What are ERP Auditing?
An ERP audit is an investigation into aspects of that organization’s ERP systems with an opinion as to the adequacy of the ERP. An ERP audit expresses an opinion whether the records and processes are adequate. ERP, of course, is a large, wide-ranging set of tools. Adequacy can be defined from many perspectives, which leads to the objective of the ERP audit.
Audit for System and Security
We can look at an ERP audit from a systems perspective too. Do we have the right hardware and network to best support our use of ERP? Are any users suffering slow processing because their computer is obsolete or improperly set up? Is our wireless network consistently available in the back corner of the warehouse? What is our actual downtime related to server or cloud access compared to our standards? Are those downtime standards appropriate for our business?
Security is extremely important and an ERP audit based on security will find areas for improvement. Begin with examining which users have access to system data and the limits set. Financial records should generally belong to the accounting department. Engineers might own part numbers and bills of material. Other users can view engineering records but not have the ability to make changes. You might find that a warehouse clerk needs to update the approved warehouse for a part but write access is only available to engineering. The easy solution is to open up access to that warehouse clerk while establishing some control to ensure to misbehavior is allowed. We also could develop screen personalization, a simple form of customization where that clerk can update only the fields they need but can only view other fields.
Benefits of ERP for Auditing
- Financial Transparency.
- Reduce Reporting Risk.
- Enhance Internal Controls.
- Real-Time Analytics.
