Risk or Audit or Both?
A modular solution supplied as a complete set of tools for risk, audit and compliance management, turn features on when you need them at no extra cost.
Risk Management Software Set
Risk Registers, Risk Workshops, Risk Indicators, Risk Actions, Control Assessments, What if Scenarios and Incident Reporting.
Ideal for ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and ISO 31000 Compliance
Audit Management software Set
Working Papers, Audit Planning, Action Tracking and Audit Questionnaires.
You can change or add new features and users at any time.
Risk management software is a software designed primarily to limit, reduce or lower the risk and security lapses, which organizations are exposed to in their day to day activities. This software is also known as compliance management software.
The software works by way of identifying potential risks of an asset, wrong decisions, security breaches etc., within the IT system and alerting an Organization on where the risk lies. Such Organization can then control the risk. They also warns Organizations of impending IT breakdown which can seriously affect its operations.
Bank and non-bank financial institutions uses risk management software more than organizations in the other sectors of a free enterprise economy. They are even more careful with the lessons learned from "Rogue Trader Nick Leeson" incident.
The type of risks that the software is designed to guard against are:
* Interest rate Risk
* Credit Risk
* Uncertainties in Financial Market
* Attacks for Organization's Adversaries or Enemies e.g. DDOS attack.
* Legal Liabilities
* Product Failure
* Data Breach Risk etc.
The regulatory agencies in some countries (Central Banks, Deposit Insurance Corporations) make it mandatory for Bank and non-Bank Financial institutions to have this software installed. Basel II Accord is an International Regulation put forward by International Committee on Bank Supervision to make sure that Financial Institutions that carries Riskier Assets provide enough Capital against that risk than those with safer portfolio. It also stipulates that Financial Institutions should publish a statement of risky investment and risk management practices.
Risk management software like Calipso, Entropy, Incident management and Emex are very rich in risk management and Compliance. They are preferred by some giants that integrated financial trading system in their platform. Other risk management software e.g. Analitica, Emex EHS Solution, Entropy and A1 Tracker are also used by organizations in their quest to manage their risk.
Below are some risk management software firms and their products:
* BSI
"Entropy" is a software developed by software giant, BSI. It is preferred by users who are interested in the reduction in cost and effort needed to manage risk. It has a standard based approach to businesses system management. The software has necessary tools put in place to promote compliance and overall performance.
* ENABLON
"Incident Management" is another risk management software, developed by Enablon. It is integrated with the following features: compliance management, incident management, greater
operational risk control etc.
* EMEX
"EMEX EHS Solution" is a software developed by EMEX, another software risk management firm. It is designed to create a web based solution in the area of efficiencies and compliance and ensure they are being effectively managed.
* FAST TRACK
"Fast Track" risk management software is owned by a firm called FAST TRACK. It is known to be very effective in the area of regulatory compliance in mission critical environment e.g. ISO9001, ISO14001 etc.
The above software products are just stated to mention but a few as there are many others within the software risk management specialization.
Audit Management Software is a software designed by experts who combined knowledge of accounting & auditing with that of information system. Many audit software solutions, otherwise known as software audit tools are very sophisticated and are designed to take care of every aspect of audit management.
Audit, been a statutory requirement of an organization, can be defined as: Examination and verification of the books, records and assets of an organization, in order to express an opinion.
The auditor’s opinion will be on:
(1.) Whether the books and records were properly and correctly kept or not.
(2.) Whether the revenue account, profit and loss account, reveal the correct trading result of an organization or not.
(3.) Whether the balance sheet shows the correct position of assets and liabilities as at a certain date or not.
Audit management is the responsibility of audit managers and their audit teammate in an audit firm for external audit and the responsibility of audit personnel in an internal audit situation.
A good Audit management software or auditing software as the case may be, should have components like: inventory management or inventory software, payroll management, asset management etc. These various components are then integrated and made to work together for system auditing and to produce needed result.
We shall look into whether the use of audit software is mandatory or compulsory and should be used by audit firms. The only statutory requirement in most countries of the word is audit. An organization like limited Liability Companies and Corporations must be audited every year upon presentation of its accounts to the auditors by the directors of such organization. The auditor is expected to present audit report, otherwise known as management letter to the directors and the directors must present the report to shareholders in an annual general meeting. The auditor must also file annual returns for taxation purposes. The auditor is not statutorily required to use audit software in other to do his work.
The use of audit software is a recent phenomenon. Many auditing firms are still using manual method to do their work. However, there are numerous advantages of using audit management software which has made its use worthwhile for audit firms. The advantages of using audit management software cannot be over emphasized. Audit firms that wants to comply with industry’s best practices and can afford the cost of audit management software, with associated cost of training its members of staff, normally make use of audit management software.
Audit management software reduces manpower cost as an audit assignment that can take two weeks to accomplish can be completed within four days for example. It makes audit report writing process easy for auditors. It is a good innovation about the way audit work is conducted and an audit firm that uses audit management software is considered to be better and more sophisticated than others who does not automate their audit procedure.
Let us now look at some audit management software as a guide for prospective users:
(1.) TrackWise: This software is popular because of its ability to handle any type of audit, internal audit, external audit and third party audit.
(2.) Audit Management Software Systems: This another audit management software that can be used to audit organizations like life science and regulated companies, where regular audit is necessary in order to comply with safety and quality requirement.
(3.) Policy and Procedure Management: This software was designed by a company called ComplianceBridge. The software is simple and easy to use and it is very good in the area of monitoring, auditing policy compliance and reporting.
(4.) ACL Analitics Exchange: This is a software owned by ACL Services. It was designed for centralized projects and control monitoring.
Other audit management software are: AuditPro, AUDITworks and Compliance manager, to mention but a few.
The use of audit management software requires training and re-training of members of staff of audit firm. The training are expected to be provided most of the time, by the company that designed each software and in some cases by consultants.
1. ISO 27001 for information security in financial organisations
2. SYSC system and controls handbook of FCA for investment managers
3. Central Bank of Ireland – same as FCA
4. Luxembourg CSSF - same as FCA
5. AIFMD (alternative investment fund management directive) - regulation of managers of alternative funds
6. UCITs directive (undertaking of collective investments in transferable securities) - regulation of mutual funds
7. Operational Due Diligence questionnaires per market participant – fund manager, custodian, administrator, broker
8. ILPA DDQ – for investments in private equity. Information gathering not CRSA
9. Managed futures association DDQ for commodity trading advisors. Information gathering not CRSA
10. EVCA – venture capital association DDQ. Information gathering not CRSA
11. INREV – guidelines for real estate investment managers. Information gathering not CRSA
12. HFSB – hedge funds standards board best practice questionnaire.
13. AIMA – alternative investment managers association - DDQ for fund/ investment advisor. Information gathering not CRSA
