Читать книгу Beyond Audit - Robert L. Mainardi - Страница 13

You would be surprised how many auditors go into a meeting with a client without a meeting objective. As a thirty-year audit veteran, I will tell you there were times when I relied on my experience to carry me through meetings. Because I have been in hundreds and hundreds of meetings over my career, I would tell myself that I would just “shoot from the hip” and use my “vast” experiences to get through a meeting. What a mistake! As I got older and hopefully wiser, I discovered no amount of experience can replace understanding the meeting objective and being prepared to discuss and drive targeted questions to address the meeting objective. Keep in mind, the meeting objective is the purpose or reason you are having this meeting. Objective as a noun will always mean purpose. Put yourself in the business partner's shoes. They will be thinking, why does the auditor want to get together to discuss this topic? When you enter a client meeting and clearly understand the objective, you are focused, recognize the questions needed to effectively facilitate, can keep the meeting on track, and know when sufficient answers and evidence have been given to address the objective. If you enter a meeting without an objective or just with a list of questions, the meeting will feel disjointed, unorganized, and ultimately have a negative impact on the relationship. It relays a sense of unpreparedness to the meeting participants. You may have a list of questions to ask your business partner, but there is always a reason you are asking those same questions.

Starting the meeting by stating the specific objective creates that sense of purpose and communicates to your business partner the need for attending. Once the objective is clear, the discussion and questions that follow must link to the specific meeting objective that was explained at the beginning. This understanding of meeting purpose focuses the auditor and helps direct the conversation in a positive direction to the outcome. At the end of the meeting, there is a sense of conclusion for the information needed as well as completion for that part of the audit. That sense of accomplishment, even the smallest achievements, make a positive impact on your business partner as they see a focused audit team effectively using time to complete the tasks at hand. Additionally, the auditor and audit team project a confident, unified approach as they execute their audit methodology.

The second key is mastering the data. While mastering the data may seem like a simple concept, understanding its value is a must. No matter what the audit assignment or task is, most auditors do not take the necessary time to build their business knowledge. Let's be honest with each other. How many times have you been placed on an audit team but you never looked at the planning documentation to understand the business objective or reviewed the program to ensure you completely understand the section or steps you have been assigned? I will admit it. I have made that error. Auditors do not want to ask questions to other team members; there is a fear it will make them look “not smart.” News-flash – questions are one of the greatest tools for an auditor, whether the questions are internal to clarify an assignment, task, test step, or acronym or if it is a targeted question to the business owner. Auditors will not continue to learn unless they ask questions.

So let me get this straight: You are going to enter a business partner meeting without clearly understanding the process, testing, or data you are about to discuss (and question), and you think you will feel confident in that meeting? You think the business partner is going to believe that the audit team is there to provide guidance to assist them in doing their job (achieving the business objective) in the most efficient and effective manner with less rework? Not a chance. When it comes to the data, the auditor must not only understand the details of what information is being questioned (even when the meeting facilitator did not complete the testing in question), but also the source of where the data originated. Too many times, audit and client meetings get sidetracked because the auditor could not explain where the data in question came from.

One of the critical factors when it comes to mastering the data is to ensure and verify that the data source is pure. The best way to define pure when it comes to the data source is to validate that the data you have received from the client and are using in the testing is the complete, best source of data available. Complete means it contains all of the pertinent fields required to complete the business task. Also, verify the data is the most current and up to date available at that time for testing. Once you have confirmed the data source is pure, you can be confident when discussing the data there is no opportunity for the data to be discounted. Auditors must be aware that experienced business owners will respond to issues of potential exceptions or questionable business personnel actions by casting doubt on where the auditor got the data (the source). Do not be blindsided; make sure you have obtained the purest source of data available. The business owner might try to twist the data itself, but there is no hiding from data.

In every one of the meetings you have with the business owner, prepare effectively by confirming the meeting objective prior to the event and mastering the data. Then remember one additional key to effective meeting facilitation and relationship building with your business partner: Never try to defend the questions you are asking. When asking questions or clarifying potential exceptions with your business partner, always use the data to support (not defend) the specific questions being asked. The data will drive the support for your message and will always give you the confidence as you seek clarification for questions posed.

This book has been created based on the Beyond Audit methodology, which has been developed with communication as the foundation to support the learning and execution of internal audit activities from risk-based engagements through to the communication of results to business partners and committees. There are specific excerpts of the Beyond Audit methodology, techniques, and templates mentioned throughout as well as references to access on-demand videos and interviews (www.beyondaudit.org) illustrating critical concepts, techniques, and templates. As you proceed through the pages, there will be discussions of the skills and techniques to ensure the internal audit team can successfully navigate the ever-changing demands and requirements of remote auditing. Included in this remote environment lesson will be how the focused skillset has changed, marketing your revised audit approach, ensuring your audit team understands the internal audit mission and objective, and review of the methodology keys from objective identification to execution, reporting, and action plan adoption. Also, it includes new techniques to not only evaluate your department's efficiency but track audit's progress when it comes to key deliverables. As always, the book will wrap up with education, training, and development suggestions so you can create a high-performing, world-class audit team.