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/ Canadian Government Executive
// September 2016
Strategy
A Strategy to Drive
Internal Audit Analytics
Warren
McCay
Courtney
Brown
R
esponding to the growing demands for departments to gain greater insights
on their programs and operations using data, internal auditors are tasked to
find ways to apply data analytics to drive effective and efficient client consult-
ing and auditing. Audit that uses data to assess and identify risk, test controls
and report issues, adds value and provides extensive risk coverage and insights to ex-
ceptionally complex issues. When drawing a successful analytics roadmap, the ability
to navigate through vast quantities of data is essential.
Analytics Maturity and Strategy
The most important first step is to formalize a strategy.
Understanding the current state (see Figure 1), documenting the strategy and trans-
lating the strategy into an actionable roadmap are critical steps to a robust analytics
initiative. Applying a program-level approach to identify, plan and manage analytics can
promote a client/internal audit partnership and help enhance relevant reporting and
monitoring practices. The goal is to bring analysis closer to decision-makers.
The task of raising the profile and momentum of the analytics strategy can include
conducting one or two analytics-enabled pilots to serve as a proof of concept. For in-
stance, focusing on “low hanging fruit”, such as accounts payable or time and expense
reporting will facilitate momentum.
Improving the level of data quality can lead to a smoother start of the pilot project.
The following steps can ensure that data quality can be enhanced:
• put external reports into usable formats for analysis and extract relevant information;
• sort, attribute and aggregate data; and
• identify inter-relationships and data outliers.
Figure 1