As part of the planning process, it is essential to understand if there has been any previous audit activity within this particular area. Understanding what activity has been performed previously will help us to better identify risks, areas for improvement and areas of focus.
Our review of prior audit activity should not be limited to just previous Internal Audit reviews, but also recommendation / action tracking status, results from the financial statement audit, any key control / SOC compliance reviews performed, and any other ad-hoc assurance gained during the year.
This activity forms part of a suit of planning activities which should be performed to make sure we fully understand the audit topic. Furthermore, by understanding previous audit activity, we can leverage from prior audits to gain some efficiencies in the process (i.e. re-confirming processes rather than starting from scratch). These efficiencies will allow us to better spend our time in other areas we consider there to be more risk, in turn, providing a more insightful and beneficial audit.
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