1st PARTY AUDIT

The competitive economy is the major ingredient to focus on for all types of entrepreneurs, industries, and businesses in India. In service industries, a well-established company always seeks the right opportunity to provide quality service to its customers.

A detailed and exhaustive quality check is required for the organization to verify the performance of the system, or the processes in detail. The right type of 1st Party Audit can improve the functioning and operations in the right way.

To fulfill the right criteria for this 1st Party Audit, certain things should be adapted by the organization to process. A product receives its true purpose when an industry gives its best while making it. Well, these ideas require the right guidance for sure.

What is the part that helps an organization to achieve the right quality? An internal check is an important part of assisting the management and employees to check up on a few activities within the process and organization.

The processes or frequencies of a 1st Party Audit may depend on the activities, size, number of locations and decisions of an organization. It is the major part of how it should verify different controls starting from documentation to productivity. A few things are still to consider such as:

• What happens to the process or product after three months, six months, or a year?
• Is documentation maintained and do controls remain in place?
• What is organization’s frequency of checking the product assurance and service it provides to its customers?
• Is the Internal Audit going to take into consideration any ISO standard like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, etc.?
• Are there any qualified Auditors / Inspectors?
• Is the Organization aware about conducting the Audits as per any respected and known standard like ISO 19011?
• Greater inspections and audits and document reviews from the Customers.

Most of the companies are taking initiatives and planning strategies to conduct 1st Party Internal Audits within their various processes eg. HR, Admin, Manufacturing, QA/QC, Purchase, Marketing / Sales, Design, Logistics, Stores, Products, and quality system audits. When picking the effective method, the 1st Party Audit (internal auditing) holds its quality and adherence to fulfill all needs and required process standards.

Internal Audit is the common name used for 1st Party Audit. It is a professional activity that helps organizations to achieve their stated objectives by:

• Checking the documentation and conducting a detailed review on its appropriateness
• Identification of various Issues (Internal and External) and checking, whether they have been addressed in the Risk Register. Also, identification, if the correct Mitigations have been planned and being implemented.
• Whether Policies and Objectives are in place.
• Whether responsibilities have been set.
• Analyzing key processes, procedures & operations
• Identifying key controls in each such operation, procedure & process
• Evaluating the adequacy of these controls
• Testing compliance of sample transactions against these controls
• Reporting results of the evaluation of controls and compliance testing of transactions
• Identifying Opportunities for Improvements, and Non-Conformities
• Recommending stronger controls wherever necessary
• Suggesting methods to improve compliance with key controls
• Follow up on action taken on recommendations made in previous reports

In the 1st Party Audit, different internal Controls are important- checks instituted by management to have reasonable assurance that:

• Operations are carried out in an efficient & effective manner
• Transactions are recorded accurately & completely
• Assets are properly recorded & safeguarded
• Laws are complied with
• Reliable documents are being maintained, and records are generated
• Which standard(s) need to be covered, e.g., ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001 (Environment), ISO 45001 (Occupational Health & Safety), ISO 22000 (Food Safety), ISO 27001 (Information Security), etc?
• Which Processes need to be covered?
• Availability of personnel
• Customer review points, including non-Conformities raised at various points including documentation and process controls.

While conducting the 1st Party Audit, an organization gets into a few assignments. However, the management of the organization knows how to handle every aspect of the work.

Here is a list of a few examples of internal control in the 1st Party Audit:

• Document Review
• Process Review
• Policies and Objectives’ Review
• Data Analysis
• Review of Risk Assessments and the appropriateness of the Mitigation Controls
• Whether the Implementation is happening as desired
• Whether the organization has a pool of Internal Auditors, or do they have to hire the services of external expert consultants like Ascent WORLD? Ascent WORLD boasts a team of Qualified Internal Auditors (in various disciplines and standards like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, ISO 50001, etc.). Ascent WORLD conducts professional and thorough audits with strategies from ISO 19011 standard.

1st Party Audit is focused on a specific management system and its support, internally and improving systems, procedures, and processes. They are as follows:

• External Audit is sometimes a statutory requirement, like an internal audit. (Internal Audit is mandatory,
• External audit reports are addressed to stakeholders. Internal audit reports are addressed to Management.
• External audit reports express an opinion on the Management System and are generally conducted by an external Certification Body like Euro VERITAS Ltd. Internal audit reports evaluate and check compliance against key internal controls within the processes and system.
• Eternal Audits are conducted by the eternal body, while Internal Audit (1^st Party audit) is conducted by Internal people within the organization- or hired by the Organization like Ascent WORLD, who are qualified.
• Both External and Internal Audits are conducted using ISO 19011, and is done by Qualified Auditors for the standard.
• External audit reports are usually public documents that are available to all stakeholders. Internal audit reports are for use only by Management.
• External audit reports do not make recommendations. Internal audit reports are incomplete without.
• Both Internal (1^st Party) and External Audits give out consolidated findings reports in the form of Opportunities for Improvement (OFI) and Minor/Major Non-Conformities (NC).
• The Organization must close the OFIs and NCs, through documents and implementation.
• The Internal Audits conducted by Ascent WORLD are generally more thorough, and stringent than External Audits, and generally serves to make the Organization ready to face external audits from Certification Body or Customers or Regulatory Authorities.
• Both Internal (1^st Party) and External Audits use checklists and include a Plan (Calendar), Schedule, and an output Summary Report and Findings report.

The primary role of 1st Party Audit is to improve internal control, accuracy, reliability & integrity of information including operational reporting. It also involves the monitoring & evaluation of the effectiveness of risk management processes.

Various roles such as corporate oversight, safeguarding of assets, economical & efficient use of resources, compliance with laws & regulations, and deterring fraud are coming under the compliance and advisory activities.

Apart from that, different facts are involved in the internal audit of an organization such as;

• 1st Party Audit starts with a strong set of policies and procedures
• 1^st Party Internal Audits are more thorough, stringent, and elaborate
• While internal auditors play a key role in the system of control, management has responsibility for internal control
• 1st Party Audit is integral to every aspect of business/operations
• 1st Party Audit makes the right things happen the first time
• 1st Party Audit should be built “into,” not “onto” business processes

Allowing the roles of risk management, the internal audit can help an organization accomplish the following things:

• Focus on the risk of occurrences that could prevent the project from achieving its goals
• There are many types of risk — strategic, operational, financial reporting, legal/regulatory, fraud, ineffective/inefficient use of resources, technological, human capital, credibility, etc.
• Seeking positive outcomes and new opportunities
• Focus on areas with high risk & high probability that controls are not in place or are weak

In case an organization couldn’t appoint the management or schedule the internal audit, it should be appropriate to hire a third-party consultant service. It is Ascent WORLD that has many

• Ascent WORLD boasts of a team of Qualified Internal Auditors (in various disciplines and standards like ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, ISO 50001, etc.). Ascent WORLD conducts professional and thorough audits with strategies from ISO 19011 standard.
• Thorough, stringent, and elaborate coverage of the requirements and standard clauses, as applicable.
• Coverage of regulatory requirements, as required and relevant.
• Qualified Auditors, competent in the standard requirements, industry practices, and ISO 19011 requirements.
• Ascent WORLD provides scopes & activities for 1^st party audits to the management.
• Ascent WORLD describes critical risks facing the business activities within the scope of the audit.
• Ascent WORLD identifies control procedures used to ensure each key risk is properly controlled & monitored.
• Ascent WORLD develops & executes a risk-based sampling & testing approach to determine whether the most important controls are operating as intended (NB: input from Management required: e.g., 100% sampling of WA review).
• Ascent WORLD reports issues/make recommendations/negotiates action plans with Management to address issues.
• Ascent WORLD follows up on reported findings periodically.

Apart from that, Ascent WORLD delivers the following Unique Selling Points:

• Qualified
• Competent
• Uses IAF timelines
• Thorough coverage, including documentation review
• Better and improved auditing experience
• Great use of expertise and skill.
• Experienced auditors to handle your case.
• Gain technical and advanced-level support from qualified professionals.
• Easy to get your certification.
• 100% success rate with higher credibility
• 24×7 support system activated
• Ascent WORLD is not a freelancer or managed by temporary individuals. The result is assured with us.
• We stand at the top of the best-listed consultant agency.