Internal auditing is conducted to ensure that the organization’s work procedures are sufficiently efficient and that its processes are properly carried out. This is done while adhering to several key principles, including internal inspection, segregation of duties, maintaining audit trails, working according to predefined rules and procedures known to the staff, and ensuring consistent application. These measures are intended to prevent fraud and irregularities within the organization. Unlike internal auditing, external auditing (financial statement audits), which results in audited financial statements, is legally required but does not necessarily uncover fraud or irregularities in the audited entity.
In large organizations, government-owned entities, or public corporations, there is a legal requirement for the establishment of audit committees and internal auditors responsible for performing internal audits. The audit committee sets the policies and strategies for the areas to be reviewed, while the internal auditor carries out the audit. Representatives from our firm often serve as members of audit committees on the boards of major organizations and perform internal audits as part of outsourced services for various entities.
Internal audits examine the organization’s internal processes, including financial management, bookkeeping practices, workflows, asset integrity and tracking, risk analysis, segregation of duties, role rotation, and audit trails.
In some cases, internal audits take on an investigative nature, known as forensic audits, which are conducted when there is reasonable suspicion of fraud or activities against the organization and its interests, or any form of irregularities. While internal auditing focuses on the overall efficiency of processes and work procedures, forensic auditing is goal-oriented, highly focused, and involves investigative elements.
Our firm, Michael Weizman & Co. – Certified Public Accountants, has extensive experience in conducting both internal and forensic audits for various entities, including business clients, cooperatives, non-profits, and government offices. This includes performing internal audits on large-scale, complex national projects carried out by a broad team of auditors over many work hours. Our firm is registered as a specialist in both internal and forensic auditing in the registry of the Accountant General (AG) at the Ministry of Finance.
Given the breadth of our auditing department, which includes certified accountants with academic degrees in economics, we can conduct multiple internal audits throughout the year, immediately and independently of the workload involved in routine financial statement audits performed by our department’s teams.
An accountant from our firm will be happy to assist you with this service. Contact us today for a no-obligation consultation.