Checked against the official source:
The internal audit plan determines where the function’s limited resources will be spent. Drawn up as a formality — “one department per quarter” — it will almost certainly cover everything except the areas where risk is genuinely high.
Who approves and oversees
- in a joint-stock company the internal audit service reports to the supervisory board (Article 108 of the Law on Joint-Stock Companies);
- the supervisory board hears the service’s reports quarterly — so it is convenient to build the plan by quarter;
- objects by law: the executive body, branches, reliability of accounting and reporting, safeguarding of assets.
Sample annual plan
- Q1 — annual financial statements and stock count;
- Q2 — procurement and contracts with related parties;
- Q3 — branches and warehouse;
- Q4 — payroll and HR procedures, monitoring of remediation of findings.
How the plan is built
- A list is made of processes and objects that could in principle be audited
- Each is assessed by the likelihood of problems and the scale of possible losses
- Priority goes to combinations of high likelihood and high cost of error
- When the object was last audited and what was found are taken into account
- Time is reserved for unplanned audits — usually a significant share of the annual resource
Who approves the plan
The plan is approved by the body to which the function reports — the owner, the supervisory board or the audit committee. Approval of the plan by management, which is itself the subject of audits, strips the function of independence already at the planning stage.
Draw up an audit plan
We will help carry out a risk assessment and build the annual internal audit plan.
Go to the service: Voluntary auditFrequently asked questions
How detailed should the plan be?
A list of audits with approximate timing and the rationale for priorities is enough. A detailed programme is developed before each specific audit.
How often does the internal audit service report in a joint-stock company?
The supervisory board hears its reports quarterly (Law on Joint-Stock Companies).
Sources
- Закон «Об акционерных обществах и защите прав акционеров» — ст. 108, 109
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