IS Audit Process

Audit Process

An audit can be termed as a formal check held out within the business or organisation. Audits are two types:

Internal Audit

It is conducted by the members of the same organisation in which the audit is to be conducted.

External Audit

It is conducted by any third party like supervisory agency or government agency.

Below are the six steps that are involved in the process of audit:

Document request: Before the audit, the documents are requested that are listed on a preliminary audit checklist by the auditor. It includes original bank statements, previous audit report, receipts and another required document. Also, the auditor may demand the organisational charts along with the copies of board and committee members.

Prepare Audit Plan

This step includes the planning of audit after all the required information is being collected. The problems can be identified by conducting risk workshops.

Schedule for open meeting

In this step, the audit objective is presented by the auditor. It includes involvement of senior management and key administrative staff members. The audit time frame audit is decided along with the issues related to scheduled vacations or something like that.

Conduct fieldwork

The information collected is then used for finalising the audit plan. Fieldwork is done through talking to staff members and going through the process and procedures of the organisation to examine them. Internal controls are estimated for making sure that they are satisfactory.

Draft Report

After the audit, the report is prepared that consists of the findings of the audit. The report may have posting issues, mathematical errors, payments authorized but never paid and similar other concerns in the organisation.

Set up closing meeting

After everything, the auditor then asks the response from management to identify if they toe the line or not with the problems in the report. In the closing meeting, all parties discuss the report and management responses. The issues are solved here.

IS audit process

An audit process covers the entire practice of procedures and methodologies of IS auditing that allows an IT auditor for performing the audit in a professional manner in or out the organisation.

The following are the five tasks within IT or IS audit process area:

Develop and deploy audit strategy based on risks for the organisation
Plan the audit in such a way that It and business systems are controlled effectively
The audit should be in accordance with the IS audit standard, guidelines and best practices
Communicate regarding the emerging issues, audit result and potential risk to key stakeholders
Advice managing the risk and controlling practice within the organisation