Internal Auditor
What the work is
Examines, verifies, evaluates and reports on financial, operational and managerial processes, systems and outcomes to ensure financial and operational integrity and compliance, and assists in business process reviews, risk assessments, developing deliverables, and reporting progress against outcomes.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Evaluates cost effectiveness and risks of operational processes, policies and systems
- Devises, reorganises and establishes budgetary cost control systems
- Conducts audits and investigations, and prepares financial statements and reports for management, shareholders, and governing and statutory bodies
- Establishes audit objectives aligned to organisational goals
- Designs and implements audit methodologies, processes and audit criteria
- Monitors the effectiveness of internal audit controls and risk management systems
- Conducts risk assessments and business process reviews to mitigate risks
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in the internal audit team of a fictional regional water authority, reviewing how the organisation spends and buys. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- Your report finds a weakness early, the manager fixes it and nobody is hurt by it
- A nervous team member realises the audit helped them and thanks you
- You find a pattern in the data that nobody else had noticed
Hard days
- Bringing bad news to a manager who has worked hard and does not want to hear it
- A friend in the organisation asks what you have found before the report is final
- Piles of records to work through and a deadline set by the audit committee
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 211232, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.