What Is An Internal Audit?

An internal audit is an activity carried out by organizations to add value to the business and also improve the way it operates. It is said to be an independent sector that is able to access the competency of company. It is really helpful especially when it comes to attaining its objectives and effectiveness in governing, supervising, evaluating, accessing data, and many other things. It is an activity that is used by almost all the organizations be it large scale, small scale profit making, on profit etc. The process is also said to prove how worthy a company is financially. It is very important for companies to have an internal audit every year.

The person who is in charge of the audit is called a Chief Audit executive. His main aim and function is to provide a written statement showing the approach they have taken in the internal audit task. It is then taken to the audit committee to be authorized. Any time the audit is effective, the board members and the management are comfortable about the risk operations and internal controls of the company. Members in the company such as share holder, employees and other stakeholders of the company are assured of the method used to accomplish the company’s s activities.

Normally, the auditing process takes four steps:

1. Planning: The auditor here is responsible of telling his client about the audit. Meetings are held with the leaders to discuss the goals, information that has been collected, internal controls that are in place etc.
2. Field work: In this stage, it is determined whether the controls that were there before are working. All that is gathered in the field is put down in the audit report.
3. Audit report: Included In the report also is the measures to be taken to improve. Later after one year of submission the audit is reviewed.
4. Review or follow up.; Internal auditors carry out a follow up .Then the steps to be undertaken to achieve this is released to the clients.

When carrying out the process of internal auditing, a lot of cooperation is required from the team. If clients are involved in this process, then one can be sure that it is going to succeed. It is also important to know that internal auditors are not responsible of business operations. All they do is offer their guidance to the senior members of the management.