In these times of economic downturn and cost cutting, audit departments around the nation are looking for innovative ways to cut costs, meet obligations but also add value. How can audit departments meet all of these objectives with limited resources? The SOFT Audit is an integrated approach to internal audit, which combines Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance, Operational, Financial and IT Auditing into one comprehensive audit approach. This one day seminar will give you an overview of how to apply this innovative approach in your audit department.
I. Introduction and Background
II. What is the SOFT Approach to Auditing?
a. Origins
b. Definition
III. S – SOX/Controls Optimization
a. COSO Overview
b. Key Controls
c. Review of Controls by Area
i. Cash
ii. Inventory
iii. Fixed Assets
iv. Payables
v. Others as Needed
d. Fraud Schemes by Area
IV. Operational Auditing
a. What is Operational Auditing?
b. Key Aspects of Operational Auditing
c. Operational Assessment
d. Identifying Criteria
i. Sources of Criteria
e. Documenting Knowledge
V. Financial/Substantive Audit Best Practices
a. Audit's role in financial auditing
b. What is substantive auditing?
i. How to utilize in internal auditing?
c. Ratio analysis
VI. IT Audit Optimization
1. Transaction Processing
2. Security
3. Reporting
4. Data Interfaces and Conversions
VII. Auditing Outsourced Operations
a. Responsibility of Risk
VIII. Integration of Audit Approaches
a. Risk Analysis
b. Overlap and Synergies between each audit approach
c. Development of audit workprograms
d. Documentation of integrated audit
IX. Staffing Needs
a. Developing multi-talented auditors
b. Identifying needs for an integrated audit
X. Creating a Comprehensive Audit Report
a. Creating an Integrated Audit Report
b. Key Sections
c. Key Information to Highlight
d. Comprehensive Example
I really enjoyed and greatly appreciate your delivery of the message you were trying to convey. You really made the meeting very enjoyable and upbeat. I hope to attend or see you again in the future. I was just reaching out to you and letting you know what I thought of the book that I purchased from you at the meeting.
I really enjoyed the aspect of the book that you kept it in a narrative and story style. I think it made it a very quick read and also puts the skills and practices that are referenced in the book as well as your training into real world scenarios. I also really like how each chapter was broken out after the chapter with the skills sets, messages, or concepts listed instead of like a textbook format throughout the chapter. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I have recommended the book to my supervisors that I think this book and your trainings would be very beneficial to all of my co-workers.
I really appreciated you letting me feel so included in your discussion and presentation. Being a younger professional who thinks they have a very strong soft skills set I still feel like I learned and took away a lot from your book and training. I hope to continuously improve my people centric skill set and hope to someday be in a position where I can make an impact as broad as you have.
Senior Auditor
Decatur, IL IIA Class – February 2016
AttendeeSenior AuditorPrivateDecatur, IL
“I wanted to thank you for your time teaching the class. I enjoyed how engaging it was and thought I got a lot of information out of it.”
“Thank you for making it so fun! I honestly wasn’t expecting to laugh so much, but I really appreciate that you kept the training lighthearted and engaging.”
Audit 101 Attendees - Houston IIA
The Fraud training session yesterday was really great. You have a great way of providing good, relevant information while also being very entertaining and keeping the group engaged. That is not an easy feat, especially during those all day sessions so thanks again.
Fraud Risk Assessment Attendee - Boston IIA March 2017
“Thank you for the wonderful presentation, it was engaging, thought provoking and I absolutely loved the synergy in the room !! I have finally taken the time to read my notes to reinforce the conversation’s leveraged from your multiple presentations….” – Attendee, St Louis IIA, Fraud Auditing and Practical Ethics
Attendee, St. Louis IIAManagerSt. Louis, MO
Thank you for leading the session on Rethinking the Audit Process. I enjoyed it a lot as you were able to engage participants throughout the day to keep it interesting and educational at the same time. Thanks again and I hope to attend and I hope to attend other trainings that you lead in the future.
Audit 2020 - Portland IIA
I attended your Project Management seminar today and found it very interesting and motivating! Would you please send me the project planning and status templates that you referenced today? Feel free to include any other template along these lines and throughout the process that may be helpful.
I look forward to attending other seminars that will be available later this year.
Project Management - North Jersey IIA
It was such a pleasure attending your class on yesterday, a job well done. You mentioned in the class that there were several spread sheets and charts available if we were interested. If you don’t mind I would like copies of the doc’s.
Thanks and I am sure I will be attending another one of your dynamic sessions.
Project Management - North Jersey IIA
I loved Danny’s session! He facilitated open discussion about corporate culture, which helped us all apply the lessons learned to our unique situations and organizations.
NOTE: Overall Evaluation Score – 5.0/5.0
IIA Western Regional (Anaheim) Attendee - June 2017
I enjoyed the class. Your delivery was unique/informal from other presentations I have been a part of and it was effective in delivering the message. I got a lot out of the last two and a half days.
Lansing IIA - November 2016
In our Assessing Risk class last week, I had a gentlemen attend and state that he attended a similar class of ours seven years ago and it gave him a ton of insight on how they eventually set up their ERM program – always good to know that you are making a difference!
844-514-8883
