To effectively address top business concerns and manage key risks in 2025, internal audit executives must develop (or re-evaluate) their comprehensive risk-based audit plan. This requires a deep understanding of the business and a proactive approach to risk management, considering factors like inflation, macroeconomic volatility, and cybersecurity. By aligning audit activities with leadership priorities, organizations can navigate uncertainties and maintain strong risk management frameworks.

Historically, audit leaders have relied on control-focused methods, but internal audits are evolving to address more of today’s dynamic risks. However, as businesses expand and integrate new technologies, a risk-centric perspective is essential, and auditors must now consider important emerging trends such as:

  • Technological advancements: The rapid adoption of new technologies necessitates evaluating their security and efficiency, including cybersecurity measures and the impact of digital transformation on business processes, data integrity, reliability, and privacy.
  • New risk management priorities: Proactively identifying and managing risks demands a comprehensive understanding of potential threats and the developing strategies to mitigate them. Alignment across enterprise risk, internal audit, technology, and business process owners has never been more essential.
  • Talent and organizational issues: The effectiveness of an audit plan depends on the staffing, skills, and competencies of the audit team. Investing in training and development is crucial to addressing complex risks and identifying and addressing skills and capacity gaps is a key focus for internal audit leaders.
  • Evolving market conditions: Economic fluctuations, regulatory changes, and market trends can impact business operations. Audit plans must be flexible to adapt to these changes. Responsiveness and value-added insights for key business changes are key priorities for high-performing audit teams.

To ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of this year’s audit, be sure to focus on the following key areas:

1. Understand Your Business & Associated Risks

Building an effective audit plan requires a comprehensive risk assessment. This involves identifying all potential risks across the entire organization, regardless of likelihood. A thorough understanding of the business and its industry context is crucial to align audit objectives with strategic goals and ensure the audit plan addresses key areas of .

It is important to continuously refresh your understanding of how your business operates to help in identifying relevant risks. Understanding the industry context is also essential to aligning audit objectives with business goals. It ensures that, when you’re building an audit plan, you will be able to concentrate on the key driving factors and prioritize the risks that effect you the most.  This step connects the audit plan with strategic business objectives and will also help identify possible audit execution pitfalls and create efficiencies through improved focus.

2. Engage Stakeholders

Establish open communication with stakeholders so that everyone understands how audits align with business goals and potential risks. Clear communication sets objectives and expectations, fostering collaboration and support. Stakeholder input can be a significant benefit when building an audit plan, as it ensures the plan is comprehensive and practical. It also builds trust and transparency while meeting the needs of your organization.

3. Build an Effective Risk Profile Involving Audit Leadership

Assess the likelihood and impact of identified risks to create a risk profile. This prioritizes risks, guiding resource allocation and ensuring focus on critical areas. Regularly update the profile to reflect changing internal and external factors, including political, technological, legal, and economic shifts. Leverage technology to streamline the audit process and enhance efficiency. Collaborate with the audit committee and senior management to establish a hierarchy of risks, prioritizing high-impact areas for effective resource allocation and targeted audit coverage.

4. Develop & Implement Alternative Audit Plans

Develop alternative audit plans based on risk assessment results, ensuring flexibility to adapt to changing conditions. Implement practical plans with sufficient resources and timely fieldwork. Reclassify risks based on testing results to improve audit outcomes. Regularly measure and demonstrate audit outcomes to stakeholders, showcasing the value of the audit process.

How Calvetti Ferguson Works with Internal Audit Teams

We can also help with the execution and cost of your audit plan by identifying and addressing skills gaps required to perform your audits and creating efficiencies in all phases of the audit timeline by providing experience and expertise where and when you need it. Specifically, but not limited to, our team provides the following services:

  • Outsourced and co-sourced internal audit: Acting as the internal audit function or assisting the internal audit function in performing risk assessments, audit planning, testing and execution, reporting, and governance.
  • Risk assessment and planning: Reviewing or preparing enterprise risk assessments on key business, economic, operational, financial, and compliance risks affecting the company.
  • Internal audit scoping and optimization: Assisting internal audit directors in assessing the completeness and appropriateness of the scope of internal audit activities and specific target areas. Identifying opportunities for efficiency or rationalization of effort and elimination of duplication.
  • Audit improvement, rationalization, and efficiency: Assisting in evaluating the population of key controls identified relative to the risk assessment and design/operating effectiveness of the population of controls. The objective is to simplify and streamline the population of key controls and attributes identified to improve focus and efficiency.
  • Governance & oversight assessments: Reviewing board meeting materials and minutes, conducting interviews with board of directors and executives to evaluate the effectiveness of board of directors meetings, promoting the effective challenge and oversight of management, and enhancing the board of directors impact.

Contact Our Team

We partner with companies, private equity firms, and family offices to provide bespoke solutions to address their complex accounting, tax, risk, and advisory needs. Complete the form below, and a team member will contact you within one business day to discuss your specific needs.