TeamMate Audit and Assurance Industry Articles

Conducting NIST Audits using the NIST AI Risk Management Framework as a guide is essential for organizations developing or using AI emerging technology.

Many organizations recognize that reporting on social and environmental issues is not only good business but enables them to better identify potential risks and growth opportunities.

This article will cover the basics of ESG greenwashing risk, provide examples of greenwashing, and offer possible controls organizations could implement to mitigate the risk of greenwashing ESG objectives.

Can internal auditors do anything to reduce cyber fraud risk? Learn how taking steps like reviewing internal controls and using data analytics tools can help.

In this overview, you'll learn about the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, FedRAMP, and GovRAMP (formerly StateRAMP), for stronger cybersecurity control environments.

Unlocking the potential value of data in your organization requires thoughtful data risk management. Have you added a data audit to your plan?

Recent bank failures will undoubtedly result in more stringent bank audits from regulators. Internal Audit can prepare their organizations by reviewing three key areas.

Read about the most important audit techniques, including employing the right audit products to improve controls.

Find out the most important internal auditor skills, including empowering internal audit managers and clear functional accountability.

Read on to learn more about how internal audit teams can play an important oversight role in third-party risk management for ESG vendors.

ESG fraud risk must be on every internal audit team’s radar. Learn how your internal audit team can contribute to ESG fraud risk management assurance.

Find out the most used ESG frameworks in internal audit and learn more about ESG reporting's impact on the audit workflow.

Discover the key characteristics of high-performance internal audit teams, including stakeholder management strategies that contribute to success.

This article covers the most important audit skills that lead to high-level internal audit performance in this article series.

Being prepared for and assessing risk plays a major role in the internal audit process. Here are 5 tips to improve your current risk assessment process.

How do internal audit and risk management work together? Learn how to communicate risk and improve collaboration with stakeholders.

Discover how 20 years of SOX audits can prepare internal auditors for ESG audits. Learn more in our article about the similarities between both.

GovRAMP (formerly StateRAMP) provides an immediate solution to universities through its shared services and standardized verification model of cloud-based software.

This 3rd and final part of our series on auditing culture focuses on the final 5 tips and concludes the analysis.

From identifying cultural levers to assessing alignment and key processes, part 2 of this 3-part series on conducting a cultural audit is now available.

To improve internal auditing at banks, consider these best practices, be aware of emerging risks, and understand the shifting regulatory environment. Continue reading to learn more.

In this first article of a three-part series, we review the holistic approach needed to successfully conduct a cultural audit in your organization.

Integrating data analytics into your organization’s internal audit process improves overall efficiencies and mitigates risk.

How can internal auditors provide oversight of their organizations’ cryptocurrency and blockchain usage? This overview will help get you started.

The growth of cloud technologies can help businesses gain flexibility and productivity, but internal audit teams still need to provide oversight. See how.

Internal auditors can help their organizations vet third-party vendors, making sure that proper due diligence and continued oversight is in place.

Data security is critical, and the adoption of a secure cloud solution is the way of the future for the public sector. FedRAMP plays a key role.

Some governance risks are broad in nature. Others, very narrow. This article addresses the main governance risks that should be considered.

The social element of ESG is often viewed from several perspectives to ensure all risks are captured and completely understood.

In this article, we will drill down on Environmental risk and explore how internal audit can have an impact by focusing on key risks.

Internal audit teams in the UK, as well as external auditors, face new reforms. Take a look at three things you should know about UK SOX.

State and local governments can use GovRAMP (formerly StateRAMP) to find cloud service providers that meet cybersecurity standards. See how this program differs from FedRAMP.

Emerging tech like robotic process automation (RPA) can help internal auditors and financial services firms increase efficiency. See how RPA can be used.

Conducting internal audit risk assessments can help governments identify and stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn how you can build a stronger plan.

As business environments become more complex, auditors must anticipate and focus closely on new and emerging varieties of risk.

What types of inflation risks should internal audit focus on? From budget risks to employee and customer retention challenges, there’s a lot to examine.

What can internal auditors do to reduce ransomware risk? Learn how taking steps like conducting IT audits and leveraging internal audit management software helps.

Audit risk management processes and daily auditor actions must be completely aligned on every project every day.

Auditors in IA, government and public accounting assurance positions are considered risk experts. But are they focusing on the right risks?

How can internal audit teams incorporate ESG risk management and ESG compliance into audit plans? Here, we explore how to get started.

Using internal audit analytics is an excellent way for an audit team to identify risks and strengthen its overall audit methodology.

Purchasing internal audit software? Consider several factors beyond just pricing, such as data and analytics capabilities and reporting features.

The focus of this article is how being agile-minded helps reduce operational friction and enables smoother audit delivery.

Continuous risk assessment can help internal audit teams in several ways, such as staying on top of new risks and improving collaboration.

Federal agencies can use FedRAMP to easily find secure cloud solutions that can help protect against cybersecurity threats and address other IT audit findings.

Many internal audit teams have struggled to find people with IT audit expertise for several years and are under increasing pressure to use more technology in their audits. New developments in technology, from AI to blockchain, adds to their concerns.

Auditors need to be accountable for delivering value (assessment of risks aligned with strategic imperatives), but require value in return (input, information, access) from their auditees, business leaders, and other stakeholders.

I am so excited about this evening! After a long wait, I am going to the new James Bond 007 movie, No Time to Die! I am making it a big deal. A group of 12 of us are going to the nice Silverspot Cinema that is amazing, with an incredible lounge area.

Discover how internal audit's role in ESG reporting can streamline your reporting process. Find out more in our article.

Over the last few years, the use of data analytics activity in Internal Audit function has exploded. The advances we have seen in the collection and storage of data, alongside the development of...

Some of the best agile auditing examples include using agile frameworks to prioritize risk, improve stakeholder engagement and streamline workflows.

This series of articles has consistently argued that internal audit functions that deliver the highest value and help protect their organisations from damaging control failures are those that continue to innovate and adapt how they work.

Defining the specific internal audit initiatives on which you should target your finite change time, effort, and budget.

Delivering an audit that has the potential to be many months of work in small iterations, one- or two-week timeboxes or sprints, is a game-changer for many audit departments. Here’s why.

In order to successfully target your finite resources on changes that will really turn the performance dial and move you closer to achieving your Internal Audit Purpose, you need to develop clear functional outcomes.

Using an agile audit framework can benefit internal audit teams that want to be able to adapt audit plans based on current risks and business priorities.

How to be successful in making changes to your internal audit function and through this change how you go about auditing the business.

To improve management’s and the board audit committee’s receptiveness to internal audit presentation topics, aim for clarity and efficiency with audit reports.

Five points to consider if you are just starting or considering where to focus next with a robust analytics program

Agile audit methodology allows internal audit teams to increase efficiency, improve focus, foster greater collaboration, promote meaningful communication, and become more responsive to the needs of management and the board.

I recently spoke with an auditor who was lamenting about his organization hiring a team of consultants to evaluate how well a business unit was addressing internal audit process changes needed to better solve a set of client problems.

Being more agile-minded will help you capitalize on the collective skill and capabilities of your department – and help you become a better leader.

You are not alone. Eighty-eight percent of audit teams are either in the process or plan to make analytics a part of every audit, according to TeamMate Audit Benchmark.

Being agile is to be adaptive, responsive, and nimble. It’s often said that being agile is the difference between being a huge super-tanker and a small speedboat when it comes to changing direction or course correction.

The choice of which tool to use can sometimes be bewildering, but TeamMate Audit Benchmark found that the Audit teams with the most penetration of data analytics are those that are leveraging multiple different tools.

The pandemic has impacted every industry, every region, and nearly every profession. Safety regulations and requirements implemented by governments worldwide, and organizations’ desire to protect their staff, suppliers, distributors, and customers.

The term Data Analytics is a generic term that means the analysis of data. Hence the term gets used within the world of auditing in many ways.

Data analytics are about one thing—extracting actionable intelligence and valuable insights from data to provide stakeholders with a deeper understanding of their business. By capitalizing on the wealth of data organizations have available, Internal Audit can provide greater assurance across the three lines of defense and position themselves as a trusted partner.

Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, create and communicate data as information.

“Where there is data smoke, there is business fire” warned Thomas C. Redman in his book Data Driven yet only half of audit teams are performing data analytics on every audit, according to Wolters Kluwer’s TeamMate Audit Benchmark

Almost all global organizations utilize digital tools and strategies to make data-driven decisions.

Many organizations around the world reject even the thought of changing the status quo or getting out of their established routines, moving to continuous risk assessment is a change worth making.

So, you have selected your Audit Management solution and now it is time to implement. What’s next?

Software developers take advantage of product usage information to enhance performance and make quick software changes to maximize utilization. These capabilities aren’t limited to just software developers, though.

Audit teams, both large and small, often cite talent shortage as the primary deterrent when filling open positions. Every candidate has a unique set of skills, and unfortunately, we may have pass up a person with a great resume if we are trying to hire to fill a specific need in our department.

Communication skills are always ranked among the most important skills for auditors, and working remotely really puts our communication skills to the test.

Doesn’t it seem that the term “data-driven” is getting tossed around quite a bit these days? You’re probably even seeing and hearing the term “data-driven audits”. So, what does “data-driven audit” mean?

Are we setting the right goals within internal audit? Will the achievement of these goals help us evolve in an age where the pace of change is staggering?

In the past eight years, I have worked with more than 500 audit departments. Most of the people I talk to every day are looking for a solution to their unique requirements.

All expense policies have their own nuances, but there are some simple tests that we should include in every T&E audit analytics program.

In most audit departments, some individuals are great examples of what not to do. Let's look at some bad habits in audit and how to avoid them.

We can plot people on a continuum based on their understanding of risk versus their willingness to accept risk. Learn how internal audit can work better with management.

The risk coverage map serves as both a responsibility chart as well as a way to demonstrate to management which risks are getting the most attention by all aspects of the organization.