Internal Audit Services 

In today's volatile business environment, organizations face a wide array of complex business risks. These risks come in many forms: regulatory compliance, litigation, competitive market pressures, changing technology, investor demands, corporate governance, business ethics, and accountability. How clients manage these risks is critical to the future of their organizations.

Internal auditors once focused on evaluating compliance with an organization’s policies and procedures. Today, internal auditors do much more, from identifying risks to developing risk management protocols and analyzing processes in search of greater efficiencies. These added demands are a result of the transformation of the workplace from paper-based to digital, ever-increasing regulations and the speed at which business changes. Now more than ever, organizations need to make certain their internal processes are adequately and efficiently addressing these challenges and reducing risk. The internal audit function is the place to start.

ThePractice's Internal Audit Services offer a wide range of tailored services and products to enhance corporate governance, manage business risk, provide assurance on control effectiveness, and support you in achieving the organization's objectives.

Who Benefit from an Outsourced Internal Audit?

Over the last decade regulators, institutional investors, and the media have bombarded companies, both public and private, with requests for enhancing governance standards. Regular corporate failures and highly publicized “scandals” will ensure that the governance demands on business leaders will increase and become more onerous. The minimum standards for corporate governance are ever increasing and companies with strong corporate governance structures and policies are valued more among investors and enjoy better terms in trade. Simply stated, good corporate governance makes very good business sense.

With the growing focus on corporate governance issues, organizations are increasingly exploring the potential benefits to be gained from establishing an Internal Audit function. Developing an effective Internal Audit capability can be demanding on management’s time, and requires the careful consideration of a wide range of issues to ensure the function works to its maximum potential. The increasing expectations from Internal Audit as well as the changing focus of Internal Audit from transaction-based to risk based have resulted in many organizations seeking to outsource this function.

An outsourced internal audit function can benefit organizations of all sizes. Even if they have no regulatory requirement to do so, many organizations add an internal audit department or out-source or co-source the function as they grow. It makes good business sense. Candidates for out-sourcing or co-sourcing their internal audit function with ThePractice include:

• Large to medium size companies for which ThePractice is not the external auditor

• Organizations seeking to ensure that they remain compliant with regulatory requirements

• Organizations seeking a cost-effective alternative to hiring, training and retaining internal auditors

• Organizations seeking the expertise and objectivity of outside consultants.

Our Internal Audit Solutions?

ThePractice's internal audit solutions can be as broad in scope as your audit committee, board or management wishes. You may want to:

• Outsource only specific internal audit projects, allowing your internal staff to concntrate on the areas they know best. 

• Co-source the internal audit where we work with your organization to develop an overall plan to address its priorities, and your internal staff implements the plan with our assistance.

• Outsource the entire internal audit function. This approach allows management to focus on core competencies while ThePractice applies its audit expertise to your organization's needs.

Our Internal Audit Approach?

Whether you outsource or co-source the internal audit function to ThePractice , we take a risk based approach to ensure that your resources are focussed on areas that requires the most attention. Our approach aims to:

• Identify the risk-prone areas and develop a risk profile for the organization

• Develop a tailored internal audit plan that focuses on the identified risk

• Communicate directly and frequently with the audit committee and your liaison

• Attend periodic review meetings, including audit committee meetings

• Formally document and report our findings

• Recommend improvements related to our findings

• Use client personnel where possible to reduce costs and improve efficiency, where the service is co-sourced

• Coordinate with external auditors to the extent they rely on internal audit findings.

Our Internal Audit Activities?

Our internal audit activities are varied and include:

• Verification of financial data

• Performing agreed upon procedures

• Evaluation of, and reporting on the effectiveness of procedures and controls

• Regulatory compliance reviews

• Follow-up on significant findings from previous audits

• Special audits at the request of  management

• Review of all operational areas for their stewardship of resources and compliance with established policies and procedures

• Review of internal administrative and accounting controls designed to safeguard resources and ensure compliance with laws and regulations

• Participation in manual and automated system design as an internal controls advisor

• Preparation of accounting and other procedures manuals

• Training of the organization's accounting and internal audit staff

• Review of the effectiveness of the internal audit function within the organization

How we achieve Quality

• We clear terms of reference for each assignment
• We determine the core skills required and assign the right staff to the assignment 
• We carefully vet all new staff prior to engagement
• An audit manager ensures the achievement of objectives and the quality of the audit report and working papers, or other deliverables 
• We use customer satisfaction questionnaires 
• We speedily address client concerns
• Establishing accountability and quality control standards
• Identifying sources of ongoing support and training for Internal Audit staff

How you Benefit

• Management has more time to focus on growing the organization while we focus on ensuring that procedures and controls are effective

• Reduce potential prohibitive cost of hiring, training and retaining skilled internal audit staff

• Benefit from the expertise and objectivity of outside consultants

• Our documented risk profile allows management to focus on areas requiring most attention

• Management will be kept up to date with the key risks facing the organization?

• Our objective, independent review of the effectiveness of the organization's internal audit function enables the audit committee to better organize this function for the benefit of the organization. 

Call ThePractice at (876)-927-4592 or (876) 927-4593 or email us at info@thepractice-jm.com for information about our Internal Audit Services Today.

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Send mail to info@thepractice-jm.com  or call us at (876)-927-4592 or (876)-927-4593 for a free consultation.
Last modified: January 08, 2011