𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐯𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲

[Alkit Jain]

𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐯𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲

Most of us, at the start of our career as Internal Auditors, believe that the number of audit observations in the audit report will give more weight to the report. But, as the time goes by, we realise that it is actually the substance that matters in a bigger perspective. At the end of the day, We work for the Audit committee. If the observation is not substantial for them, it is as good as a clean report.

The point is not to persuade you to overlook small observations but, it is to shift your focus to place where you can find a more impactful one. The focus of the report should not be to get the reverts on points but to highlight the lapses in processes and as auditors, we should always look for those.

As a newcomer to the field, one should not relax upon finding a bunch of low hanging observations but to work hard on finding the substantial ones.

“𝑮𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕”

Discussion

[Shruti Bhatia]

Agree with this. We are here to bring the change that is in interest of the organisation. Therefore impactful issues would definitely catch an eye.

[Nikhil Chandran]

Agree.. This is something which should be highlighted to the new people in internal audit field right from the beginning.

Pareto based approach should be used while planning for the audit if there is a constraint of resources. 80% of the time should be invested in the critical areas ( identified based on initial risk assessment ) which forms 20% of the scope .