Internal Audit School - OAP301

CPE:32

Price: $2063.00

Overview

In this four-day seminar, students build on the fundamentals of modern internal auditing and practice how to conduct operational audits and develop audit programs for auditing business processes, including purchasing, contracting, vendor selection, marketing, sales, human resources, IT general controls, management, and accounting functions like accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory, payroll, treasury and fixed assets.

Who Should Attend

Internal and external auditors; risk and compliance managers; IT auditors who require a comprehensive approach to operational audits of core business functions

Prerequisites

• None

What You’ll Learn

You will learn how to apply the principles of internal auditing and what key review steps to perform, key questions to ask, and essential documents and data to review when examining a variety of business functions.

Objectives

Operational Auditing:

• the definition and meaning of internal auditing today
• essential elements for successful operational auditing
• the benefits of operational auditing
• important trends affecting operational auditing
• the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley, ERM and GRC

Components of Operational Audits:

• the phases of an operational audit
• the link between objectives, risks and controls in key functions
• the importance and uses of data
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Key Risk Indicators (KRI)
• identifying fraudulent practices
• IT considerations and integrated audits
• essential operational audit tools

Auditing the Purchasing Function:

• identifying key risks in the procurement function
• assessing governance, infrastructure, policies and procedures in the procurement function
• testing and monitoring vendor relationships, purchases and inventory management
• evaluating vendor relationships and the contracting process

Auditing the Marketing and Sales Function:

• examining the marketing function’s ability to achieve stated objectives
• evaluating relationships, advertising expenditures and sales activities
• assessing the effectiveness of the public relations and marketing functions
• auditing pricing and discount practices

Auditing the Human Resources Function:

• identifying the risks in the human resources function
• recruiting, staffing and training and development processes
• assessing employee compensation, benefits administration and succession planning
• the role of HR in corporate governance and promoting a healthy control environment
• examining employee relations, feedback and performance management

Auditing the Finance, Treasury and Accounting Functions:

• reviewing the finance, payroll, AP, AR, fixed assets and budgeting processes
• assessing treasury, strategic planning, bank accounts and systems integration
• identifying fraud indicators in financial reports
• using shared services as a control and efficiency mechanism

Auditing IT:

• IT objectives, risks and controls
• examining staffing, strategic planning and the infrastructure within your organization
• reviewing system access, data protection and backups, disaster recovery/business continuity and your SDLC
• evaluating the IT environment using COSO and COBIT

Auditing the Management Function:

• examining management tasks and measuring their performance and effectiveness
• enhancing the control environment through management pronouncements, examples and enforcement of policies
• helping management build strong corporate responsibility, ethics, risk management and strategic planning processes
• key considerations for communicating, preserving and changing the organization’s culture
• how internal auditors can act as control agents while preserving their independence and objectivity

The Future of Operational Auditing:

• automating controls and the use of continuous auditing
• helping management perform control self-assessments
• promoting continuous improvement and high quality as a means to improve internal controls
• identifying the best recommendations that lead to positive and sustained changes

Why You Should Attend

You should attend because you will learn and practice essential audit steps you should include in the review of many business functions, how to use data analytics, and how fraud is often perpetrated across multiple business functions.

ACI Learning is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.