Top 7 Internal Audit Software

When issues arise in an external audit, the first question that top management asks is if these issues were highlighted during an internal audit. It automatically suggests a failure to address potential weaknesses that were identified earlier in the process.

Internal audits are a crucial component of the certification process. However manual methods of filling compliance gaps can feel cumbersome and less effective. That’s where internal audit software tools plays its part– enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of internal audit functions.

Future-focused businesses today are increasingly adopting audit management software. They have realized the benefits of productivity, scalability, collaboration, and centralization for breezing through audits.

If you’re only starting and looking for a suitable internal audit management solution, this blog will navigate you through the challenges. Read on to explore the top-rated tools in the market and things to consider when selecting one.

What is an internal audit software?

Internal audit software automates the audit lifecycle and helps internal auditors review and analyze data related to compliance efforts. It collects evidence, creates gap reports, identifies vulnerabilities, and makes recommendations for corrective action.

7 best internal audit software

Choosing the right internal audit software requires a careful analysis of capabilities such as risk management, workflow management, audit execution, and more. The right platform is scalable, accommodates complexity, and covers the scope of compliance for multiple tools and systems.

Here are the top 7 internal audit software tools that businesses should consider:

1. Sprinto

Sprinto is a versatile audit readiness and compliance automation solution that enables the monitoring of security controls and the collection of evidence. At a granular level, it helps define audit plans for internal, external, and surveillance audits.

Users can define an audit window as an internal audit and monitor controls accordingly, and when they reach a threshold (around the 95% mark), they can opt to undergo an external audit.

Sprinto streamlines the entire internal audit process right from the beginning. It helps with the scoping exercise by marking things ‘in scope’ and ‘not in scope’ for the audit. Next, it simplifies fieldwork by continuous observation (checks), control testing, risk assessments and evidence collection. Reports are generated within the platform and can be shared with the relevant stakeholders with an overview of live compliance status.

Let’s look at some key features of the platform:

Key Features 

Audit-grade policy templates: Sprinto offers out-of-the-box policy templates to help you kickstart your journey quickly and breeze through audits.

Centralized risk visibility: Sprinto has integrated risk management and gives you a bird’s eye view of the risk profile managed through a centralized place.

Continuous compliance monitoring: Get a granular, real-time view of your auditable entities from a centralized dashboard to ensure airtight compliance monitoring. 

Role-based access control: Sprinto lets you leverage controlled access to protect sensitive data and grant or revoke access to employees as required.

Automated evidence collection: The platform automatically collects evidence against each control and presents it for the auditor on the auditor dashboard. This way it becomes easier for the auditor to comprehend them.

Trust center:  We allow you to share live security posture with public or private profiles at any given time for assuring the stakeholders.

Pros

• Implement a fail-proof onboarding program that shortens time to value.
• Enable easy scaling with the ability to reuse standard controls for compliance frameworks
• Bring custom controls or custom frameworks to Sprinto without losing any previous work.

Cons

• Implementation can take longer than expected in the case of third-party dependencies
• Dr. Sprinto-for endpoint device management can require frequent updates.

G2 rating: 4.8/5

“Sprinto made the whole compliance process easy. The dashboard provides everything you need to know to pass the audit which saved time and resources for the company.” – G2 review. 

2. Auditboard

Auditboard is an audit, risk, and compliance management platform offering a suite of solutions for each of these areas. It helps streamline the internal audit program while ensuring regulatory compliance and closing security gaps.

Key Features 

Real-time risk assessments: Auditboard helps create asset inventory and link risk across them. Businesses can also score and rank risks, enable mitigation plans, and view all audit risks in one place.

Built-in workflows: The platform has automated workflows for managing testing, fieldwork, and reviews. Users can also be tagged at various stages to foster effective collaboration.

Centralized management: Policies and documents for compliance and audit processes can be centrally managed to allow access to the right people at the right time.

Automated evidence management: The tool helps eliminate the need for manually collecting and maintaining audit evidence. Audit document requests can also be created, and reviewed.

Continuous tracking: It helps identify, manage, and report issues and track remediation efforts.

Pros

• The dashboard is intuitive and user-friendly
• The platform makes audit documentation and paperwork easy
• The support team is responsive

Cons

• Risk assessment functionality needs improvement
• The audit schedule feature has limited capabilities and poses a challenge in scheduling quarterly audits
• Cross-functionality among different modules is not smooth 

G2 rating: 4.6/5“It’s like hitting the easy button for audit management. Straightforward to deploy OpsAudit and SOXHUB modules for both audit and our business partners to take advantage of very readily. The base features just make sense for what typical audit shops need.” – G2 review.

3. Workiva

Workiva is a cloud-based platform that simplifies and streamlines business compliance and reporting functions. It helps integrate governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) processes with finance and ESG reporting for comprehensive insights across operations. 

Key Features 

Real-time dashboards: The platform reflects data changes in actual time to enable better insights and decision-making.

Automation of repetitive tasks: Workiva automates manual audit tasks that demand bandwidth such as evidence collection, risk assessments, and reporting

Readymade audit templates: The partnership of Workiva with AuditNet helps users leverage several risk assessment and Excel templates that can be used for audits.

Audit scoping and planning: Risk and control data can be integrated with audit programs for efficient scoping and planning exercises.

Audit analytics: It enables auditors to use built-in, no-code analytics to quickly identify any anomaly and its root cause while enhancing the accuracy of the internal audit process.

Robust reporting: The platform provides comprehensive internal audit reports that can be tailored for relevant stakeholders.

 

Pros

• The collaborative workflows eliminate duplication of efforts or uncoordinated work.
• Data visualizations enhance the reporting capabilities
• Acts as a centralized platform for planning, fieldwork, and reporting documentation
• The platform is adaptable to suit the business’ compliance program structure

Cons 

• There’s a steep learning curve involved with the platform since the platform is not very user-friendly.
• The spreadsheet functionality can feel cumbersome. 
• Reviewing and resolving user comments on the platform can be difficult.

G2 rating: 4.5/5“Workiva as a tool is very flexible and easy to use. It has features which are very much similar to a Microsoft Office tool hence it becomes easier for the users to adapt to this tool. It has an inbuilt Process which allows certifications to be sent to users for their attestation which acts as an audit tool too.” – G2 review.

4. SAP audit management

SAP audit management is an internal audit management software tool that helps streamline the audit process end-to-end. It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud.

Key Features

Automation of audit activities: The software helps manage the entire audit lifecycle with ease by automating planning, task assignment, progress tracking, and reporting activities.

Mobile capabilities: SAP audit management also provides mobile device functionality for making audit progress accessible anytime, anywhere.

Integration with other GRC solutions: It integrates with SAP risk assessment and SAP process control for comprehensive coverage and better insights.

Issue tracking and management: Audit issues, findings, and recommendations can be tracked and managed till closure from a centralized place.

Powerful analytics: The SAP S/4HANA cloud ERP helps with high-speed data exploration and analytics for better planning of future activities 

Pros

• There are built-in security features and add-on solutions
• Provides an implementation guide for fast setup and deployment
• Thematic reporting options are available for enhancing understandability 

Cons

• This is an expensive option for smaller businesses
• Configuration with the product can feel challenging and time-taking
• Predictive audit functionality (making use of historical data for future predictions) is limited

G2 rating: 4.2/5“SAP Audit Management is top notch tools for audit, seamlessly connecting with other SAP modules, making data flow smooth. The platforms user friendly design simplifies navigation, reducing the learning curve.” – Gartner review.

5. TeamMate+

TeamMate+ is an internal audit management tool for managing audit workflows throughout their lifecycle. This solution from Wolters Kluwer is purpose-built for organizations of all sizes to manage planning, fieldwork, assessments, and more. 

Key Features

Flexible infrastructure compatibility: The software can be deployed on-premise or hosted from a cloud center while maintaining device responsiveness.

Decisive integration capabilities: TeamMate+ is engineered for specificity, decisive integration, and implementation aligned with business context and needs.

Continuous risk assessment: Regular risk monitoring and dynamic assessments provide real-time visibility into the risk environment and help with better audit planning.

Data-backed insights: The platform has integrated analytics and third-party data visualization options for easily deriving and translating useful reporting metrics.

Stakeholder collaboration: The tool facilitates document submission requests, response monitoring, and other process-level partnership across teams.

Auditee portal for followups: The portal is used for sharing audit issues and response tracking and preserving insights for future use.

Pros

• The platform makes managing audit paperwork simple
• It is very flexible in terms of customization and configuration
• The auditees get automated reminders for response due dates

Cons

• Can feel highly technical for new users
• Creating custom reports is not a smooth experience
• Document requests can be sent to only one person at a time

G2 rating: 4.2/5
“TeamMate+ platform is easy to navigate even for users with minimal technical expertise. It is extremely feature-rich rich with the possibility to systemize all aspects of the audit process from risk assessment to issue tracking.” – G2 review.

6. MetricStream

MetricStream’s internal audit management software is built into the platform to mine complicated data and reduce the time required to conduct audits otherwise. The software drives risk-based audits and provides risk advisor reports to focus on key areas that need the most attention. 

Key features

Customized audits: Audits can be conducted for separate entities in the organization such as business units, team processes, key functions, etc. These entities are mapped to a common library of risks. 

Team collaboration: MetricStream allows multiple auditors from across the team to participate in a single audit plan. It allows the user to create audit plans according to the requirements of different teams to work together. 

Intuitive reports and dashboards: You can configure the format to track the number of transactions during the review and approval workflows. The platform also provides audit status for tracking reports and dashboards to gain real-time access to audit data and history.

[Image source: Metric Stream]

G2 rating: 3.3/5

Pros:

• The platform has in-built and customized workflows for audit process
• It saves time and costs to conduct audits.
• It reduces the need of accountants during audits.

Cons: 

• Lacks basic functionalities like drag and drop
• Difficult to make changes after execution
• The platform cannot handle heavy workload

“MetricStream Audit Management allows us to do an internal audit management of our company in an easier way and reducing internal costs, in this way we obtain a better productivity and save a lot of time what is spectacular for us to have a complete audit of our financial area or of our entire company in a short time.” – G2 review. 

7. Hyperproof

Hyperproof is a compliance automation tool that also serves as an audit management software. It makes the audit process easier for both the auditor and the user through easy collection of evidence and customizable workflows. Internal audits can conducted in the platform by gathering proof, issuing tasks, and delegating deadlines.

Key features

Gap analysis reports: The platform brings to light which controls are lagging in the system during the audit with gap analysis reports. 

Templates and forms: Hyperproof has ready-to-use templates and forms for the internal audit to make the process faster and more efficient. 

Audit trail management: You can track changes and maintain a complete audit trail for all audit activities, ensuring transparency and accountability.

Collaborative audits: Hyperproof provides team collaboration on internal audits, allowing auditors to share documents, assign tasks, and communicate effectively.

[Image source: G2]

Pros:

• Saves time and effort by centralizing documentation
• Provides a communication channel for management
• The platform’s UI provides easy evidence gathering from various sources

Cons: 

• The set-up process is very time consuming
• Due to high level of customization, there is a learning curve for auditors
• Lacks some functionalities while using Teams and SSO logins

G2 rating: 4.6/5

“Centralized audit management with many stakeholders and departments, getting us away from spreadsheets, in-person meetings, emails and frustration in communication.” – G2 review. 

How to select the right internal audit software?

Selecting the right internal audit software involves multiple rounds of research, demos, feature comparison, and business alignment considerations. It is crucial to involve key stakeholders to choose the one that gives the best return on your investment.

Here are some key things that you must consider when selecting an internal audit management tool: 

Check capabilities

List down the non-negotiable features for your organization, and during the demo/trial call, ask if these are available, require customization, or are expected in the future.

An internal audit management software must encompass features like risk management, workflow management, documentation, control testing, and evidence, among others.

Compare pricing

Avoid choosing low-priced solutions as they often lack critical functionalities. Choose a solution that fits your budget but still contains all of the essential features. Additionally, clarify if the proposed pricing is the total cost for a bundled solution or if add-on features come at an additional cost.

Check out Sprinto’s cost calculator to know how much it will cost to get audit ready.

Consider training and support

Training and implementation support help shorten the learning curve and confidently navigate compliance processes. Enquire about the implementation timeline, training approach, desk response time, and support days and hours.

Look for integration capabilities

Take a close look at integration options. The more the integrations, the more the number of tools that come under the fold of an internal audit. Integrations will help bring scalability as the company grows.

Sprinto integrates with 100+ cloud applications and services in one tap.

Scalability and flexibility 

As the organization grows, your internal audit requirements will become more complex. The internal auditing software must be proficient enough to accommodate the increasing volume of data and auditing processes. At the same time, having customization capabilities to suit business needs is a must-have to ensure specificity and accuracy in operations.

Don’t miss on vendor reviews

It is crucial to verify if the vendor has a track record of delivering exceptional services for similar businesses. Also, check for ratings and client reviews on platforms like G2 and Capterra to understand vendor reputation in the industry.

Breeze through audits with Sprinto

Internal audits objectively assure the effectiveness of controls and governance while preparing the organization for independent third-party audits. Choosing the right internal audit management software makes this journey streamlined and confident.

With a compliance automation solution like Sprinto, you can enable granular level control checks, leverage strong risk mitigation, and implement a security-first approach. The platform ensures you reach the 95% audit readiness mark in weeks rather than months. The platform goes beyond audit readiness to help you achieve ‘continuous readiness’ just like Sensiba LLP experienced.

Speak to our team today to kickstart your compliance journey today.

FAQs

What is the cost of internal audit software tools?

The cost of internal audit management software ranges between $10-$40 per user per month or a $150-$6,000 flat fee. (iDeals) Most tools provide custom and quote-based pricing with respect to the company’s requirements. 

What are the benefits of internal audit software?

An internal audit management software centralizes data storage, ensures effective risk management, consolidates insightful reports, and ensures operational efficiency by facilitating better collaboration.

How does internal auditing software help with compliance management?

Internal audit software helps the effectiveness of compliance efforts initiated by the organization. It spots gaps in processes and facilitates corrective action initiation while also generating reports for audits.

Are there any free or open-source internal audit software available?

Yes, some free and open-source internal audit management software are available in the market, like Open-AudiT and AuditScripts, but they lack critical features for internal audit management.