Should I outsource my internal audit?

by Business Setupservices Business Setup Services

An internal auditor is an accounting professional who looks through a company’s financial transactions to see if their internal controls are within regulation, in particular their risk management procedures. They are usually individuals hired as full-time staff by the company.

 

Sometimes, a company will outsource their internal auditing to an external provider. In cases where the company is small and does not have the resources to hire an auditor full-time, outsourcing it to a professional and experienced auditor can be very efficient and beneficial.

 

With any business activity, getting auditing outsourced services comes with its pros and cons. Here are some of them:

 

Advantages:

•  Outsourcing a company’s internal audit means that they are hiring someone will have professionals with years of industry experience conducting your audit. It is even more valuable if that auditing team has been outsourced to companies in the same industry as yours.
  

• Since there is no need to hire a full-time auditor, you can be flexible with the outsourced auditor in terms of how you hire them.
  

• Auditors who are outsourced will provide a completely objective evaluation and report. As they do not have any personal attachment to the company, they are influenced by the company and are extremely independent in performing their services.
  

• It is more time and cost-effective to outsource your internal audit than to train your existing accounting staff for the auditor role.
  

 

Disadvantages:

• An external auditor does not know about the company’s culture or how it operates.
  

• If there are full-time internal auditors in the company, there may be confusion over certain responsibilities between both sides.
  

• For smaller companies, the cost of outsourcing the internal audit may be too costly, especially if they choose to hire them regularly.
  

 

 

Whether you choose to outsource your internal audit to an external provider or not, the most important factor to consider is if hiring them ultimately added value to your company.

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Created on Nov 23rd 2018 01:06. Viewed 483 times.

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