of audit tools
• Determine the threats to success

Corporate Governance and the Internal Audit Role

• The Corporate Governance challenges
• The tensions created for management
• The opportunities for Internal Audit
• The Internal Control Statement
• The converging role of the assurance providers
• The need to coordinate activities across assurance providers
• Audit Committees
• Relationships with external Audit

Marketing a risk based approach

• The need to measure value added
• How to sell the benefits
• Who you need to sell the approach to

  Exercise 5 Marketing a Risk based approach

Back to top

THE DEVELOPING INTERNAL AUDITOR

Day 1 – Meeting Management’s expectations

• Exercise 1 ‘ The Bamboo Cane’ - a thought provoking exercise to set the scene
  
• Internal Audit primary roles, objectives and challenges
• What are the keys to success?
• Management expectations – and how to exceed them
• Determining the level of Assurance required
• Definitions and trends
• The Professional Standards
• Misconceptions about the role
  
• Exercise 2 – The challenges (using SWOT analysis)
  
• How should you coordinate your efforts with other assurance providers?
• Reporting lines – influence and impact
• Relationships with management
• Expressing yourself effectively
• Creating rapport with your customers – tips and techniques
• The 4 management styles – Activists, Reflectors, Theorists and Pragmatists - and the implications for auditors
• Personal drivers and success
  
• Exercise 3 – management styles - working in small groups delegates are asked to determine and compare individual management styles and personal drivers
  
• Language and impact
• The use of ‘powerwords’ in your communications
• How to get on the same wavelength as your customer
• Business Communication techniques
• Facilitation – the key skills
• Communication in writing – the audit report
• What management expects
• The IIA Competency framework
• Active listening
  
• Exercise 4 – The Skills Inventory
  
• Preparing for an assignment
• Developing Terms of Reference for the assignment
• Determining sources of information
• Getting management input
• Deciding who you will need to interview
• Deciding on the audit team
• Explaining the approach to staff of the function being audited
• Treating your customers with respect
• Deciding who to interview
• Audit interviews
• Testing – how to determine how much is necessary
• Walk through tests
• Fieldwork Techniques (compliance, transactional, analytical review, sampling etc)
• How to decide the depth of testing required
  
• Exercise 5 – meeting with management

Day 2 – The Audit in practice

• Risk based audit
• Objectives and risk
• Areas to cover
• The transition from systems based to risk based assurance
• The steps needed to embrace a risk based approach
• Translating key risks from the business risk process into the basis of the audit programme
• Assessing actual versus perceived controls
• Monitoring the effectiveness of risk management
• The link between control, risk and objectives
• The Audit manual
  
• Exercise 6 – The audit manual – format and content
  
• Determining the audit objectives
• Determining the objectives of the function to be audited
  
• Exercise 7 Undertaking a Risk based Audit (interactive)
  
• Audits of your choice will be used
• Brainstorm the issues
• Build a picture of the risks
• Consider threats and opportunities
• Plan the assignment
• Determine types of test and techniques to use
• What use could be made of CAAT’s?
• Determine the threats to success
  
• Exercise 8 A team event – ‘The big picture’
  
• Measuring Success and Adding value
• What do management think of you?
• Have they embraced the wider role for IA?
• How have they responded to changes already introduced?
• What challenges have they posed?
  
• Exercise 9 Audit reputation and measures of Success
  
• Problem solving
• Dealing with difficult customers
• Reacting to challenges
  
• Exercise 10 – The Puzzle – a real challenge to complete the
  
• Event
  

Back to top