While auditing MNOP Technologies, the internal auditor observed the payroll process in detail, from managing employee records to the final disbursement of salaries. During the review, the team illustrated how data flows

A flow chart provides a visual sequence of the steps in a process, illustrates the relationship between parts, and identifies what the process does or should do. Flowcharts can be created in a variety of ways by the internal auditors, from informal pencil drawings on scraps of paper to technically sophisticated computer graphics. While in case of mature control environments, the flow charts explaining the flow of information and key stage-gates/ key controls of the process are already documented, yet there are many organizations where such documentation may not be available to a level which is detailed enough, or self-explanatory to meet the purposes of an internal auditor. In such cases, the internal auditors need to draw their own flow charts to obtain a complete understanding of the process. Creation of flow charts by internal auditor based on process walkthroughs has following advantages: In the process of creating the flowchart, internal auditor can discover weakness in controls such as weak responsibility/accountability definitions, supervision by the wrong level of the organization, failure to segregate functions to avoid conflict of interest, and so on. A flowchart can provide an accurate description of process design, and later on when an internal auditor finds some exceptions to the process, it is easy to understand the risk or potential impact of that observation on the outcome of the process.