Online: Strategic Audit Planning: Mastering Best Practices reflecting the new GIAS

Led by former CAE James Paterson, this intensive course combines the latest GIAS requirements with cutting-edge practices from the IIA’s newest practice guide on risk-based audit planning.

Why This Course Matters Now

In today’s rapidly evolving risk landscape, traditional audit planning approaches no longer suffice. This course equips you with advanced strategies to create audit plans that directly support business objectives, provide meaningful assurance, and deliver tangible value to your organization.

Key Learning Outcomes

Master the techniques to:

• Design «top-down» audit plans that align with business strategy
• Create clear, impactful assignment questions that drive effective execution
• Integrate with other assurance activities for comprehensive coverage
• Present audit plans that command attention and secure resources
• Build stronger relationships with key stakeholders when developing the audit strategy

Perfect For

• Heads of Internal Audit seeking to elevate their planning approach
• Senior Audit Managers looking to enhance their strategic impact
• Experienced Auditors ready to advance their planning capabilities

Course Curriculum

Strategic Foundation

• Modern audit planning processes and documentation standards
• Techniques for meaningful stakeholder engagement
• Methods to align audit plans with assurance mapping as well as organizational objectives and risk appetite

Value Enhancement

• Strategies to embed value-add opportunities within core assurance work
• Balancing senior management and audit committee expectations
• Advanced approaches to scope definition and assurance level determination

Practical Application

• What is the right place for an “audit universe”?
• Dynamic planning across multiple time horizons
• Linking planning with your internal audit strategy

Resource Optimization

• Strategic approaches to resource planning and skill gap analysis
• Techniques for productive discussions about resource adequacy
• Methods to enhance audit team capabilities and effectiveness

Professional Development

CPE Competency Areas:

• Professionalism
• Performance (Organizational governance | Risk management | Internal control)
• Environment (Organizational strategic planning and management)
• Leadership and communication (Audit plan and coordinating efforts)

CPE Points Awarded

You will earn 7 CPE’s for CIA, CRMA and Diplomert internrevisor for attending this training.

Instructor

James C. Paterson is former head of audit for AstraZeneca PLC and has been consulting and training for the past 10 years for the IIA in Belgium, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the UK.

He is the author of the book “Lean Auditing” and Root Cause Analysis and System Thinking and has spoken at several IIA International Conferences and also the ECIIA conference. He contributed to the IIA global team that worked on developing practice guidance for internal audit plans.

Your Investment in Excellence

This course represents more than just training and compliance —it’s an investment in transforming your audit planning capabilities. You’ll gain practical tools, benchmark against best practices, and develop strategies that enhance your audit function’s value proposition. Join us to explore the art and science of modern internal audit strategies and planning.