There is practically no business that runs without a risk. The risk will always be growing and throwing multiple challenges at you and audit is something that will help you keep at it and protect you from those possible risks, says Santhosh Nellayappan, Senior Vice President Product, Strategy & Innovations, Audit360.
“Today’s internal audit is something where breaking news comes to you something that has happened in your business citing something which happened six months to two years ago,” added Nellayappan.
Excerpts of his presentation at 7th NBFC100 Tech Summit, Chennai
The problem is the auditors, audit something in January and prepares a report, and by the time it presented to the audit committee it is October. So, does the risk go away at that time? The answer is no, it stays.
It keeps on adding problems to your business, be it the financial loss or regulatory action or loss of reputation.
Being able to complete the audit on real-time or near real-time is at the core of managing risk. It is high time that you take charge of the business risks by digitising internal audit.
The digital audit helps the auditors in capturing information in real-time basis, back their information with some kind of evidence. It brings authenticity to the audit. That is where we need to look at now.
What are the benefits of an internal digital audit?
- Mobile reporting
- Real-time reporting
- Dashboarding
You need to know which laws can hit you if don’t take action today. It tells where to focus on the action today. It adds a multidimensional checklist configurability of your audits into the platform. You will get 100 audit platforms but you have to check whether it is flexible enough for your platform. Does that platform allow you to embark on a journey where there is continuous digital improvement?
The digital journey is so fast because what we think is niche today becomes a bare necessity tomorrow.
Why digitalise internal audits?
Cost-saving is one of the areas why you would want to go for it. It brings efficiency after the end of every audit. The auditor is able to do more audits in less time. Therefore, you are able to save cost. We have never looked at the opportunity time that goes in resolving an audit issue. The time that is wasted in calling the person to get things done can be saved.
Any investor would want to put his money in an organisation where he is very sure the process of audit is happening in the most transparent way and the business is being protected by a very efficient audit team.
This confidence can be built only by a digital audit team. If you are asked..when do you speed up your car the most…the answer would range from drunk driving to several other reasons. But for a genuine person who isn’t drunk, over speeding of his car is directly indicated towards his faith and the excellent service of the brake system. This is how a digital internal audit works for an organisation.
