Automating Controls: How to Transform and Optimize Your Internal Audit Missions

Digital Transformation in the Service of Internal Audit

In today's fast-paced environment, where digitalization and AI are reshaping the risk landscape, internal audit automation has become essential. Auditors can no longer afford to simply verify static data months after events occur. Instead, they need to anticipate anomalies and adapt swiftly to ever-changing business realities.

The push toward automated control testing is not without challenges. Difficulty accessing data is cited as the number one obstacle to overcome – 69% of audit functions believe they do not have easy access to appropriate data, which significantly hampers their analyses. According to this Deloitte study on internal audit innovation, this is followed by a lack of technical skills and poor quality of available data.

Resource constraints continue to plague the industry, with 68% of internal auditors reporting that staffing shortages have compromised audit quality—leading to delayed engagements, scaled-back testing, and other compromises. When you factor in the explosion of data volumes and the ever-tightening regulatory landscape, it's clear that traditional audit approaches are hitting the wall in terms of both effectiveness and coverage.

Faced with these constraints, continuous auditing technology combining data analysis, process mining, artificial intelligence, and automated control testing presents a pragmatic solution. These technologies are capable of transforming often time-consuming processes into agile, value-creating missions that deliver real-time insights.

Three Major Benefits of Internal Audit Automation

1. Optimized Annual Audit Planning Based on Predictive Risk Analysis

Every Internal Audit Department establishes its program, priorities, and objectives each year. This initial phase, based on the organization's risk assessment, is one that can greatly benefit from implementing automation.

• Hardwire controls to your risk map: Each automated control can be directly linked to specific risks in your mapping and enhanced with real-time Key Risk Indicators (KRIs). This creates a dynamic dashboard that gives you the up-to-the-minute insights needed for smart, informed decision-making.
• Establish correlations between theoretical risk levels and actual anomalies: Automatically collected data allows verification of whether initially assessed risk levels correspond to anomalies actually detected in processes, thus enabling collaboration with risk managers on prioritizing flows to evaluate.
• Adopt a "risk-based" approach for prioritization: Automated comparative analysis of data from different entities allows for establishing an objective ranking based on risks, facilitating mission prioritization and optimal allocation of audit resources.

Practical example with Eye2Scan:

An Internal Audit Department supervising around fifty subsidiaries can quickly prioritize its missions using Eye2Scan. The solution centralizes and standardizes data from all entities – regardless of their ERP – allowing for precise ranking by risk level and by activity flow (purchasing, sales, treasury).

Thanks to direct access to ERP data and pre-programmed controls, the auditor directs their annual plan toward risk areas flagged by anomalies listed in the tool that feeds their KRIs. This consolidated view of the mapping and actual anomalies transforms mission planning into a risk-based and data-centered process, making the approach more objective and effective.

2. Efficient Audit Preparation Through Early Access to Data

What could be more frustrating than starting an audit mission without having all the necessary data? Or wasting precious time searching for files in emails or folders? Or waiting for the IT team or on-site operational staff to provide the required information? Quick and centralized access to data is essential for effectively preparing an audit mission and optimizing time spent on site. Automation radically transforms this preparatory phase by enabling:

• Preparation focused on investigation rather than collection: Thanks to an automation tool directly connected to the ERP and accessible to all process owners according to strict governance, the auditor can devote more time to qualitative analysis of the audit mission and less to manual information collection or time-consuming data analysis.
• Leveraging artificial intelligence algorithms for data processing: Modern audit automation AI allows going even further and identifying complex patterns or anomalies that are difficult to detect manually. A pre-analysis that reveals thousands of anomalies can be more specific thanks to a combination with AI controls, in addition to allowing a significant volume of analyzed data. According to ISACA's IT Audit Benchmarking Survey, the cycle time of an audit could be reduced by more than half through effective automation technologies.
• Centralization of information and supporting documents: Automation can also involve repetitive tasks. For example, anomalies automatically detected by pre-programmed controls can automatically trigger alerts to process owners identified in the tool. These notifications invite them to answer questions or provide supporting documents. The automation platform thus becomes a unique repository that gathers all the data to be audited, questionnaires, and documents, facilitating collaboration between all stakeholders.
• Real-time monitoring of preparation progress: The auditor has an instant view of the progress of anomalies to be addressed. This transparency allows for quickly identifying missing elements and adjusting the preparation strategy accordingly.

Practical example with Eye2Scan:

During a Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) cycle audit, Eye2Scan significantly facilitates the preparation phase. Its library of pre-established controls, including antifraud and corruption controls, combined with artificial intelligence algorithms, allows for quickly identifying invoices with anomalies: unusual amounts, missing approvals, or atypical payment terms.

The auditor thus saves precious time in data processing - an advantage confirmed by 63% of professionals according to CIO-Online. By associating detected anomalies with qualitative information collected upstream, they can effectively refine their audit plan.

The solution also offers various sampling methods that comply with regulatory requirements. The auditor can thus determine their approach and strategy even before the on-site mission begins.

3. Continuous Control and Enhanced Post-Mission Follow-up

The impact of an audit mission is primarily measured by the effective implementation of recommendations. Automation through continuous control brings considerable value to ensure follow-up:

• Continuous monitoring of processes identified as risky: Rather than waiting for the next audit cycle, automation establishes regular monitoring by transforming recommendations into continuous controls, facilitating early detection of deviations.
• Objective evaluation of the impact of recommendations: Automated post-audit data analysis allows for verifying whether corrective actions have been properly implemented and measuring their actual effectiveness.
• Reinforcing credibility with management: The ability to demonstrate, with figures to support, the positive impact of audit missions significantly strengthens the position of internal audit within the organization.

Practical example with Eye2Scan:

As soon as the mission is completed, the auditor, in collaboration with internal control, uses Eye2Scan to easily transform key controls into continuous controls, ensuring follow-up by the second line of defense.

Additionally, six months after an audit mission that identified weaknesses in the purchase order validation process, the auditor can, thanks to the data available in Eye2Scan, create a comparative report showing the evolution of the compliance rate before/after implementation of the recommendations.

Centralized archiving of controls also facilitates presenting progress made to statutory auditors and management, thus strengthening the credibility of the audit department.

Eye2Scan: A Solution Specifically Designed to Optimize Internal Audit Missions

Eye2Scan distinguishes itself by its design specifically oriented toward the needs of internal auditors. Developed nearly 10 years ago by Franck-Yves Inglebert, with over 20 years of experience in the audit field, this platform precisely addresses the challenges:

• Direct access to ERP data: Connection in just a few weeks, eliminating dependency on IT teams for data extractions
• Multi-entity view: Ability to harmonize controls and compare results across different subsidiaries, business units, or countries – regardless of the ERPs used by these entities
• Ready-to-use and flexibility: Integrated library of pre-programmed controls covering the most frequent cycles (Accounting, P2P, O2C, R2R, Logistics, SOD) while allowing customization according to company specifics
• Methodological robustness: Full compliance with global regulatory requirements (including the French Sapin 2 anti-corruption law, U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, UK Bribery Act, and others) with sampling methodologies that satisfy the rigorous standards of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA)
• Ease of collaboration: Multilingual and intuitive interface allowing involvement of all stakeholders (unlimited number of users) while maintaining strict governance
• Secure archiving: Centralization of controls and supporting documents facilitating traceability and presentation to statutory auditors or regulators
  
  

Conclusion: Automated Control Testing - A Strategic Asset for Modern Internal Audit

Control automation isn't just another tech upgrade for internal audit shops—it's a game-changer. It transforms those traditionally labor-intensive audit engagements into nimble, value-driving processes. This evolution comes at a crucial time when audit departments are increasingly judged by hard metrics and expected to demonstrate concrete ROI, not just compliance checkboxes.

Internal audit departments that embrace continuous auditing technology will distinguish themselves by their ability to conduct more effective audit missions, provide more accurate risk assessments, deliver more impactful recommendations, and, ultimately, offer better protection against operational, financial, and regulatory risks.

To learn more about internal audit automation and discover how to optimize your audit missions with automated control testing, request a personalized demonstration of Eye2Scan today.