What are the most effective ways for management to use internal audit?
Corporate officers need to understand the key risks their company faces and work with internal audit to determine how best to mitigate them. They need to understand internal audit’s role as primary support for management’s assertion on internal control over financial reporting and safeguarding of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition. Can a company use its external auditor to perform internal audit work? Recent SEC regulations prohibit companies from hiring out internal audit work to their external auditor, although there are certain exceptions where a limited amount of internal audit work can be performed by an external auditor—for example, internal audit work is permitted if it won’t be relied on as part of the external audit.
