Article
Proactive assurance FAQ: Key benefits and leading practices
Jan. 16, 2025 · Authored by Benjamin Quigley, Kelsey Renner, John Romano, Matt Reierson
Proactive assurance helps organizations continuously monitor and address risks before they become critical issues. This FAQ provides insights into the key components, benefits and leading practices of proactive assurance, ensuring your business stays ahead of the curve and compliant with ever-changing regulations.
Particularly valuable in dynamic and high-stakes environments, proactive assurance is an internal audit approach that utilizes ongoing, real-time monitoring and assessment to focus on risk identification and mitigation in the planning stages of strategic initiatives. By addressing risks early, organizations can minimize disruptions, build resilient processes, ensure alignment with long-term goals and enable immediate corrective action to maintain both system integrity and business continuity.
Proactive assurance assesses alignment between partners, identifies potential risks and ensures both parties have compatible control mechanisms. This preemptive alignment fosters mutual trust and confidence while actively mitigating risks of non-compliance, operational inefficiencies and reputational damage Through the early detection of vulnerabilities, optimized system performance, strengthened compliance and improved decision-making, proactive assurance provides critically enhanced capabilities to manage risk efficiently.
What are the top strategies for implementing effective proactive assurance?
- Early involvement of internal audit: Integrate internal audit in the initial stages of strategic projects to identify risks related to governance, compliance and operational fit.
- Risk-driven focus: Prioritize areas with the highest potential impact (regulatory compliance, data security, reputational risks, etc.) and create targeted controls.
- Collaboration across functions: Engage stakeholders from IT, finance, operations and legal teams to provide comprehensive insights into potential risks.
- Use of data analytics: Employ data analytics to provide real-time monitoring of key metrics.
- Continuous feedback loops: Establish regular check-ins and reviews to maintain alignment with project goals, allowing for adaptive responses to new insights and evolving risks. .
- Documentation and knowledge sharing: Record insights, controls and recommended actions to create a knowledge base that supports future projects.
