Benefits of Outsourced Internal Auditing
When people think about hiring someone else to conduct their so needed internal audits, all of them start thinking about the problems or disadvantages of doing it. And this only leads to one decision: investing more time, effort, and money in doing it themselves. To begin with, a company should be able to conduct internal audits since they are all about this after all.
However, it is hard to maintain your internal audit program on track and improve it over the years. You must be full of many standards, issues, problems, responsibilities, and we could continue the entire day. Our point is that audits are crucial, but this department or area in a business isn’t the most relevant or important one for the owners or people managing it.
As a consequence, it tends to lack several aspects, such as having capable, qualified, and validated experts that can conduct an audit without problems. Also, an audit program isn’t simple and believe or not, your company will have to conduct more audits than you expected at the beginning, especially if you own or manage a large business. This is what leads people to consider Outsourced Internal Auditing but when they think about the exposed information and having a third-party doing it, the idea isn’t that attractive anymore.
Now, this isn’t what we want to tell you since you must be aware of all the cons of hiring a third-party to do it for you. And if you are not, you at least have an idea. Instead, we want to tell you about something no one discusses ever and we are sure you’re interested in the benefits.
What is good about Outsourced Internal Auditing?
Let’s start with something most people think about: the resources. One of the main problems in companies and businesses is that it is hard to maintain an internal audit program on track when you don’t have enough resources. Believe it or not, maintaining and improving it requires a lot of time and effort, not only money, and this is something not everyone is capable of doing nor willing to do.
This takes us to one of the benefits or pros of going for an outsourced audit: saving money and time. Since you don’t have to train people or part of your personnel to deal with the task nor employ specific experts to work in your company and this area, you don’t have to cover these expenses. Which are quite high due to all the work that involves auditing management systems.
When you hire a third-party, you only have to pay for the work and some companies will think this is more expensive than doing it themselves. But audits aren’t that frequent either, which means you can afford much more hiring someone else than training several people, creating a department, and investing in the entire audit program. This doesn’t mean you don’t need the program or shouldn’t have it, but you won’t have that weight in your shoulders nor have to invest as much as other companies.
Now, one of the major benefits—and probably the reason why everyone decides to go for outsourced audit at the end—is that nothing will be missing. During internal audits, it is quite normal for your auditors or personnel in charge of the task to do it without all the necessary and required effort. And some of them don’t invest enough time nor are meticulous enough to conduct it with all the necessary detail.
As a result, your company ends up with documentation and information that isn’t 100% accurate and this only leads to you missing non-conformities or aspects that are probably right but the results are showing the opposite. At ISO Pros, our Outsourced Internal Auditing services include experienced and qualified auditors that will provide complete documentation for you to take corrective actions if necessary. Or to save everything in your register.
The main benefit of hiring a company like us for this is to guarantee the conformance in your systems with the changing requirements and ISO standards. This means that, whenever a standard gets modified or reviewed, your company won’t fall behind with it. Keep in mind that the benefits you obtain from this auditing option also depend on what you are aiming for.
If you are a company in need of the service itself, you will be closer to benefits such as not having to invest in conducting them. But if you are, on the other hand, looking for benefits in the standard for this auditing, you have a specific and main benefit: you will know how to conduct them properly. Here is when ISO 9001 starts being more relevant as well, and you need to get familiar with it in order to understand the entire area properly.
Is there a huge difference in costs?
Absolutely.
Auditing costs always vary depending on several aspects, such as the size of your company and all the audits you have to conduct. Also, how much work is there to deal with for our auditors and how many of them you need to complete the task. However, despite all these aspects—and more—being involved, it results in 30% more affordable than conducting internal audits yourself.
Some companies even notice a reduction of 50% in the auditing costs and the results are even better than what they could achieve all this time. Of course, the company you hire for this also has its own feeds and conditions. But it is never more expensive than internal audit nor will it be similar.
As long as you take some risks and find a reliable auditor for the task, you shouldn’t have problems with going for this option. Our company can provide you with a quote in case you are worried about the costs and prices of the entire procedure. We will make sure to show you everything invested in the audit and why you should consider Outsourced Internal Auditing instead of going for the in-house option.
That being said, there are many other benefits we still need to discuss. Therefore, feel free to contact us if you have your doubts and questions. We know you have them, so don’t feel forced to requesting our services, and just then, ask every question.
We are here, and if you haven’t understood every benefit so far, we can also go over them until you notice the pros and not only the cons. Do you want an extra benefit before leaving? Here’s one: Outsourced Internal Auditing achieves a robust quality and environmental management system any company needs and envies from others.