The saying that “perfect is the enemy of the good” seems to apply especially to internal auditing. Some of the most common mistakes by new internal auditors are made simply because we want our work to be, well, perfect. That’s an admirable goal, but perfection can take time — and time is the enemy of audit efficiency.
One of the hardest lessons I learned as a young auditor was to resist the temptation to over-audit. We all want to produce the best, so when we develop an audit program, it’s only natural to try squeezing just one more thing into the schedule.…