SmartSuite for the Chief Audit Executive

Internal Audit Management shows every auditable entity, when it was last covered and what the plan commits to, so a question about coverage of a material risk is answered from the universe itself.

Audit steps, templates and documentation standards are enforced in each file, so the quality assurance and improvement program reviews conformance rather than rebuilding consistency team by team.

Role-based access keeps audit documentation with the function and gives management and auditors only what they should see, which supports the independence you report to the committee.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) links each planned engagement to the risks and strategic objectives it covers, so the Chief Risk Officer and you can show the plan follows exposure, not habit.

SOX Compliance gives the External Auditor controlled access to testing results and evidence that your team and the Chief Financial Officer's team produced, so reliance discussions start from shared records.

Compliance Assessments & Testing results sit alongside audit findings on the same controls, so overlap between second-line testing and your engagements is seen and reduced.

Trends across operational, IT, finance and compliance audits show which findings recur and which business areas keep missing dates, so the committee hears about themes, not just this quarter's list.

Assurance activity, significant findings and remediation progress are summarized from live engagement records, and the AI Assistant in a SmartDoc field drafts the narrative, so the pack reflects the position on the day.

Significant deficiencies and material weaknesses are tracked to closure with testing history, so the year-end discussion with the Audit Committee Chair starts from documented status rather than recollection.

Chief Executive Officer

The Chief Audit Executive leads the internal audit function and is accountable for the risk-based annual audit plan, the audit methodology and quality assurance program, the function's independence and objectivity, and the assurance given to the board over governance, risk management and control. They report functionally to the audit committee and administratively to executive management, oversee engagement execution and follow-up and coordinate assurance with the second line and the external auditor.

SmartSuite gives the CAE complete visibility across the audit lifecycle in Internal Audit Management: coverage against the audit universe, the status of every engagement, key risk indicators and open issues in one view. The CAE can see which parts of the universe the plan has reached, which engagements are in fieldwork or review and where findings are accumulating, without waiting for the Audit Director's summary.

The annual audit plan is linked to enterprise risks and strategic objectives in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), so coverage is demonstrably risk-based rather than asserted to be. For any top risk the CAE can show which engagements address it and when; for any engagement, which risks and objectives justify it. That is the evidence the audit committee and regulators ask for when they test whether the plan follows risk.

Every finding is tracked to closure in Issues Management with an owner and a due date, and aging actions are flagged before the committee asks about them. The CAE sees overdue and repeatedly deferred actions across all engagements, which is the basis for escalation to executive management and for the remediation picture presented to the audit committee. Management's progress is read from the record, not reported by management.

Audit results are connected to compliance testing and SOX evidence, so internal audit, the compliance function and the controls team report from the same records rather than three reconciled versions. SOX Compliance and Compliance Assessments & Testing hold the second line's testing; when internal audit relies on or re-performs that work, the relationship is recorded. That coordination with the Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Risk Officer is part of the CAE's remit.

SmartSuite generates audit committee and executive reports summarizing assurance activity and remediation progress without manual compilation. The CAE reports to the Audit Committee Chair on coverage, significant findings and remediation from the same records the committee can read directly, and to the Chief Executive Officer on the administrative side. The External Auditor and the Chief Financial Officer work from the same findings when assurance is being coordinated.

New customers can start with SmartSuite Onboarding, a guided four-week program around one or two priority workflows. For an audit function the first is the audit universe: load it and map it to enterprise risks, bring in the current plan and open findings, and configure the function's methodology into the engagement templates. Engagements in progress are recorded at their current stage. The Audit Director, Audit Managers, Audit Analyst and Audit Quality Assurance Reviewer then work in one system, and the CAE's reporting line to the committee is served from a record the function controls.