Audit Observation : Quality vs Quantity

Most of us, at the start of our career as Internal Auditors, believe that the number of audit observations in the audit report will give more weight to the report. But, as the time goes by, we realise that it is actually the substance that matters in a bigger perspective. At the end of the day, We work for the Audit committee. If the observation is not substantial for them, it is as good as a clean report

The point is not to persuade you to overlook small observations but, it is to shift your focus to place where you can find a more impactful one. The focus of the report should not be to get the reverts on points but to highlight the lapses in processes and as auditors, we should always look for those.

As a newcomer to the field, one should not relax upon finding a bunch of low hanging observations but to work hard on finding the substantial ones.

Give weight to your observation and not your report