As a credit union auditor, you (and your team) are experienced and dedicated experts. But you rely on other business areas to assist, support, and complete audit tasks.
Often, that’s where things get complicated and slow down.
In this blog, we’ll review the role that business units play in credit union audits. Then, we’ll show how to keep business units on track to prevent overdue and unresolved audit findings.
Download our proven Unresolved Findings Eliminator here.
Which Other Business Units Are Affected?
Some audits you can handle with minimal input outside your department. But other audits…
Depending on the size of your institution, your audit team, and your audit schedule, you may complete any number of audits each year. When those audits rely on members from other departments (business units), they become de facto members of your team. They include leaders from:
- Lending
- Operations and IT
- Branch management
- Finance
The larger the credit union, the more other departments get involved. These other experts must provide information necessary to move forward with or complete audits and/or address and close findings.
Usually, these business units aren’t part of your audit team. And, while they participate in audits, their training in audits is minimal and it’s low on their priority list. That creates workflow problems at every credit union we’ve spoken with, which leads to overdue and unresolved audit findings.
Business Units Audit Responsibilities
Because the employees from these business areas aren’t auditors, they must juggle their primary duties with those of the audit. They don’t have the luxury of focusing all their energy toward the successful execution of the credit union’s audit strategy.
Members from other business areas must understand what their roles are. You must proactively inform them of their responsibilities, which include:
- Fully understanding their role;
- Drawing on their knowledge and expertise to answer questions or address findings;
- Communicating promptly team about any issues during all stages of the audit process;
- Updating the team with any important developments;
- Documenting their work, including any changes or amendments; and
- Being respectful and professional with their colleagues and auditors.
Just as importantly, team members in other business areas must manage their time efficiently. Audits are time-sensitive endeavors, and keeping a schedule is critical to the audit team’s success. Not only will their schedule assist the audit team in timely delivery, but it will allow the other business areas to focus on their own daily work.
Our free Unresolved Findings Eliminator helps with this.
Keeping Business Units on Track
You lead the charge through audits. Yet, when it comes to getting required answers and documents from business units, you’ve likely had to check progress, send reminders, and re-send spreadsheets or other documents.
But you need everything:
- Answered and addressed accurately
- Completed and delivered on time
- Finished as quickly as possible
But other business units often bottleneck the audit process because they prioritize their other daily duties. You need a structured, repeatable process to ensure that they complete what they need to complete, on time, and as expected.
(We outlined what that might look like here.)
More Audit Resources for Credit Unions
To learn more about creating a repeatable structure in your audits—and to avoid overdue and unresolved audit findings—we recommend reading the following three blogs:
We also recommend downloading our free Unresolved Findings Eliminator and Credit Union Audit Checklist to streamline your audit process.
Get FREE Access to the Audit Checklist for Credit Unions!
