Dubai: Guide for Conducting Virtual Internal Audits

As COVID-19 goes on, companies in Dubai and UAE continue to go digital. Internal audit firms in Dubai experts offer their advice on conducting successful remote internal audits. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased existing threats and created new risk factors that organizations need to assess. Business leaders need additional assurance that adequate oversight, capabilities, controls, and monitoring are in place. An option is an internal audit.

Travel restrictions in some parts of the world make remote work more difficult. Digitalization is proving to be an excellent tool for internal audit firms in UAE. They can now see the benefits of faster, more involved stakeholder participation and centralized reporting.

Many internal audit compliance and risk teams are now using remote audits to make their work more efficient and more accessible than they could on-site Digital due diligence comes with its challenges. These are four great tips to help internal audit service UAE teams to maximize digital due diligence.

Continue To Reassess Priorities

Certified internal audit in Dubai, UAE teams should assess quarterly or as often as necessary how the pandemic affected your internal audit plan. Given the importance of social distancing and PPE, do you need to pay more attention to internal safety protocols? Do employees who work remotely need cybersecurity and network redundancy?

Audits should reflect current business practices. Every month, week, and even day can be different as the pandemic progresses. You should review and adjust your annual audit plan to adapt to market and business conditions. Your team and key stakeholders must agree on the most critical and urgent risks. This will allow you to focus your attention on areas and procedures that best protect your company.

Invest In Tools to Foster Collaboration and Connectedness

An audit is a team-driven function that relies on relationships. It is more challenging to collaborate and communicate with colleagues and owners of processes when working remotely. Videoconferencing allows auditors to share screen-sharing, record meetings, and use whiteboard capabilities. This eliminates distance barriers and enables them to review documents and procedures in real-time, just like in person.

These tools can also help internal audit services in Dubai and other financial statement users recognize visual cues, often observed live during interviews. Face-to-face meetings with auditors are an essential part of the auditing process.

Internal Auditors Should Be Set Up For Success

Remote audits can be complex without much preparation and expectation setting. Remote audits can make it more challenging to get the documentation or testing data you need when the people involved are not in the exact location. If internal audit companies in Dubai and audit teams cannot simply walk up and ask, it can make finding the people an entity needs more challenging.

Start by guiding how to work remotely. Make sure all parties and auditors are aware of the process. This should include expectations and turnaround times and what they should discuss before and after the meetings. Let auditees know your priorities in the audit to allow for time for preparation. Inform them about the specific documents they will require and the topics covered in the meeting.

Suppress Manual Processes And Spreadsheets

Today, many teams use spreadsheets to plan, track, and capture audit activity. These spreadsheets can be stored on different internal network drives. This was not recommended before COVID as it was ineffective for virtual audits. Audit teams in Dubai and UAE need a central place to track compliance and progress and compare results with previous audit scores. They also need to hold people accountable for their actions.

Investing in the right technology will allow assurance and audit teams to use a consistent audit process, reduce the risk of missing issues, and improve their response to the constantly changing pandemic risk landscape. Cloud-based automation systems provide a central repository of all audit-related information that can be easily shared. This eliminates the need for manual searching.

Professionals in audit and assurance can be confident that the most recent data is used to make sound decisions, not on old files and emails. They can assign tasks to colleagues, remind them of important dates, and give them reminders so that nothing gets lost. These tools offer advanced analytics and visual representations that allow for the automation of audits. This will enable teams to focus on creating audit strategies and saving time.

Virtual internal audits are likely to be available long-term, just like permanent remote work for many employees following COVID. It is possible to improve visibility for the auditor function among senior leaders regardless of whether it's on-site or remote. By quickly and accurately assessing the effectiveness of governance and compliance, internal audits can play a strategic role in achieving and promoting the company's overall risk management goals.

Choosing A Reliable Internal Audit Services UAE – Internal Audit Firms in Dubai

Audit firms in Dubai is a leading provider of client-centric auditing services across the UAE, find out more about our services on our website.

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