Internal audit looks at how the business actually runs — authorisations, maker-checker, inventory and cash cycles, statutory calendars, and IT-dependent controls — rather than only at year-end balances. The objective is to find weaknesses before they become losses, restatements, or notices.
Each cycle ends with a ranked set of observations, agreed management actions, and a follow-up on the previous report. Scopes can be entity-wide or limited to a process such as procure-to-pay, payroll, or GST credit.