Top Down, Risk Based Auditing

To manage your business successfully, you must manage risk appropriately. Identifying, assessing, and addressing risks are critical success factors for all types of organizations. Risks can take on many forms including:

• Financing, investing, and financial-reporting risks
• Legal and regulatory risks
• Information-technology and systems risks
• Operational, supply-chain and process risks
• Strategic, market and industry risks
• Integrity, reputation, and political risks

Having the knowledge and tools to assess your risks is important to survival. Candela Solutions has the expertise through:

• Educating and training regarding top-down and risk-based audit approaches for both internal and external auditors
• Conducting independent risk assessments
• Applying COSO's Enterprise Risk Management - Integrated Framework (ERM)

A top-down approach evaluates controls in a sequential manner, starting with company-level controls and significant activities, and then working down to relevant individual controls at the process, transaction, or application levels. A risk-based approach simply focuses resources in the highest risk areas. These approaches are interrelated, and when appropriately used, can be a powerful tool in managing risks.