Managing the Audit Function: A Corporate Audit Department Procedures Guide

As auditing shifts from an outsourced function to a cornerstone of internal control, audit directors need an updated manual that reflects the radical changes the internal audit profession recently experienced in order to establish efficient processes for conducting successful audits. Managing the Audit Function, Third Edition, provides a blueprint for the creation of an effective procedures manual for an internal audit department.

A new chapter defines internal control, risk assessment, control strategies, and malicious activities. This subject should be studied and understood not only by internal auditors but by all managers and board members as well. The recent developments with accounting irregularities demonstrated a clear need for an education on the complex subject of internal control.

By implementing the methods recommended in Cangemi and Singleton’s authoritative guide, auditors can play an integral role in improving overall corporate performance. Among other services, the Third Edition:

• Provides a discussion of what world-class audit departments are doing with Baldridge criteria, balanced scorecard, and other continuous improvement techniques
• Contains unique matrices that describe each component of the audit function in detail, from administration to performance to reporting
• Includes standards for information systems auditing
• Offers a discussion of quality assurance and marketing
• Delivers a new section on the internal control system, which includes models, tools, and techniques, that should be read by all senior management and board members

By following the manual, auditors can ensure that they are following the guidelines for internal control that both the Foreign Corrupt Services Act and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) require.

Each page of the manual has a heading consisting of a generic company name, title of the manual (Corporate Audit Department Procedures Manual, if appropriate), section number, revision number, and the date of the revision. The authors have written much of the text this way as a boilerplate that can be used to easily create a unique, modifiable, dynamic manual. In this shifting accounting landscape, effective auditing procedures are absolutely essential to appropriate internal control. Managing the Audit Function, Third Edition provides internal auditors the reliable resource they need.

Praise for Managing the Audit Function

"The corporate governance issues, accounting irregularities, and legislative actions that have taken place over the past two years have elevated the role and importance of the internal audit function. Managing the Audit Function provides a valuable guide and reference tool for those charged with either executing or overseeing this function."
–– Daniel S. Kaplan, Business Risk Services Partner
Ernst & Young LLP

"It was refreshing to read Internal Audit literature with the appropriate focus on information systems and information systems auditing, since computer systems play such a key role in the processing of accounting transactions and the performance of business operations in today’s business environment."
–– William J. Powers, Partner, National Director
Information Systems Assurance Services
BDO Seidman, LLP

"Cangemi and Singleton have created a knowledge management tool for the creation of quality audit manuals and functions. Managing the Audit Function is an important book for all audit managers, and with the addition of new and updated material, including information on the implications and requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, it provides the information to keep pace with changing conditions affecting the audit function."
–– Robert S. Roussey, Professor of Accounting
Leventhal School of Accounting, University of Southern California
International President, Information Systems Audit and Control Association

" This is basically a procedures manual for an internal auditing department that has been prepared by two of the world’s most knowledgeable IT auditors. The book is a handy tool because examples are given throughout of relevant audit documents, such as audit reports, responses to reports, responses to delinquent responses, matrices, checklists, and flowcharts. Every audit department should have this book as a reference manual."
–– Dale L. Flesher, PhD, CPA, CMA, CIA, CFE, CGFM
Professor of Accountancy and Associate Dean
University of Mississippi