Certainly, 2020 will go down as the “Year of Covid,” when a pandemic disrupted our personal and professional lives as no other force we have seen in most of our lifetimes. From an internal audit perspective, it meant scrambling to help the organizations we work for stay on their feet and adapt to a set of rapidly changing circumstances, even as we dealt with the pressures of working from home, providing input on how to help keep our employees and customers safe, and caring for those affected by the virus.
The Coronavirus Crisis brought a host of challenges to internal audit shops, but not insurmountable ones. Among the top problems to solve was figuring out how to do the job remotely. It’s not surprising then, that a few of the articles on our list of the top internal audit articles of 2020 cover remote auditing and how to continue to do the job through the disruptions created by the pandemic.
Another important topic we covered in 2020 was change management. If there is a silver lining in the pandemic for internal audit, it could be that it forced us to super-charge our risk assessment processes and embrace rapid change as a constant. On this topic, internal audit and risk management guru Norman Marks had what is among my favorite and fitting quotes of the year: “Carrying on as normal is unacceptable,” he wrote in a blog post on managing through the pandemic. “What was identified as the top risk when you did your audit planning and risk assessment—what you are auditing as your read this—is almost certainly not the top risk today.”
There was a lot to digest, from remote auditing to crisis management and disaster recovery, to figuring out how to develop internal audit skills among team members in a virtual-only environment and the following articles hopefully shed some light on these trends and developments.
While 2020 was far from an ordinary year, it wasn’t all coronavirus all the time. There were some developments that built on themes from prior years, such as the continuing challenge for internal audit to up its technology game. The pandemic undoubtedly increased the difficulty level in this area, but leading-edge internal audit departments worked to overcome those hurdles, but there is more work to be done. As IA 360° contributor Chris Dogas asks in one of this year’s most-read articles: “Why does internal audit still lag in adopting cutting edge data analytics capabilities?”
Our top article—by far I might add—wasn’t even related to the pandemic. In this article by Hal Garyn we look at why traditional audit reports no longer cut it in communicating audit findings to stakeholders. Look for how we communicate the important results of our work to conitue to be a central theme in 2021.
These questions and trends are well reflected in the top articles of 2020 from Internal Audit 360°. These are the internal audit articles that garnered the most attention—and page views—from readers in the past year and are listed below.
As we look forward into 2021, these underlying trends will continue to challenge and shape internal audit in the coming year. Lets hope that the vaccination push will help us put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, but it’s likely that the changes it predicated could stick around for awhile, such as working remotely, communicating digitally, and a decline in travel. It’s also possible that lingering effects on the economy could present new challenges in the coming year.
We at Internal Audit 360° look forward to covering these critical issues and continuing the discussion on how internal audit can excel and make great contributions to the overall success of the organization.
Top Internal Audit Articles of 2020
1) Death of the Audit Report: It’s Time to Reconsider How to Convey Internal Audit Findings
Does anyone really enjoy any aspect of internal audit reports? Raise your virtual hand if you like drafting them, editing them, issuing them, or even reading them? It is likely there are very few, if any, hands raised. Anyone who has authored, edited, or received an audit report would probably say they do not look forward to the process—and many would even say they despise it. So why do we issue audit reports? READ ON…
2) Auditing at Home: Addressing the Challenges of a Remote Internal Audit Workforce
One of the things we will all remember long after the Coronavirus Crisis is over—apart from the horrible loss of life, of course—is the extended period of everyone working from home. We’ll remember the kids and pets making appearances on Zoom calls, scoping out the items on everyone’s bookshelves in the background, and Dave from IT’s funky pajamas. READ ON…
3) Internal Audit’s New Action Plan During (and After) COVID-19
As the COVID-19 crisis unfurled, I was rapidly confronted by clients’ requests to rethink the scope and approach of our internal audit activities for the coming months—and beyond. Many questions had to be answered quickly: Which audits are still relevant? Which audits should we postpone? Which audits are mandatory? How can we possibly perform audits with a completely remote internal audit staff? What are the new risks? And how do we prepare for the aftermath and the post-coronavirus business environment? READ ON…
4) Internal Audit Still Lags in the Use of Data Analytics
With so much uncertainty and disarray, corporate boards and senior executives are looking to internal audit to deliver robust assurance and advisory services to help quickly identify emerging risks and to share valuable insights learned from internal audits. To accomplish those objectives, internal audit has to make better use data analytics to elevate its role as a leader in risk management and assurance. READ ON…
5) Building Internal Audit Skills in a Virtual World
Developing the skills of the internal audit team is critical to executing the audit plan and contributing to auditor satisfaction. Simply put, audit staff development is good business. COVID-19 has complicated this process by constraining communication and the availability of traditional training outlets, such as live classroom learning and in-person conferences and seminars. Nonetheless, internal audit leaders must continue to prioritize team development. READ ON…
Achieving Success in 2021
We at Internal Audit 360° will have much more to say on these issues and many other internal audit topics in 2021, and we look forward to bringing you more articles, more internal audit news, and more coverage of the internal audit profession in the coming year. Have a wonderful year ahead, and we wish you much success in your internal audit pursuits.
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Thank You! Here’s to a happy, healthy, and successful 2021!
Joseph McCafferty is editor & publisher of Internal Audit 360°