Skills for the New Internal Auditor


What you will gain from this seminar:

  • Understand everything a new internal auditor needs to know
  • Practice the most important audit skills while performing a simulated audit
Who should attend:
  • Auditors and compliance specialists with up to one year of experience
  • No prerequisites
_____________________________________________________________________

Three-Day Seminar Outline


Introduction
- Scope of internal audit activities
- Phases of a typical internal audit
- The discipline of internal auditing

Professional Standards
- The International Professional Practices Framework
- The definition of internal auditing
- Professional Standards
- Audit Simulation: prepare for and conduct opening meeting
- Exercises: Code of Ethics, risk assessment, sample CIA exam questions

Risk Assessment
- Using risk assessment in developing the annual audit plan
- Using risk assessment in performing audit projects

Interviewing Skills
- Elements of the interview
- Planning the interview
- Types of interview questions
- Guidelines for developing effective audit questions
- Opening, the interview
- Conducting, the interview
- Closing the interview
- Documenting and evaluating the interview

Personality Styles
- “I Speak Your Language” personality style questionnaire
- Characteristics associated with the styles
- Use in relating to audit customers
- Audit Simulation: prepare for and conduct information-gathering interview

Internal Control
- Analyzing internal controls:

  • Active vs. passive controls
  • Preventive, detective, directive, and mitigating controls
  • Other models for classifying and understanding controls
- Evaluating internal controls: The control loop
- Exercises: analyzing and evaluating internal control procedures
- The new definition of internal control: the COSO report
- Four evaluation tools: ICQ, Flowchart, Narrative, Risk/Control Matrix

Gathering Audit Evidence
- Purpose and methods
- Four types of audit evidence
- Rules of audit evidence
- Sampling
- Exercise: designing audit steps to gather meaningful audit evidence
- Audit Simulation: develop audit program steps
- Audit Simulation: perform fieldwork and prepare workpapers

Developing Audit Findings
- The five attribute approach to developing audit findings
- Form for developing and reporting audit findings
- Participative reporting
- Audit Simulation: developing audit findings from fieldwork performed

Reporting
- Exit conference: purpose and tips
- How to write clear, concise, constructive audit report comments

Five steps to becoming a great internal auditor