Internal and external auditors have an incredibly complex job of digging into processes to look for risks and ways to improve, but the people they are auditing are not typically excited to have their faults pointed out! Few, if any, business units, companies, or people ever say, “I hope we get audited.”
Alas, the life of an auditor is to delve into processes with a somewhat reluctant audience. In some cases, the group being audited actually attempts to make things more cumbersome! Either way, auditors end up with hundreds of reports, Excel extracts, databases, and access to systems that need to be analyzed to find anomalies, fraud, errors, omissions, and other potential issues.
Audits can take hundreds of hours with teams sifting through data at a snail’s pace in Excel. As with every area of the business, the amount of data to audit is constantly growing, and businesses want to audit faster and more often. Many organizations are instituting continuous audit programs that make manual processes nearly impossible to manage.
Most external audit firms have embraced automation technologies to add value to clients and keep up with the competition. The external audit landscape is highly competitive, and staying ahead of the competition is imperative. If you are an external auditor without data analytics expertise, let’s discuss how we can help you to do more with less.
Internal audit teams come in many shapes and sizes. Some have massive technical arms that support them and provide tools for analytics and automation. Many, however, are resource-strapped groups with high expectations and limited funding. Automation tools that help perform faster audits could be a lifeline that enables your team to exceed expectations.
In audit, data will continue to pour in, and it will be up to auditors to analyze it for risks. Auditors who have strong skills with data, analytics, reporting, and automation will be extremely valuable. Teams who embrace automation and digital transformation will be the benchmark for auditing teams globally. Let us show you how an Alteryx analytics audit can make a difference!