Internal audit is a valuable process. Auditing can provide a clear, objective, and solid view of the financials and operations of a company. This type of internal auditing, which is manual and unbiased, is one of the most important checks an organization can have.
It’s just one part of modern auditors’ toolkit. Continued auditing is a data-analytics, complementary approach that can fill in some of the gaps left by a traditional internal audit.
Consequences and limitations of periodic, conventional audits
Conventional auditing can be very helpful but it is not perfect. Audit process are only able to provide a snapshot at a particular moment in time. This means that there may be new issues in the business that go unnoticed for months depending on how often you audit. Auditing is limited to analyzing a small number of transactions and other information. These data points may not be representative of the underlying issues.
Audits require a lot more manpower and are tedious. Audits are resource-intensive, which limits their frequency and depth. Auditing can be a lengthy process, sometimes lasting weeks or even months. These issues can be solved by continuous auditing. This automated, data-driven, rules-based approach addresses some of the shortcomings of traditional auditing.
This is achieved by using artificial intelligence, data science and advanced technology to accelerate the process. Continuous auditing improves the speed of identification and analysis of new issues, provides more coverage, reduces the number required to audit, and allows for changes to be detected over time.
Continuous auditing does not replace traditional auditing
Both traditional and continuous auditing can be seen as two sides of one coin. Continuous auditing should complement, not replace, existing auditing efforts. Continuous auditing can’t replace the judgement and discretion of a certified internal audit in Dubai specialist who understands processes and can think about the relationships between metrics, processes, and assessments.
Both continuous and traditional auditing are based on the deep business knowledge of an intern auditor. There are differences between continuous monitoring and continuous auditing Dubai entities can react to any risks that could affect its risk assessment or business processes, including data security. Continuous monitoring allows them to do continuous monitoring. Potential abuse and attacks can be detected by UAE firms before they occur, which helps to ensure data security compliance.
Continuous auditing allows internal audit firms in Dubai the ability to track every transaction and process within a business system. An internal auditor may now examine all transactions, not just a few. This gives them more information to support their compliance conclusions.
Read also : How Dubai entities can manage Internal Auditing cost effectiveness and performance
Continuous Audit Management Services has many benefits
Continuous auditing is a process that uses internal audit technology to review, identify and automate certain transactions. This technology can also be trained to provide data analytics, which ensures everything runs smoothly and tracks trends. It can also report outliers.
Continuous auditing is a way to build a culture within a company that monitors and ensures compliance with policies. Organizations can detect potential problems sooner by automating real-time reporting of critical information. Continuous auditing is based on internal audit technology. This technology allows for continuous data collection.
The organization’s state will be constantly monitored and feedback provided at all times. Data analysis quickly and in depth uncovers vital information, making it easy to know what is important. Instead of waiting until they become serious problems, internal audit services Dubai can identify potential risks and address them early.
Continuous auditing allows internal audit firms in UAE to review all of your data, including transactions and operations, which gives you a wider view. Continuous auditing, which provides a proactive view on the business’ operations, is a great way for managers to get more information that can be used to inform strategic decisions.
Using strong Internal Audit Technology is key to Continuous Auditing
This type of auditing is dependent on the best-in class software platforms. Continuous auditing systems can quickly gather, process, and analyze large quantities of data. This integration requires deep integration with data warehouses and transactional systems.
The continuous auditing technology must also include powerful dashboards, reporting and analytics that allow auditors and other business stakeholders easy understanding of the results. This type of internal auditing technology requires training and modeling using auditing rules.
There are ways to continuously audit the rules
There are many ways to train internal auditors technology for continuous audits. Auditors have the ability to use sophisticated algorithms outside of the box due to artificial intelligence and machine-learning.
It’s also possible to train your auditing platform using your own rules. You can modify inputs, data analysis, outputs, and reports. This will provide a high-level overview and enable you to drill down into the most important areas, identifying risks early and addressing them.
Internal audit specialists in Dubai refine continuous auditing in the following areas:
These checks can be used to find simple, binary answers. This will help you determine if your controls work correctly and ensure that transactions are processed in the correct way, both in the original system and when they are analyzed by internal audit technology.
Outliers
Auditors have the option to set threshold and baseline data points for inputs, outputs, and processing. This data will be analyzed by the platform and reported on any problematic transactions. This makes it easy to identify risks and issues and allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the reporting and the subsequent decisions.
Trends
No/Yes checks and outlier analyses only analyze isolated transactions. Trend analysis examines changes over time in the entire dataset. This allows you to identify patterns and show how small changes add up to something larger.
For more information about auditing, Contact Audit Firms in Dubai for assistance.
Kasun Liyanage is an Audit Manager with over 7 years of experience dealing with diversified corporate clients. He not only manages the team’s work schedule but also is an expert in handling audit areas such as external audits and fraud investigation, Internal control benchmarking and best practices and well as preparation of financial statements and IFRS compliance.
