Training insights: Remote auditing

While some areas of our lives, and of our businesses, are opening up again, it’s unlikely that we will go back to working as we did before the pandemic. The way we conduct internal audit is no exception – and there are huge opportunities here, if we seize them. Now is a good opportunity to assess the measures we took in the crisis, and the innovations we have introduced to our internal audits over the past year, and to identify how these can be refined and improved.

Remote auditing is an important element in this process – which is why we are running a virtual course on remote auditing to help members develop the best remote auditing techniques and learn from the experience of peers across all sectors. Global lockdowns necessitated huge and rapid shifts in how we conduct audits from our desks. There are cases where this will never be ideal and many audit teams will return to doing some physical audits. However, the experience has also taught us that remote auditing can be just as effective and more economic and efficient than on-site auditing, saving both travel time and carbon footprint. These will both be increasingly important considerations in the years ahead.

There is a huge opportunity here for internal audit teams to embrace technology and to free up time to focus on new or more complex risks and insights. But we need to do it well.

Remote working requires new management techniques. We need to trust staff and enable them to work flexibly. Managers also need to find new ways to create team spirit and to assess staff wellbeing and support networks. However, these issues are no longer the barriers they were. Laptops and smartphones are ubiquitous and managers and internal auditors at all levels have become familiar with communicating via video conferencing and related technology.

Internal audit is also in a good position to pioneer remote working technology since we usually operate in compact teams and are used to working away from the office. But adopting new technology is one thing, we also need to change attitudes if we are to use it more efficiently.

The COVID-19 crisis forced us to innovate, but one year on, many people are saying “we think we’re doing okay, but we’re not sure whether we’re covering all the issues and we don’t know what other people are doing, or what best practice is”. This course is designed to help internal auditors and managers compare best practice, explore ideas and discover techniques they may not have considered. It is also intended to reassure heads of internal audit that they are not missing anything important and to share experiences.

We will consider soft skills that can help to overcome the loss of “water cooler” moments and chats over coffee, and the absence of the internal audit “radar” that alerts us to concerns at a physical office or site, irrespective of the specific audit we are conducting.

We also identify risks that may increase when we are more reliant on what we are given or shown because we are unable to visit locations – and examine ways to minimise these. There are extra steps we can introduce to some audits to ensure the experience is as rich as it can be and compensate for any disadvantages.

While it may be challenging to provide a comprehensive audit of less data-driven, more “human” aspects of organisations, such as culture, there is evidence that we could use more fully. We will discuss how interviews, meetings and online workshops can provide tangible data, and why we need to promote ways of recording and storing evidence and of using technology to provide the data trails needed by management and internal auditors across the business.

The incentives for lasting change are clear. There is little point sending internal auditors halfway round the world for a routine audit they can do from home. We have already become adept at using communications technology and data analytics in audits, however there is now an opportunity to look at how we use technology to improve other internal audit practices, such as planning, reporting and following up recommendations.

There are also opportunities to produce faster, shorter, more frequent reports and to, for example, record verbal agreements in end-of-audit meetings. There are exciting experiments in these areas, but we must challenge ourselves and learn from others’ experiences.

Whether you seek ideas for change, or evidence to convince members of the audit committee or board that change is necessary and desirable, both are equally important. Internal audit needs to demonstrate what it can do to provide more, better and different assurance in future and, to do this, we need to collaborate and learn from each other. Having a better understanding of what can be done well and effectively remotely, and how to take advantage of changes in technology and the wider marketplace, is a great basis for real change.

Four virtual courses on effective remote internal auditing are open for booking. Click here for details.

This article was published in May 2021.