Internal audit

Do you really understand your risks?  

Effective internal audit can help you really understand the risks your business faces.  Put simply, if you understand your risks better, you make better informed decisions and business performance is enhanced.  That’s where Halex can help.  

Members of the Halex team have spent many years working with the internal audit functions of some of the UK’s leading businesses.  We know what really works and what doesn’t.  If you choose to use us, we will bring this accumulated knowledge and experience to your business, accelerating the development and effectiveness of your internal audit function.    

How else are we different?  Key differences between ‘traditional’ internal audit and Halex internal audit include:

• Halex adopts a robust risk based approach to focus scarce internal audit resources effectively.  Our aim is to maximise your assurance per pound spent.
• we will facilitate a risk workshop with your senior team every year to ensure we fully understand your business and where your risks lie.  Results from this workshop can also be used as part of your risk management process.

• we will not restrict ourselves to ‘tick & bash’ audits.  Expect scrutiny of all aspects of your business, including senior management activities and key executive decisions.  (Recent experience demonstrates that unconstrained / ill-informed executive decisions can wreck a business far more effectively than failing to do the bank rec on time.)
• we will report our findings in plain English (not auditor speak).  We will also provide you with clear recommendations that explain how to fix the problems we find.     

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Co-sourced internal audit services

Many businesses find maintaining an effective internal audit function a challenge.  Today there is increased business expectation that internal audit should have deep technical expertise in key areas of risk such as IT, project management and contract risk.  However, finding and retaining good internal auditors with the right blend of business and technical skills is difficult and expensive.  Also the need to provide career progression results in many internal auditors taking line management roles on a regular basis.

This is where our co-sourced internal audit service can help.  We can provide you with professionally qualified and experienced business and technical auditors as and when you require them.  You can use our auditors either on a project by project basis (perhaps for specific technical audits) or have them working in your function for a period of time.  Our aim is to provide maximum flexibility.  

The key benefits of co-sourcing your internal audit function are:

• access to deep technical skills as and when required, enhancing internal audit credibility
• the ability to ramp your internal audit resources up or down as the need arises
• use of motivated, professionally qualified internal audit resources
• less management time spent on recruitment and retention of audit staff
• you retain full management control of your internal audit function
• greater flexibility over annual internal audit expenditure

As part of establishing an effective working relationship with you we can help you with your annual audit planning, facilitation of risk workshops and development / refinement of internal audit methodologies and reporting templates.

Internal audit effectiveness

Under ‘International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing’ issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors, internal audit functions should have an external effectiveness assessment at least once every five years by a qualified, independent reviewer from outside the organisation.  Members of the Halex team are experienced in performing internal audit effectiveness assessments.  

Our preferred approach is to work with the Audit Committee, senior management and the Head of Internal Audit to agree an appropriate scope, assessment methodology and reporting format (written and/or formal presentation).  Subject to agreement of engagement scope and methodology, our work may include assessment of:

• IA effectiveness against the IIA’s IPPF (International Professional Practices Framework) and ICAEW guidance
• the IA function itself - for example, appropriateness of its structure, resourcing, reporting lines, etc
• internal audit risk assessment and annual planning processes
• internal auditing procedures, methodologies, tools and templates
• IA quality processes
• whether IA meets Audit Committee, senior management and key stakeholder expectations of performance and value

Throughout the course of any engagement we would seek to minimise disruption to internal audit operations while performing a rigorous review of IA effectiveness.   

Where appropriate, Halex can also assist you to implement changes to your internal audit function.  

Internal audit transformation

Transforming an internal audit function can be a challenging and time consuming task.  Consideration needs to be given to management structure and reporting lines, resourcing requirements, audit processes and methodologies, tools and templates - seeking to keep the best of the old while bringing in new ideas and ways of working.

We can help you to accelerate this process.  We can provide you with advice and guidance on the most effective IA structure for your organisation and how best to resource it.  We can also help you optimise your audit function through adoption of leading practice, such as the IIA’s IPPF (International Professional Practices Framework).       

Our approach is always to work closely with your Head of IA and senior management to establish what assurance expectations the business has before making recommendations for improvement.  Where relevant we can perform a gap analysis against best practice standards (such as the IPPF) to establish a baseline for measurement of improvement.     

A key element of our service is that you have complete control of the level of transformation you introduce.

Internal audit training

Members of the Halex team have spent many years coaching junior staff and delivering internal and professional development courses as part of their normal duties.  You can benefit from our years of experience through one of our specialist courses.  

Examples include:

• Internal Audit 101 - an introduction to basic internal audit concepts and good practices for junior internal audit staff, new hires and members of business management wanting to understand internal audit a little better.  This course includes content on the purpose of internal audit, auditor ethics and independence, an introduction to risk based auditing, planning and execution of fieldwork, testing & forms of evidence and effective report writing.  

• IT audit 101 - This course has been designed for auditors that wish to build a specialisation in IT audit.  It has been designed to give participants a sound understanding of common IT terminology, technology and concepts while ensuring participants understand basic IT audit practice.    

• Auditing general computer controls - a course designed for non-technical audit staff to give them the pre-requisite skills to understand and audit general computer controls.  

• Internal Audit for Managers - focusing on the different set of skills required to manage internal audit projects, including project scoping, planning, fieldwork management, file review, effective report writing and staff development skills.  

• Presentation skills - giving participants an introduction to the key elements of good presentation - voice, body and content.  This course aims to give participants confidence to stand in front of an audience and give a clear, informative presentation while avoiding ‘death by PowerPoint’.   

We are also able to deliver bespoke training for your internal audit team.