In last week’s blog, we looked at three common credit union audit risks. In this week’s blog, we’d like to offer two ways to mitigate those risks.
In case you don’t want to read the whole blog from last week, we’ll give you the highlights. The three biggest audit risks concern the following:
- Reviewing and storing information
- Staying on track through remediation
- Taking too much time to complete the audit
Of course, these aren’t the only risks credit unions face during audits. But they are among the more common. And, most importantly, they’re risks to which even the strongest credit union audit teams occasionally fall victim.
So, we’d like to introduce a couple ways to deal with those risks.
Having a sound audit process isn’t easy. Fortunately—or perhaps, unfortunately—most credit unions are well acquainted with audits. Consequently, they tend to be quite good at the whole thing.
Nevertheless, there are some areas where credit unions should take extra care. Very often, an audit feels like it’s finished when you finally submit documents. That’s not exactly the case though, is it? Sometimes, audits last a good while past document submission. Some audit risks concern your access to information during all stages of the audit process—even after it’s “finished!”
Credit unions deal with countless compliance demands. It’s just part and parcel of the credit union industry.
Credit union compliance resources come in all shapes and sizes. Some people, including the nice folks at the NCUA, offer guides and study materials. Other companies develop software to help with governance, risk, and compliance.
What is audit productivity software? Does it include traditional office applications like Excel, SharePoint, and Outlook? And what differentiates specialized solutions from traditional ones?
Credit unions who want good audit results might consider audit automation software. But what are their options?
The way we see it, there are essentially three different options for credit union audit software. All of them can achieve great audit results.
For some credit unions, audits are an occasional nuisance. For others, they’re seemingly constant, all-hands-on-deck affairs.
Regardless of whether your credit union’s audit cycle is frequent and consuming or sporadic and inconvenient, one thing’s for certain:
You probably don’t want to get stuck in one for too long.
Audit software for credit unions can provide significant value throughout the entire course of each audit. Each automated task contributes value. The same goes for stored communication, archived audit materials, automatically-generated audit trails, and simplified delivery systems.
But those are individual tasks. Certainly, each of them provides value. But how much value?
So, one thing I’ve learned is that when you explain a joke, it generally stops being funny. But this is about credit union audit software, what it costs, and what it provides for that cost. So please, bear with me.
Many factors impact your audit process and, consequently, your audit results. Still, the responsibility of ensuring great deliverables lies with your audit team.
There are two characteristics shared among sound, experienced audit teams. Can you guess what those characteristics are?
There’s a lot to worry about when preparing for credit union exams. Usually, they go smoothly. Often, exams just confirm what you and your credit union already knew: that you’re on the right path.
But the stress is real.
A poorly-run exam increases your credit union’s risk of findings, documents of resolution (the dreaded DORs), and regulatory action.
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