Internal Auditing: The 24/7 Approach

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At Harrah's, the heavier compliance crush is eased considerably by its ongoing project to achieve "continuous auditing." Definitions for that term vary widely; the Institute of Internal Auditors, for one, calls it "any method used by auditors to perform audit-related activities on a more continuous or continual basis." Increasingly, though, individual practitioners see the cutting edge as auditing 100% of data relating to transactions, processes, policies, or whatever else is to be audited, rather than reviewing small samplings at longer intervals, as many organizations still do.

System access is so important because of the potential for employee fraud. "It's not just the access to cash," she notes. "You have to have adequate access to systems to get everything to balance so the fraud does not pop out."