According to a recent market research, the internal audit services market is on a steady rise, growing from $70.87 billion in 2024 to $74.83 billion in 2025, and projected to hit $99.22 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 5.76%. This upward trend is a clear signal that internal audits are non-negotiable for sustainable, compliant, and competitive businesses.
For your organization, that means one thing: it might be the right time to level up your internal audit game. Implementing a robust internal audit management system is the right step in that direction. To simplify this process and to make sure that your internal audits are always optimized, audit management solutions like Effivity offer a strategic way to streamline your audit processes, ensure compliance, and drive continuous improvement.
In this article, we’ll explore the importance of internal audits and how Effivity simplifies your internal audits, right from planning to execution.
What is Internal Audit?
As the term might suggest, internal audit is an activity that reviews the internal procedures, systems, and controls of your organization in an unbiased way. Because of its unbiased nature, internal audit is mostly performed by an independent entity outside of your organization.
The goal of the process is to ensure the credibility of your processes and business practices and to check that they are in accordance with established industrial and regulatory standards such as ISO. In fact, internal audit execution of your quality management system is a crucial requirement under ISO 9001 Clause 9.2.
Importance of Internal Audits
Apart from maintaining compliance with ISO 9001 internal audit process requirement, these audits are also essential for several other reasons. These include:
1. Improved Efficiency of Operations
Internal audits are used to evaluate business processes and uncover any inefficiencies, redundancies, or outdated practices that might hinder your business’s operational performance. When such issues are identified, you can efficiently streamline your workflows, reallocate your resources, and enhance productivity, resulting in improved operational efficiency. Along with that, audits also assess your team’s performance and adherence to internal policies, promoting accountability and a culture of continuous improvement, which further drives efficiency.
2. Risk Assessment
Risk management is another benefit of internal audits, as it enables you to identify potential risks, whether related to compliance, financial controls, or operational vulnerabilities, before they escalate into irrevocable issues.
Internal audits assess the effectiveness of your existing controls and then recommend improvements. This risk-based approach helps you mitigate risks, protect assets, and ensure business continuity.
3. Identification of Opportunities for Improvements
Since internal audits are objective, they provide data-driven insights into business operations, often revealing opportunities for process improvement, innovation, and competitive advantage that may not be apparent to those involved in day-to-day activities.
Moreover, when your business operations are regularly reviewed, you can seamlessly adapt to market changes, regulatory updates, and evolving customer expectations.
How Effivity Simplifies Your Internal Audit Planning and Execution?
Effivity works as an internal audit management software that makes your internal audit planning and execution truly effortless. Its Internal Audit Module is dedicated to streamlining every stage of your internal audits, from audit schedule automation to reporting, to provide you with a hassle-free audit experience. Here’s a breakdown of how this module works:
1. Audit Planning
Effivity’s internal audit planning software begins by creating a schedule for all the departments and processes. Next, it crafts a master audit plan for each of the scheduled audits. This involves specifying auditors, auditees, locations, and the timing of every audit. Along with this, you can also configure and define the roles of auditors, make audit checklists that align with the internal audit checklist of ISO 9001.
2. Automated Alerts
The internal audit module functions as an audit tracking software. It easily keeps track of all your scheduled audits and sends automated alerts to all relevant stakeholders about your impending audits. With Effivity, you can send real-time notifications to auditors, auditees, and management to ensure proactive preparations and minimize any disruptions that might arise.
3. Internal Audit Report
The module captures and stores all your audit findings in an organized and structured manner with comprehensive reports and observations, that too in real-time. All the procedures and results associated with the internal audit process can be easily accessed and evaluated through Effivity’s document control module. This seamless cross-module collaboration also supports data-driven decision-making.
4. Non-Conformance
Non-conformance is a common problem in many businesses. This is where internal audits prove to be the most significant. Any non-conformance that’s identified during your internal audits can be easily rectified by integrating the Internal Audit Module with Effivity’s other Non-Conformance module.
Under this cross-module collaboration, you can perform corrective actions by identifying the root causes, defining resolution plans, and tracking progress. The audit module also sends automated reminders to help you avoid any delays and oversights in your compliance management.
5. Document Capture
There won’t be much use of your internal audits if you don’t have anything to show for it during compliance checks. Which is why the internal audit module of Effivity ensures that very procedure, checklist, and form related to internal audit are completely recorded and securely stored and organized within its documented information module.
Under this module, you get full control over access and versioning, so only authorized personnel can view or update documents. Plus, versioning ensures that all your records are always updated. This centralized record of your internal audits serves as the best proof of your compliance and accountability and showcases your organization’s credibility to your partners, auditors, and regulators.
Final Thoughts
The role internal audits play in maintaining your organization’s efficiency is quite significant. Whether it’s for enhancing quality, adhering to relevant regulatory standards, or giving you that competitive edge, internal audits allow you to scale your business by ticking every checkbox. With audit management solutions like Effivity, you can easily achieve all this in the most systematic and strategic way.
Visit our website to learn more about the internal audit module of Effivity!
