Too Much of a Good Thing (Especially Audit Planning) is Bad

Conventional wisdom tells us that “you can’t get too much of a good thing.” This is certainly true when it comes to chocolate. However, when it comes to audit planning, this thinking can create delays, waste time and generate unnecessary documentation.

Just what is wrong? Some examples are extraneous, outdated, irrelevant, repetitive or overly detailed data. While gaining an understanding of the business strategy is smart, studying job-level procedural manuals is not. In this article, Ann focuses on two areas of waste that are correlated to audit planning: non-/under-utilized waste and extra processing. She then suggests ways to reduce them without incurring excessive audit risk.