Auditors talk risk. But what drives most audit plans? The calendar.
The Illusion of Risk-Based Auditing
“We take a risk-based approach to audit.”
Reality check: Most audit plans follow a fixed cycle—not live risk data.
What’s Really Happening
Instead of asking:
“Where is the risk today?”
Audit teams ask:
“Whose turn is it this year?”
It’s not risk-based—it’s rotation-based.
Audit Teams Still Act Like Compliance Units
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Static annual plans
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Department audits every 1–3 years
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No real-time reprioritization
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Little collaboration with risk or strategy
The Problem? Risks Don’t Wait.
Risks are dynamic.
But audit plans are frozen.
By the time a risk is audited, the damage may be done.
What Real Risk-Based Auditing Looks Like
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Rolling plans, updated quarterly
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Live risk dashboards integrated with ERM
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Agile sprints targeting emerging threats
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Tight coordination with risk and strategy functions
It’s Time for a Cultural Shift
From – Calendar-driven
To – Intelligence-driven
From – Watchdog
To – Strategic partner
Audit must evolve—or risk irrelevance.
The Takeaway
The surprise isn’t that audits follow the calendar.
It’s that we still pretend they follow the risk.
