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15–3 Recommend Business Process Improvements to Business Units
about business improvements. However, this shift in emphasis means that the tra-
ditional task of reviewing controls will be done much less frequently.
An alternative is to shift some of the controls review burden to the business
units themselves. Though this may seem like a case of having the fox guard the
henhouse, the internal audit department can still monitor business unit results at a
high level to see if general operational and financial performance measures indi-
cate a problem, and then send in a team to conduct a thorough review. In most
cases, there are no serious control breakdowns, so audit tasks with lower-risk pro-
files can be safely assigned to business unit employees. By doing so, there is
greater likelihood of audits being conducted on a regular basis, and by people
who are thoroughly familiar at a detailed level with business processes, which
may result in better audit work.
To make this shift of responsibilities a success, the internal audit department
should construct a series of self-audit guides for the business units. These guides
should briefly explain a control objective, note how specific controls are used
within a process to meet that objective, and then lay out detailed auditing steps
for employees to follow. The level of detail in these guides should be sufficient
for employees without audit training to understand what they are doing and why
it is important. The guides should be short, concise, and targeted only at specific
audit objectives. Also, they must avoid any accounting language that might be
confusing to a nonaccountant. When creating a self-audit guide, be sure to test it
on a nonaccountant to see where points of confusion arise, so that any problems
can be eliminated before the guide is released for general use. Though a great
deal of work is required to create an effective self-audit guide, the effort
expended will be more than offset by the eventual reduction in control review
work by the audit staff.
Cost: Installation time:

15–3 RECOMMEND BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS
TO BUSINESS UNITS

The traditional function of the internal auditor has been to diligently root through
a business unit’s processes, looking for control weaknesses or evidence of fraud.
If anything was found, it cast the business unit manager in a poor light. Given this
sequence of events, it should be no surprise that internal auditors are not usually
welcomed by joyous crowds of auditees.
A much better approach is to mix the chore of control reviews with making
suggestions to the business unit managers for process improvements. The internal
auditor is in an ideal position to do this, having an expert knowledge of business
processes, as well as a comparative knowledge of how the same processes are
handled in other parts of the company. Indeed, the internal auditor can be consid-
ered a walking encyclopedia of control process best practices. By shifting to a