Embark understands the plight of Internal Audit (IA). Tasked with keeping organizations on the straight and narrow without impeding growth and innovation, IA is an imminently important component of any enterprise, particularly when a company...

Tagged: internal audit, Robotic Process Automation, finance transformation

Sometimes things don’t go according to schedule or plans, and the world is better off because of it. Such is the case with the rise of blockchain technology and, perhaps as a surprise to its pioneers, its emergence as one of the most genuinely...

Tagged: internal audit, blockchain

This is a message to all of you internal auditors -- there are bad guys around every corner. They’ll steal your delicious turkey sandwich from the breakroom fridge, won’t hesitate to bust into your car and walk off with your airbags and, even...

Tagged: internal audit, cybersecurity

It’s a data-driven world, and we’re all just trying to live in it. Information seeps in from every cracked window and door, inundating us with facts and figures that sometimes are useful but usually just make eyes glaze over and thoughts drift to...

Tagged: internal audit

Icebergs wreak havoc in the North Atlantic. Opening an amusement park filled with genetically-cloned dinosaurs will always be a bad idea. And when a 25 foot Great White is spotted just offshore, it’s a good idea to close the beaches and always...

Tagged: internal audit

The mere mention of the word audit can make both individuals and companies try to ignore reality, just for very different reasons. Like taxpayers fearful of the "a" word and the harsh gaze of the IRS, many corporations are equally dreadful of the...

Tagged: internal audit, financial audit, audit partner

Any fan of horror movies knows that when the lights start to flicker in a secluded cabin on a lake, it's never due to the local utility company dealing with an easily fixable electrical glitch. Instead, there is either a supernatural demon at...

Tagged: internal audit, auditors, audit partner, controls

Like snowflakes and Pokémon, every audit is unique. Some of them come and go like the briefest of winter flurries while others are an arduous, life-draining exercise in perseverance like an episode of anime. No matter your preferred metaphor, the...

Tagged: internal audit, outsourcing

For internal auditors, the walkthrough is the lifeblood of the audit. Researching your company's processes helps inform decisions and ensure that management is all on the same page. Achieving an effective walkthrough, however, isn't always a walk...

Tagged: internal audit, process walkthrough

This is part of our Lessons from the Trenches series; our consultants pool their knowledge across decades of experience to share advice.

Tagged: internal audit