Day 1: Internal Audit Purpose and Functional Independence

Standards and Internal Audit Position

• Connect internal audit purpose with value
• Define independence objectivity and conduct requirements
• Clarify board responsibility for audit authorization
• Analyze a situation threatening auditor independence

Audit Strategy and Audit Universe

• Inventory auditable entities, systems, themes
• Link audit universe with strategic risks
• Identify elements emerging or disappearing annually
• Construct audit universe for sample organization

Risk Assessment for Audit Planning

• Use risk, performance, change, control information
• Avoid relying on risk score alone
• Include recency, significance, prior coverage
• Rank audit topics against explicit priorities

Day 2: Annual Planning, Resources, and Coordination

Building the Risk-Based Plan

• Select engagements addressing most assurance gaps
• Balance desired coverage with team capacity
• Reserve capacity for risks and urgency
• Draft annual plan suitable for adjustment

Competencies and Resources

• Identify expertise for different engagement types
• Use specialist support for subject depth
• Allocate time across execution, supervision, quality
• Estimate resources for an audit portfolio

Coordination with Other Assurance Providers

• Use others’ work by its reliability
• Avoid redundant compliance and control testing
• Identify themes requiring deeper independent coverage
• Develop coordination map for audit plan

Day 3: Engagement Planning and Test Design

Preliminary Engagement Assessment

• Gather process objective and risk information
• Identify stakeholders and expectations for engagement
• Review initial design of critical controls
• Frame testable audit hypotheses

Objectives, Scope, and Criteria

• Connect engagement objectives with relevant risks
• Set organizational time and system boundaries
• Select appropriate criteria for judging conditions
• Draft a concise engagement planning memorandum

Work Program and Sampling

• Translate risks into defined audit procedures
• Choose sampling approaches for test purpose
• Specify expected evidence before testing begins
• Build work program for operational area

Day 4: Evidence, Analysis, and Findings

Quality of Audit Evidence

• Evaluate relevance reliability and sufficiency
• Balance interviews, documents, observation, data
• Document evidence sources and conclusion pathways
• Review a weak audit working-paper file

Cause and Consequence Analysis

• Separate symptoms from recurrence causes
• Estimate effects on objectives and exposure
• Avoid overstating risk without sufficient evidence
• Build a condition-criteria-cause-consequence chain

Finding and Recommendation Writing

• State findings clearly without accusatory language
• Connect recommendations with causes over symptoms
• Discuss solutions without taking management ownership
• Edit audit observation into actionable finding

Day 5: Communication, Quality, and Follow-Up

Communication Throughout the Engagement

• Lead opening meeting that clarifies expectations
• Raise issues before late surprises
• Resolve disagreement through evidence and criteria
• Role-play closing meeting for sensitive issue

Reporting and Rating

• Prioritize messages by significance and decision
• Apply ratings consistent with function’s methodology
• Include positive results when to conclusion
• Prepare executive summary for audit report

Follow-Up and Quality Assurance

• Track management commitments and closure evidence
• Reopen action when risk remains unresolved
• Use quality reviews to improve auditing
• Simulate follow-up after overdue action date

• Applications aligned with the effective Global Internal Audit Standards
• Engagement-planning, work-program, and working-paper exercises
• Cases involving conflicting evidence and professional judgment
• Opening, closing, and follow-up meeting simulations