Managing the Audit Function

As auditing shifts from an outsourced function to a cornerstone of internal control, audit directors need an updated manual that reflects the radical changes the internal audit profession recently experienced in order to establish efficient processes for conducting successful audits. Managing the Audit Function, Third Edition, provides a blueprint for the creation of an effective procedures manual for an internal audit department.

A new chapter defines internal control, risk assessment, control strategies, and malicious activities. This subject should be studied and understood not only by internal auditors but by all managers and board members as well. The recent developments with accounting irregularities demonstrated a clear need for an education on the complex subject of internal control.

By implementing the methods recommended in Cangemi and Singleton¿s authoritative guide, auditors can play an integral role in improving overall corporate performance. Among other services, the Third Edition:

• Provides a discussion of what world class audit departments are doing with Baldridge criteria, balanced scorecard, and other continuous improvement techniques
• Contains unique matrices that describe each component of the audit function in detail, from administration to performance to reporting
• Includes standards for information systems auditing
• Offers a discussion of quality assurance and marketing
• Delivers a new section on the internal control system, which includes models, tools, and techniques, that should be read by all senior management and board members

By following the manual, auditors can ensure that they are following the guidelines for internal control that both the Foreign Corrupt Services Act and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) require. The authors also present a sample procedures manual on an available Web site:
www.wiley.com/go/audit manual.

Each page of the manual has a heading consisting of a generic company name, title of the manual (Corporate Audit Department Procedures Manual, if appropriate), section number, revision number, and the date of the revision. The authors have written much of the text this way as a boilerplate that can be used to easily create a unique, modifiable, dynamic manual. In this shifting accounting landscape, effective auditing procedures are absolutely essential to appropriate internal control. Managing the Audit Function, Third Edition provides internal auditors the reliable resource they need.