OK I get it - It’s Internal Audit Month. But Here’s the Truth…

Hey Reader 👋

While some teams are printing posters and polishing their “audit awareness” campaigns…

Others are quietly building the skills that’ll define the next decade of audit.

👉 Audit is being rebuilt from the inside out.

👉 Data science is no longer a side hustle.

👉 And AI? It’s already changing the rules.

But the real story? Most professionals feel they’re being left behind.

If you’ve ever thought:

• “I should be doing more with data…”
• “I don’t know where to start with AI…”
• “I want to make a bigger impact, but not just with more checklists…”

Then this month isn’t about awareness.

It’s about action.

It’s about equipping the next wave - and that includes you, wherever you're starting from.

👤 I Know Excel - But I Still Feel Behind

I remember when Excel was my only tool (because having access to R and Python was a losing battle with IT - more of that struggle for another newsletter!). I knew how to test controls.

I could pivot-table my way out of anything.

But I wanted to carry out a 100% population testing and data was not enough...

But when asked for more data, “I hit a wall” - No response.

The business data team sat behind locked doors (sometimes literally).

Every new request came with a two-week SLA and a spreadsheet that made me question my will to live.

So I stopped asking.

Not because I gave up - but because I realised something:

💡 Use Case:

Let’s say you’re reviewing company card transactions for a period of 3 months.

You don’t need Python to start. You need structure.

Here’s what I’d do in Excel:

• Sort by employee → flag anyone spending above £500 more than twice in a week
• Create a quick bar chart of spend by merchant - look for spikes or one-off suppliers
• Add a “Risk Indicator” column and filter for things like “manual entry,” “missing description,” or “weekend usage”

That’s a pattern scanner. Built in minutes.

And if something looks strange? Now you’ve got a lead to investigate, not just a test to tick.

The takeaway:

You don’t need to boil the ocean.

You just need to start where risk reveals itself and build from there.

Boom! A risk lens across all transactions.

No sampling. No code. Just smart scoping with what’s already in front of you.

And if all you have is Excel - you can still change the game.

👨‍💼 I Know the Risk - But the Message Doesn’t Land

You know audit strategy cold. You've led walkthroughs in your sleep.

You’ve even opened Power BI, maybe built a dashboard or two. But making analytics systematic still feels like a side hustle.

I was you for years.

The turning point for me?

Realising that visual analytics isn’t just prettier reporting.

It’s storytelling - and if you can tell the story better, your findings stick.

💡 Try this:

Take your last audit finding - maybe a procurement control that failed. Build a visual showing how many exceptions occurred per supplier. Add a trend line.

Now ask your auditee:

“Can you guess which vendor has the highest exceptions?”

You’ve just built an insight they can’t ignore.

The takeaway:

Audit’s future leaders won’t just understand risk — they’ll communicate it visually, instantly, persuasively.

👩‍💻 3. If you’re technically sharp - But Don’t Know Where to Plug In

You know how to code. Python, R, SQL - you’ve got tools others dream of. But the moment someone asks, “Can you help with the audit plan?”, you feel like an outsider.

I know that tension:

Being overqualified in data but underexposed to audit nuance. The key isn’t learning more tools.

It’s learning where to plug in and here’s the bridge:

💡 Use case:

Imagine an audit around user access and segregation of duties (SoD).

Instead of reviewing 100 sampled roles manually, you pull system access logs and:

• Use Python to group users by privileged roles and transactional activity
• Identify users who both create vendors and approve payments
• Cross-check for roles that violate SoD matrices
• Flag exceptions for further review

Now you’re not just crunching logs.

You’re finding real exposure the audit team might miss in a sample - and connecting it to control design.

The takeaway:

Audit doesn’t need more dashboards. It needs people who can spot risk in the grey areas. Once you map your skills to real audit cycles - planning, testing, reporting - you’ll fly.

👔 I’m Leading the Change - But It Still Feels Like a Push

You’ve built momentum.

Your team gets it. You’ve introduced analytics into a few audits. Maybe you’ve even created some templates or workflows.

But here’s the sticking point:

Scaling it. Sustainably. Across every audit. Without burning your team out.

I’ve been there - pushing dashboards into fieldwork, trying to align SMEs with developers, convincing audit leads to ditch their 40-page Word reports.

The real problem isn’t capability. It’s consistency.

💡 Use Case:

You’re running an operational audit where third-party vendor risk is a focus.

Instead of building analytics from scratch every time:

• Develop a reusable Power Query (or a Python/R script) template that matches vendor spend to risk ratings from your master vendor file
• Build in logic that flags high-spend vendors missing due diligence (e.g. expired certifications, missing ESG checks)
• Give the audit team a single tab where they drop in raw data from the system - or even better create a data pipeline. The rest runs on autopilot.

Your team doesn’t just get speed - they get repeatability.

Your auditors stop seeing analytics as “extra” and start seeing it as the default.

The takeaway:

You’re not just building tools.

You’re building a system that survives without you. And that’s the move from innovation to leadership.

🔍 The Pattern I Keep Seeing (No Matter Where You Are)

No matter where you are - new, seasoned, technical, strategic - the barrier isn’t tools.

It’s this question:

“Do I believe I can shape how audit is done in my company?”

Here’s the truth I’ve learned the hard way:

The people who drive change aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones who quietly build what others later call “best practice.”

And they start before they feel ready.

Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with a fellow auditor who could use a shot of inspiration.

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Have a cracking week!

Tony

P.S. Know someone in audit who’s ready to do more than just tick boxes? Forward this to them. And if something’s holding you back from levelling up — hit reply. I read every message.