3 Questions to Consider Before Implementing the New Standards In January 2024, the Global Internal Audit Standards (the IIA’s Standards) were updated after a long consultation process. While the updated standards are not expected to have a dramatic impact on IA...

This template provides an easy guide for assessing your Board and Committee minutes aligned with best practices. It’s a useful template for internal control, internal audit, finance, or governance professionals. While it’s not meant to be a comprehensive guide of everything required for Board oversight, meeting, and minutes practices, it is a great resource for assessing Board and Committee minutes through the filter of an internal audit professional.

Do people in your organization worry about saying too much, too little, or the wrong thing?  I can guess the answer is yes. The risks of disclosure (and nondisclosure) are intensifying with the rise of new regulations regarding what we say and how and when we say it....

As we gear up for a strong Q4, everywhere we go we hear people talking about interest rates, inflation, layoffs, and the economic risks ahead. We’re seeing delays and even decreases in spending on projects, training, and benefits. People are trying to figure out how...

A fish can’t survive if the water it’s living in is dirty. The same goes for your control environment. Your controls can only thrive in the right environment.  Ten years ago, the approach to achieving that “right environment” shifted with the concept of Entity Level...

“Design” is the foundation of internal controls — from how you structure financial processes, controls, testing, and your program. But it is likely the most untapped and misunderstood aspect of your internal controls program too. Effective design is where your team’s...

Whether you call them policies, standards, or guidelines, rules are everywhere in our organizations. We have rules for how we hire, train, take time off, buy things, and do our work. We have rules for our employees, our vendors, our partners, and even our customers....

When technology works, it works fabulously well. At its best, technology can lead to true, measurable “transformation” of our processes and how we work. For example, at a recent presentation, I heard a project manager explain a system he implemented that changed the...

Is “Risk Avoidance” Really “Risk Management”? A quick google search gives you the definition of risk management as being about “mitigating” risk. This is how, in practice, risk management most often works in the corporate world. It is rare to see a Risk Manager say,...

In the world of Internal Controls or GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance), there is tons more value we can extract from documentation and processes, but too many people leave that value on the table. And that’s where the topic of minutes comes in. They are obviously...