This week, I had the privilege and pleasure of spending time with a number of smart and curious professionals who are dedicated to adding value to their organization.
I am talking about internal auditors, of course.
I was a speaker at a multi-national company’s annual internal audit conference (something I enjoy doing). I touched on a number of themes from my book, Auditing at the Speed of Risk with an Agile, Continuous Audit Plan.
The attendees not only asked me about some of those themes, but we discussed other topics, some of which I will cover here today and in later posts.
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My topic today is the significant time and money wasted by internal audit functions when it comes to audit reports.
As we know, the IIA’s Standards do not require a formal, written audit report – even though almost every function prepares them.
Writing, reviewing, rewriting, debating with management, amending, re-reviewing, and then publishing an audit report can take a lot of time. My teams might spend anywhere from 10 to 50 hours on the task. I have heard of others spending as much as 600 hours on their average internal audit report.
If you say that the average internal auditor’s salary is about $90,000 (based on Accounting.com figures) and you add about 30% for benefits and other costs, the average internal audit hour…
