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Description

Risk-Based Audit Planning: Mapping, Prioritising and Building the Programme

Build an audit plan you can defend before the committee rather than rolling forward last year's programme

  • 0.43 days — 3 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Intermediate
  • Up to 6 participants

Many audit plans are built out of habit: last year's assignments are rolled forward, a request from executive management is added, and the calendar is filled until resources are exhausted. The result is that sensitive processes remain out of scope for several financial years while others are audited without the risk level justifying it.

These three hours are designed for practising auditors. They rebuild the chain that runs from the audit universe through to assignment selection, with explicit scoring criteria. Participants leave with a prioritisation method they can apply to their own scope.

Learning objectives

  • Define the audit universe of your organisation
  • Set risk scoring criteria suited to your activity
  • Prioritise auditable entities and processes according to their criticality
  • Balance selected assignments against available resources
  • Present the audit plan and obtain approval from governance bodies

What makes this programme different

The audit universe is broken down into concrete entities rather than broad functions
Risk scoring is tested on processes brought by participants
The move from prioritisation to calendar takes account of the days genuinely available

Programme

1Building the Audit Universe

Knowing what can be audited before making choices

  • Breaking the organisation down into auditable entities and processes
  • Sources of information to populate this inventory
  • Alignment with the existing risk map
  • Taking account of control arrangements already in place

2Scoring and Prioritising Risks

Making trade-offs explicit

  • Selecting scoring criteria and their weightings
  • Distinguishing between gross risk and residual risk
  • Factoring in the time since the last audit and known incidents
  • Handling specific requests from executive management
  • Critically reviewing the resulting ranking

3Moving to the Annual Programme

From ranking to a realistic calendar

  • Estimating workload by type of assignment
  • Balancing broad coverage against depth of fieldwork
  • Reserving capacity for unplanned assignments
  • Building the case for presenting the plan to governance bodies

Who is it for

Practising internal auditors as well as heads of audit and internal control officers responsible for annual planning.

Prerequisites

Prior practice of internal audit or internal control

Dates & locations

12 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.