KnowledgeLeader provides best practice articles, tools, guides and other resources on internal audit. This page contains some examples of the many resources and templates on internal audit that are available for download. For more tools and publications on this subject, visit our
Internal Audit topic area.
Page Contents:
Tools
Internal Audit Risk Assessment Questionnaire
Internal audit performs a risk assessment to identify and prioritize key risks to best allocate the internal audit resources for the next year. This risk-based approach is focused on surveys/interviews of a cross-section of management personnel to solicit input from the potential customers of an internal audit function.
Internal Audit Planning Memorandum
This memo captures all details for planning an internal audit, such as the internal audit team members’ names and roles, duration of the internal audit, location of the internal audit, company business hours, key contacts, internal audit scope and approach, deliverables, high-level work program, and high-level work schedule.
Internal Audit Performance Measures Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
This tool outlines key objectives for conducting internal audits, the outcome measures associated with each objective, and the activity measures that drive each outcome measure. A link connects each outcome measure with its corresponding formula and analysis.
Director of Internal Audit Job Description
This job description outlines the reporting relationship, responsibilities, key selection criteria, and desired personal and professional characteristics for the role of the director of internal audit.
Audit Planning Memo
The purposes of the audit plan are, first, to contribute to the effectiveness of the audit and, second, to contribute to the audit efficiency. This memorandum should be completed and approved as part of the initial audit planning process. In completing this document, there may be occasions when matters already documented in other work papers are relevant. There is no need to re-write such material if a specific reference can be made.
Strategic Internal Audit Plan
This sample outlines the approach employed by internal audit to develop the audit plan and indicative projects for the year.
Internal Audit Risk Assessment Report
This sample reports results from an annual risk assessment and proposes an internal audit plan based on the assessment.
Marketing and Selling Internal Audit Checklist
This checklist focuses on key factors to help internal auditors market and sell their services better and increase internal audit value and productivity. The list includes tips for improving customer satisfaction, communicating value, and making the internal audit department essential to the success of the business.
Internal Audit Rating System
This sample audit rating system can be used to gauge the performance of individual auditable units against expectations and previous audits. The rating scale includes: high-risk findings; control weaknesses; and process enhancements.
Internal Audit Engagement Memo
This internal audit engagement memo informs an auditee of an upcoming audit and includes the objectives of the audit, proposed timetable and audit team members.
Publications
The Four C's in Overseeing Internal Audit
In 2016, The Institute of Internal Auditors and Protiviti conducted the world’s largest ongoing study of the internal audit profession—the Global Internal Audit Common Body of Knowledge—to ascertain expectations from key stakeholders, including board members, regarding internal audit performance. There were several imperatives for internal audit gleaned from the directors who participated in the study—among them: focus more on strategic risks, think beyond the scope of the audit plan, and add more value through consulting.
Internal Audit’s Performance – Raising the Bar
The internal audit function’s position within a company is unique; internal audit’s continuous improvement to its own practices is implicit in executing high-profile duties.
Internal Auditing Around the World: Volume 13
In our latest edition of Internal Auditing Around the World, we focus on a challenge that places leaders in somewhat unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory: auditing risk culture.
The Confrontational Auditor: Don’t Put Out the Fire, Redirect It
Confrontations are a natural part of the audit process. You can't always avoid them, but you can do your best to handle them well. In this article, Ann M. Butera explains how you can redirect the flames of a confrontation in order to maintain control and work toward common goals.
The Death of the Tick Mark, Birth of the Rockstar Internal Auditor
This article explains why eradicating the tick mark and what it symbolizes is just the first step in making groundbreaking progress toward transformation for internal auditors.
Is Internal Audit Meeting Expectations?
In this issue of
Board Perspectives: Risk Oversight, we share input from audit committee directors in a global survey regarding their expectations of, and the implications of those expectations for, internal audit.
Twenty Questions for Directors to Ask Internal Audit
Audit committees provide oversight to the internal audit efforts within an organization, so how audit committees work with their internal audit staff is critical to the success of internal audit as a whole. The 20 questions outlined in this article will help audit committees develop a better understanding of their expectations and duties.