It’s your chance to take a proactive, honest look at your processes, answer the critical question "Are we doing what we say we are doing?", and provide assurance that your controls are effectively managing risk.
Whether you're working towards ISO 27001, ISO 9001, SOC 2, or any other framework, the core principles of a successful internal audit remain the same. This guide walks you through the key steps and reveals how a dedicated platform like SnapGRC can turn a potentially stressful exercise into a streamlined and insightful process.
The Three Phases of a Powerful Internal Audit
A robust internal audit can be broken down into three clear phases: Planning, Execution, and Reporting.
Phase 1: Planning & Preparation (The Blueprint)
This is the most critical phase. Good planning sets the stage for a smooth and effective audit.
Define the Scope: What are you auditing? A specific department (e.g., HR), a process (e.g., incident response), or a set of controls from a particular standard (e.g., all Access Control policies)? A clearly defined scope keeps the audit focused and manageable.
Review the Requirements: Re-familiarise yourself with the ISO controls or framework clauses in scope. What is the control objectively asking you to do?
Develop an Audit Plan & Checklist: Create a list of questions you need to answer. For example, for a control on "User Access Reviews," your checklist might include:
- "Is there a documented procedure for conducting access reviews?"
- "What evidence exists that reviews were performed quarterly?"
- "How are exceptions or inappropriate access handled?"
Gather Preliminary Evidence: Before any interviews, collect relevant documents—policies, procedures, logs, system configurations, and previous reports.
How SnapGRC Helps in Phase 1:
Centralised Control Library: SnapGRC stores all your ISO controls and requirements in one place. You can instantly see which policies and pieces of evidence are already mapped to each control, eliminating the guesswork.
Automated Workflows: Use SnapGRC to build and assign your audit checklist directly within the platform, ensuring nothing is missed.
Single Source of Truth: All your documented policies, procedures, and historical evidence are stored in a secure repository. The auditor has immediate access to the latest versions, dramatically reducing the pre-audit scavenger hunt.
Phase 2: Execution & Fieldwork (The Investigation)
This is where you gather objective evidence to answer the questions in your checklist.
Conduct Interviews: Speak with the control owners and process operators. Your goal is not to blame but to understand. Ask open-ended questions: "Can you walk me through how you perform a user access review?"
Sample Evidence: Don't just check that a record exists; sample it. If the procedure says access reviews are done quarterly, pull a sample of users and verify their access was reviewed for the last two quarters.
Document Findings Meticulously: For each item on your checklist, record what you found, including any evidence you reviewed. Be specific and objective.
How SnapGRC Helps in Phase 2:
Evidence Collection Made Easy: During interviews, you can instantly pull up the required policy or previous audit report within SnapGRC. Control owners can upload missing evidence directly into the platform during the session, tagged to the correct control.
Real-Time Collaboration: The audit team and control owners can collaborate within the platform. Findings can be logged as they are discovered, and owners can receive automated notifications for follow-up actions.
Audit Trail: Every action within SnapGRC is logged. This provides an immutable record of what was reviewed, when, and by whom, which is crucial for audit integrity.
Phase 3: Reporting & Follow-Up (The Value-Add)
The audit's value is realised only when findings are clearly communicated and addressed.
Analyse Findings: Categorise your findings (e.g., Major Non-conformity, Minor Non-conformity, Observation, Positive Practice).
Draft the Audit Report: The report should be clear, concise, and constructive. It must include:
- Scope and objectives.
- A summary of findings.
- Details of each finding (what was found, why it's an issue, and what the requirement is).
- Agreed-upon Corrective Actions with the process owners.
Management Review: Present the findings to senior management. This gives them the assurance they need and highlights areas requiring their attention or resources.
Track Corrective Actions: This is often the most neglected step. An finding isn't closed until the corrective action is verified as complete and effective.
How SnapGRC Helps in Phase 3:
Automated Reporting: Generate professional, standardised audit reports with a single click, pulling in all the findings and evidence directly from the platform.
Integrated Issue Management: Log findings directly as "Issues" or "Actions" within SnapGRC. You can then assign them to owners, set due dates, and track them to closure.
Continuous Monitoring: SnapGRC transforms the audit from a point-in-time event to a continuous process. You can monitor the status of corrective actions in real-time, sending automatic reminders to owners before deadlines are missed. This ensures your organisation is always moving towards compliance, not just scrambling before an external audit.
From Periodic Check to Continuous Assurance
Traditionally, internal audits are a stressful, periodic event. With SnapGRC, you shift this mindset. The platform provides a live view of your control environment, making the formal internal audit a simple validation of what you already know.
By centralising your controls, evidence, and issues, SnapGRC empowers you to conduct audits that are not just about satisfying a requirement, but about genuinely understanding and improving your security posture. You move from being reactive to being in control, ready for any external assessment at a moment's notice.
