If 2020 was the “Year of Covid,” 2021 will go down as a year of trying to return to normal. In many ways we did get back some semblance of normalcy, as kids returned to school, fans returned to sports venues, and shops and restaurants reopened. Yet, in many other ways things remained far from normal this year. Face coverings are still a common sight, many offices remain closed or mostly empty as remote work has become routine, and the Omicron variant continues to push case numbers up. It fair to wonder if we will ever really return to normal, or if we’ll just get used to the new realities of life in the age of COVID-19.
From an internal audit perspective, it meant continuing to improve on remote auditing and managing a team that is often not meeting face to face. Internal auditors scrambled to help the organizations they work for stay on their feet and adapt to a set of rapidly changing circumstances, such as vaccine mandates, supply-chain issues, and an evolving workforce.
As we look back on the top internal audit articles of 2021, we see many of these themes emerging in the articles that ranked the highest among you, our readers. Internal audit departments not only strived to get back to normal, they got back to the basics. One of the most popular articles asked how much advisory work should we be doing versus assurance work? It’s clear that internal auditors want to maximize their value in the organization. Another high-ranking article examined how to conduct root cause analysis and why it’s important to get to the bottom of what is the true cause of a problem in the organization. These are indications that internal audit leaders realize that to take on the challenges of an uncertain future, they must have their audit houses in order, and, to use a few more clichés, focus on blocking and tackling.
There was a lot to digest, from remote auditing to crisis management and disaster recovery, to figuring out how to develop internal audit skills among team members in a virtual-only environment and the following articles hopefully shed some light on these trends and developments.
While 2021 was far from an ordinary year, it wasn’t all coronavirus all the time. There were some developments that built on themes from prior years, such as the continuing challenge for internal audit to up its technology game. The pandemic undoubtedly increased the difficulty level in this area, but leading-edge internal audit departments worked to overcome those hurdles. Still, there is more work to be done. In fact, the most read article this year on internalaudit360.com was on how artificial intelligence can aid internal audit. In “Using Artificial Intelligence in Internal Audit: the Future Is Now,” author Karen Kroll covered the promise that AI offers to internal audit and the difficulties with actually adopting it.
These questions and trends are well reflected in the top articles of 2021 from Internal Audit 360°. These are the internal audit articles that garnered the most attention—and page views—from readers in the past year and are listed below.
As we look forward into 2022, these underlying trends will continue to challenge and shape internal audit in the coming year. Let’s hope that the vaccination push will help us put the pandemic in the rear-view mirror, but it’s likely that the changes it predicated could stick around for a while, such as working remotely, communicating digitally, and a decline in travel. It’s also possible that lingering effects on the economy could present new challenges in the coming year.
We at Internal Audit 360° look forward to covering these critical issues and continuing the discussion on how internal audit can excel and make great contributions to the overall success of the organization. We’d also like to take this opportunity, from our families to yours, to wish you a joyous holiday season, a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and a happy and safe New Year!
Top Internal Audit Articles of 2021:
1 Using Artificial Intelligence in Internal Audit: The Future is Now
With internal auditors increasingly pressured to boost the value they bring to their organizations, some are asking whether artificial intelligence (AI) may help them meet this goal. Artificial intelligence, which leverages algorithms to identify and understand patterns and anomalies within data sets, can help internal auditors more efficiently identify areas of risk and execute many other tasks at warp speed. READ ON >>
2 Assurance vs. Advisory Work: Is it Time to Rebalance?
Most internal audit functions spend somewhere between 80 and 100 percent of their time doing traditional internal audits, generally known as “assurance work.” Yet, many also do some level of advisory work, and aspire to do more. Many chief audit executives fret over how to allocate internal audit’s limited resources among these two activities. READ ON >>
3 Mistakes Rookie Internal Auditors Make and How to Fix Them
All human beings are creatures who change with their environment and circumstances, who hopefully grow and develop with experience, particularly their work experience. But all processionals have to start somewhere. We can probably all remember the early days of our careers as we fumbled and bumbled our way through the dos and don’ts, picking up tidbits of wisdom, and slowly learning the ropes. READ ON >>
4 Getting to the Bottom of It: Why Root Cause Analysis Is Vital
When you go to the doctor, do you want them to tell you what’s really wrong with you so that you can begin to treat the actual illness? Or are you content with that doctor only treating the symptoms, leaving the actual illness undiagnosed? Of course not. Well, issuing reportable conditions (audit findings) that do not address root cause isn’t much different. READ ON >>
5 How Internal Audit Can Strengthen Cost Management
The pandemic has confronted many managers with the need to consider some belt tightening. Indeed, many organizations have been forced to delay capital investments, reduce inventory levels, furlough and lay off workers, and conduct other cost-cutting activities over the last months, as they worked to make ends meet. Internal audit has a role to play in how companies conduct such measures. Several of my recent internal audit assignments, for example, have been related to the effective management of operating expenses. READ ON >>
Achieving Success in 2022
We at Internal Audit 360° will have much more to say on these issues and many other internal audit topics in 2022, and we look forward to bringing you more articles, more internal audit news, and more coverage of the internal audit profession in the coming year. Have a wonderful year ahead, and we wish you much success in your internal audit pursuits.
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Thank You! Here’s to a happy, healthy, and successful 2022!
Joseph McCafferty is editor & publisher of Internal Audit 360°