For years, the NCUA has burdened credit unions with frequent, tedious exams. The cycles call for audits every 12 months, but an audit could land at any point within that period. Unfortunately, the unpredictability of the current exam cycle creates stress and unduly disrupts operations.
Fortunately, the NCUA has proposed new changes to the exam cycle. We hope they make these changes effective immediately.
One of the things we talk about a lot in this blog, whether explicitly or not, is the credit union audit process. In fact, improving the audit process is what we’re all about.
But what does it mean to have an effective audit process? What all does it entail?
If you’re looking to better understand what makes a credit union’s audit process effective—or if you want to see if your audit process passes muster—then read on!
Audits must be performed frequently to ensure proper operational practices and compliance. Most upper-level credit union employees are familiar with audits. After all, upper-level employees are the experts, and leveraging experts is a critical component to successful audits.
Then, of course, there are internal audit teams. They’ve made a living off of their audit expertise.
So, with so many experienced experts on any given audit team, what do you get?
You get sound credit union audit programs and, one would hope, great audit results.
Point West Credit Union started off with a robust but time consuming audit program. After partnering with Redboard, they were able to complete their audits much more efficiently and effectively.
The best part?
Their audits now take 20–25% less time than they did before.
So, how did they get from Point A to Point B? Or should we say, from Point East to Point West?
Audit software for credit unions can help your team drastically simplify your audit process. In fact, the increase in efficiency from using audit management tools usually translates to a 10–25% decrease in time to completion.
So, how does it accomplish that?
Well, there are two main areas of the audit process that software addresses.
Here’s what we’ve seen:
In the last few weeks, we’ve written a bit about some of the benefits of credit union audit management software. One of the primary takeaways is that credit union audit software saves time in the audit process, and credit unions are putting that time to good use.
But just saying that audit management software will save your credit union time doesn’t illustrate much.
So, to give you a better picture of how and why some simple software makes audits easier, we’ve compiled a short, not-entirely-exhaustive list.
Recently, we wrote about how credit unions can save time in completing their audits by using audit software to manage their process.
It’s true—credit union audit software can save audit teams a considerable number of hours on their normal duties. The added efficiency from audit software is great, and everyone likes to cut down on the hours they spend on tedious, routine tasks.
Credit union audits are time-consuming. From the first letter, to mobilizing your team, to addressing items, to coordinating and delivering documents, quite a few work-hours go toward successful completion of NCUA audits.
So, what is your time worth?
How would you like to cut 10–25% of the time off your audit?
What if you could save time on your audit while also increasing your security and efficiency?
Okay, we get it. Audits aren’t easy, and there’s no secret hack to make them less difficult.
However, a little preparation never hurt. In fact, even an ounce of preparation could end up worth about a pound of cure. (We’re not sure if there’s an equivalent for the metric system…)
Still, preparation isn’t worth a darn if you’re not doing it right.
In part one of this series, Point West Credit Union was frustrated with their audit program. Although they were successfully navigating their audits, they spent too much time on the process and not enough on their audit tasks. In part two, they discovered that email and spreadsheets were robbing them of valuable productivity.
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