Internal Audit

Internal audit is a systematic, independent and documented process of obtaining evidence.

It is conducted to assess an organization's performance or the process execution against a set of standards, policies, or regulations.

The purpose of an internal audit is to find opportunities for improvement and if your organization is following procedures as mentioned in your policies and objectives.

When conducting an internal audit, you focus on verifying whether your organization is conforming to the requirements of ISO.

Internal audit also determines if activities within your organization conformed to its own documented procedures and instructions.

Internal auditors are trained and qualified members of your organization or an external consultant hired to perform effective internal audits.

Internal auditor and auditee need to work together to understand and identify processes that are not functioning/performing/potential risk as intended.

Internal auditors look beyond the implementation of the system, considering the practicality, procedure or process optimization at the minimum risk.

Internal auditors even hold management review meetings to report and involve leaders in quickly understanding the organization's current issues.




Seasoned and experienced auditors can identify common loopholes, misbehaviours and non-conformances based on the evidence presented.

These auditors will also share some best practices, recommending corrective or preventive actions that will create growth opportunities for business.

By the end of the fieldwork (audit), internal audit findings will be reported. You will then raise this report to management for review.

During the review, the board of directors, management team will sit together to discuss and decide the solution to resolve the findings.

As an Internal auditor, your main priority is to implement, maintain and improve your organization management system.

The duties conducted by the internal auditor include:

Risk, Management and Process assessment. This is the process to provide assessment of your overall organization processes, with a focus on effectiveness and efficiency.

Ensure compliance. To provide support and evaluate compliance to legal, regulatory, standard and ethical requirements.

Consultation. To provide advice, recommended practice to implement a specific standard. This involves quality assurance or policy writing, defining processes and procedures.

Improve the process. To execute changes for a better process and support continual improvement efforts based on data, facts and evidence.

As Internal auditors, you'll need to know exactly what records third-party auditors will be looking at, ensuring you are well-prepared.
Important Note: Everyone (in particular, Top Management) is aware and practising written procedures in accordance with the documented management system.

The type of documented information and how it is prepared is determined by your own organization as being necessary for the effectiveness of the standard.

Some general type of documented information includes:

1. Quality policies
2. Quality procedures
3. Work Instructions
4. Management review minutes
5. Forms and checklists
6. Risk analysis

There is no perfect number of auditors for the organization. The number of will depends on several things, including:

1. The size of the organization
2. The type of products and services produced
3. The risk of the procedure or industry involved

Most audits are conducted as a team. Some audits will require specific expertise in order to be effective. However, respective departments' employees with the relevant process and procedural knowledge can be capable of learning and becoming internal auditors.

The internal audit team should not be staffed with employees from only the quality department, auditors should be elected internally.

Selecting auditors from each department provides trained sets of abilities across the organization, to unofficially monitor for system failures throughout the year.

To successfully become a qualified internal auditor, the organization will need to send their employees to specific training courses.