Internal Audit
Leverage industry-specialized internal audit services for organizational success.
Internal Audit
Proactively address emerging risks. Streamline your internal audit processes. Improve the efficiency and resiliency of your organization’s internal controls. Strengthen your internal audit function. That’s the goal — but where do you start?
To succeed, you cannot take the well-worn, expected path
Baker Tilly internal audit professionals help you embrace a forward-focused, industry-fluent approach — enabling your board of directors, audit committee and senior leadership to prioritize resiliency and growth efforts while minimizing disruption. As your organization faces diminishing resources and staffing challenges, Baker Tilly serves as a value-added extension of your internal audit capabilities. We help you identify and mitigate risks, optimize your business processes, ensure effective internal controls and help you perform quality assurance reviews.
How do you expand the focus of your internal auditors to include risks at the strategic, operational, financial, social and organizational levels? Should you adopt agile auditing principles and methods to enhance your organization’s current internal audit procedures? Do you need to augment your in-house internal audit team, or seek a solution through co-sourced/outsourced internal audit services?
When charting your path forward in the world of internal audit, questions abound. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone. Baker Tilly has successfully navigated this landscape with sound strategies, proven processes and effective recommendations designed to further your organization’s strategic objectives.
Internal audit hot topics
In today’s complex risk landscape, internal audit provides critical assurance and insights, helping organizations identify vulnerabilities and enhance their risk management strategies.
AI risks
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers significant opportunities for innovation and efficiency but also presents notable risks, including biases in decision-making, data privacy concerns and potential security vulnerabilities. It's crucial for organizations to implement robust governance and risk management practices and ethical guidelines — and stay ahead of regulatory requirements to mitigate these risks and ensure responsible AI deployment.
Data analytics
Maximizing the use of data analytics can be indispensable for an organization, allowing internal audit to be faster, more flexible and more strategic in its risk assessment practices. Effective use of data analytics incorporates emerging internal and external risks around which an organization may need to adjust its audit plans. Data analytics further supports internal audit to focus and refocus work as risk effects shift, so that an organization’s limited time and resources can be directed toward the biggest, most strategic risks.
Data governance
Data governance is essential to ensure the accuracy, security and proper use of data within an organization — which becomes even more critical with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). In addition to establishing clear policies and procedures, organizations need robust data management practices, regular audits and continuous monitoring to ensure data quality and compliance. Effective data governance enables organizations to maintain data integrity, enhance decision-making and foster trust — ultimately driving better business outcomes and innovation.
Emerging risks and disruption
As organizations continue to grow, balancing efficiency, sustainability and scalability with controls has proven to be an important emerging risk. Excessive controls and policies can hinder growth, presenting internal auditors in expanding organizations with the challenge of balancing continuous risk monitoring with the pursuit of new processes, opportunities, and technologies to support and drive growth.
Co-sourcing/outsourcing
An organization’s internal audit function is key to ensuring that strategic risks are appropriately managed and mitigated. The combination of external forces (e.g., a complex regulatory environment, rapidly evolving technology and increasing cyber threats) and internal forces (e.g., increasing demands from organization leaders and skill gaps) should compel leaders to investigate working with a co-sourced or outsourced internal audit partner.
Third-party risk management
Effective third-party risk management (TPRM) requires close collaboration between risk management and business functions to identify, assess and mitigate risks associated with external vendors and partners. Well-executed TPRM helps business leaders understand how third parties can increase profitability while ensuring resilience against new and unexpected challenges and drive compliance.
IIA Standards
On Jan. 9, 2024, the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) released updated Global Internal Audit Standards that will go into effect in January 2025. The Standards will bring about significant changes — including increased focus on how internal audit serves the public interest, clarifications to the role of the board and new requirements for quality assurance and improvement programs.
With five domains, 15 principles and 52 standards in total, it’s no longer a question of if these changes will impact organizations — but rather how and when.
ESG auditing
The cross-functional nature and shared responsibility of managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) within an organization can be complex. Fortunately, internal audit is uniquely positioned to partner with various teams to support development of an ESG strategy based on data requests from key stakeholders. Internal audit’s experience with assessing risk, identifying processes, understanding reporting requirements, and a keen awareness of an organization’s goals and strategies will be beneficial to an organization as they embark on their ESG journey.
Guiding insights
Our strategic alliances
AuditBoard
Together, Baker Tilly and AuditBoard provide clients with a solution that augments the transformation and optimization of their financial management, risk and compliance functions. The pairing combines deep advisory experience and insight with advanced audit technology to enhance GRC management. Read the press release.
In this episode of Agents of Change, Heather Acker, risk advisory managing partner, and Richard Chambers, senior internal audit advisor at AuditBoard, share their perspectives on internal audit and the future of the profession.
Workiva
Baker Tilly and Workiva create value-driven offerings to transform and optimize an organization’s governance, risk and compliance (GRC) functions and support their ESG journeys with enhanced reporting insights. Through our alliance, Baker Tilly and Workiva can help organizations streamline risk management processes and compliance reporting within a cloud-based platform. Read the press release.
Solutions
Leverage industry-specialized IT audit professionals to enhance and protect organizational value.
Environmental, Social & Governance Services
Let’s build a sustainable future now, for tomorrow. Learn more about our industry-focused ESG program advisory and assurance capabilities.
Internal audit solutions for state and local governments
Baker Tilly internal audit specialists help state and local governments, including public utilities, school districts and special districts, navigate the risk landscape and maintain independence in governance. From risk-based internal audit plans and internal control reviews to enterprise risk management and fraud investigations, let's go there, together.
Internal audit risk assessments and annual audit planning in public sector entities
Baker Tilly internal audit risk assessment and planning recommendations. Schedule a free consultation today!
Utility University: Finding operational efficiencies with internal audits
Session three of Baker Tilly’s Utility University webinar series focused on benefits of a utility having an internal audit function.
Tribal government conducts enterprise wide risk assessment to develop annual internal audit plan
A large tribal government needed assistance in developing a best-in-class internal audit function to improve internal controls, governance and overall operations.
All the Queen’s Horses, an illuminating look at government fraud
All the Queen's Horses, a film documenting the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history, offers takeaways for every governmental entity to strengthen internal controls and detect and prevent fraud.
Daniel A. Hedden
Dan Hedden is a principal with Baker Tilly’s public sector practice.
Agile internal audit
What does it mean to be "agile" in internal audit?
It’s about adopting agile principles in internal audit, and nurturing a people-centric culture that operates in rapid learning, flexible planning and execution, and fast decision cycles enabled by technology and common purpose to create and add value to stakeholders.
Our professionals
