Automated Audit Scheduling Engine for Bias Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Internal audit departments face challenges in creating feasible and efficient annual audit plans, which are often time-consuming and resource-intensive, and can be biased due to human discretion, affecting the independence of the audit process.
Innovation Solution
An automated scheduling engine determines an audit schedule by grouping events based on shared units, prioritizing them by duration and unit priority, and selecting time slots considering resource availability and constraints, using a database to store and manage audit events, system parameters, and resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual audit planning is used, then human discretion can be applied to make decisions, but the independence of the audit process is degraded due to unwanted biases or prejudices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of audit planning with an automated computer-based system. The scheduling engine automatically creates audit schedules by processing audit objects, determining priorities, allocating resources, and generating timelines without human intervention, thereby eliminating biases while maintaining operational effectiveness.
2Ease of operation
If manual audit planning is used, then flexibility in decision making is maintained, but the process becomes time-consuming and resource-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service audit planning where the scheduling engine autonomously performs all planning tasks including creating audit objects, determining priorities, allocating resources, and generating schedules without requiring manual human effort, thereby dramatically reducing time and resource consumption while maintaining operational flexibility.
3Productivity
If automated scheduling engine is used, then time and resource consumption is reduced, but complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the audit planning system into distinct modular components: audit object creation module, priority determination module, resource allocation module, and schedule generation module. Each module performs a specific function independently, which reduces overall system complexity while maintaining high productivity through automated processing.
4Reliability
If automated scheduling engine is used, then human bias is minimized, but the extent of automation increases system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces human decision-making mechanisms with automated computer-based algorithms that objectively process audit objects, determine priorities based on predefined criteria, allocate resources systematically, and generate schedules without human intervention, thereby maximizing objectivity while managing automation complexity through modular design.
Data Source
AI summary
An audit schedule is determined from a database storing a master data set comprising audit events, system parameters, and resources. Audit events are grouped according to information of the master data set, for example shared units (e.g., product, service, organization, risk level, audit type, etc.). Audit groups are prioritized by factors such as unit priority and audit duration. A random audit event within the group is chosen, and then a time slot is selected according to a desired distribution (e.g., left-to-right), determining resource availability for that slot. The procedure may optionally consider additional constraints (e.g., manually added, national holidays, auditor availability) outside the master data set. The procedure shuffles through audit events of the group with the highest priority, and then through audit events of lower priority groups, filling out the audit schedule according to resource availability and constraints. Audit schedule changes are recorded in a change log data object.