The Complete Guide to Choosing the Best Internal Audit Software

When buying an internal audit software solution, consider more than price. While budget is essential, deploying a tool merely for its price might lead to a lower-quality audit, which could cost more. If audit data is challenging to explain, stakeholders may overlook risks that might harm companies.

Strong software should simplify audit planning and make it easier to distribute audit results so that not only internal audits but also companies may act on audit findings.

When buying an internal audit software solution, compare systems across categories like:

• Data and analytics

Internal audit software solutions’ data and analytics capabilities are among its most crucial features. A strong audit management platform should streamline processes, such as data collection, by integrating with financial systems or other risk management tools via APIs. Additionally, it should include analytics capabilities for things like automated numerical analysis (like Benford’s testing) and displaying data to detect dangers. If not, you may not get much more out of it than if you used Excel.

• Collaboration

Auditing software must support interdepartmental cooperation in connection with data and analytics capabilities. Robust data connections with external systems may facilitate internal audit teams’ comprehension of other domains, such as information Security and regulatory compliance. Internal auditors may work more readily with these other groups to give unified assurance and a better audit process overall when everyone is on the same page data-wise.

• Security

The Security of the technology itself is a crucial factor to consider when selecting an internal audit software solution. Strong data and analytics skills are less useful if an internal auditor lacks trust in the system’s use of adequate Security standards since this might put sensitive data at risk. To satisfy their technological and Security needs, some businesses may also choose to host internal audit software on their own servers, while others may favor a cloud deployment.

• Reporting

Organizations could also consider audit analysis tool reporting. One thing to consider is the time and effort required to prepare audit reports, mainly if your internal audit team uses continuous risk assessment. Your audit results should be consumable to executives, boards, and external audit. These relate to data analytics capabilities that can visualize audit outcomes.

• Ease of use

Lastly, before purchasing, consider how simple it is to utilize any auditing program. Examining things like implementation time is one way to do this. You want to know how long it takes to set up a system, but you also want to know how long it will take internal audit personnel to get used to using the new tool. To that end, it’s sometimes important to consider the user experience and parallels to any current systems you use.

Additionally, depending on how well an audit analysis tool integrates with the current systems that a business uses, some may be simpler to use than others. Sharing data between the new auditing software and the best GRC tools may facilitate Collaboration on discoveries, risk identification, and internal control adjustments.

Check before purchasing.

By considering these five factors, you can maximize the platform’s return on investment and choose the best auditing software for your internal audit procedure.

Summary:

When buying internal audit software, consider more than just price to ensure high-quality audits, simplified audit planning, interdepartmental Collaboration, strong Security measures, and easy-to-use reporting capabilities.

Resource Box:

Laser GRC’s Audit Reporting System (LARS) is cutting-edge internal audit management software that simplifies audit procedures, improves efficiency, and enables real-time monitoring for thorough audits.