About this template
It’s important that Internal Audit makes itself known and visible across the business. Raising awareness of Internal Audit can help ensure the wider business is aware of who we are, what we do, and how we can help.
One way to raise awareness of Internal Audit is via an internal, regular newsletter. This newsletter template has been developed so that it achieves the following:
- Raises awareness of the internal audit team;
- Shows transparency in the work we do;
- Encourages business areas to implement recommendations in a more timely manner;
- Highlights the annual plan; and
- Promotes better practice.
This template newsletter is just one example of how Internal Audit can promote itself across the business, but also further demonstrate the value which Internal Audit provides.
Why use this template
As stated above, the template is a perfect way to promote the Internal Audit team. The way in which it has been designed means that either the newsletter can rotate between team members each month (i.e. a different team member is responsible for preparing the newsletter each month), or the template can be easily devided with team members taking responsibility for individual parts.
When to use this template
This template should be used on a monthly basis. The template can also be done on a weekly or fortnightly basis, however this would often take away from team members performing audits and could become less valuable for the wider business.
Things to be careful about
Depending on the content of your newsletter, its important that the culture of the business is not jeopardised. For instance, showing current open audit actions per business area may encourage business areas to implement audit actions in a more timely manner, however it may also damage culture with business areas comparing themselves. Furthermore, audit should have an element of unpredictability, meaning promoting the annual plan may result in a non-representative audit being conducted as business areas have been on their ‘best behaviour’.
