How to position internal audit has always been a controversial topic. The core question is what role does internal audit play in social and economic activities, is it a single role or multiple roles? With the development of social economy, does the role orientation of internal audit remain unchanged, and can it be given new content with the changes of social and economic environment? Questioning these problems is because the role is not well grasped and can not be found, and there may be the phenomenon that the audit is not in place or misplaced offside. First, confusion: the status quo that the role of internal audit is not harmonious 1. The opposite role. In enterprises, from top management to ordinary employees, audit is regarded as the opposite. Today, there are still many managers in enterprises who think that the internal audit department can't directly create value and profit, and there is even a saying of "fire prevention, theft prevention and audit prevention", which excludes internal audit from the organization. We often use "those who dare to expose problems can't stand it, and those who dare to expose problems can't stand it" to describe the relationship between internal audit and leaders and internal organizations. This antagonistic role artificially alienates the relationship between the internal audit department and other business departments of the enterprise, which makes the internal audit department in an awkward position in the enterprise. 2. The role of offending people. If an enterprise wants to choose an auditor, it will always say to it: Auditing is a job that offends people, so you should be mentally prepared. This invisibly makes people feel that the audit work is just "tit for tat" with the audited object. So over time, many people think that the choice of audit work is not from the heart, but forced, and the appeal of audit work is greatly reduced. 3. a dispensable role. The existence of internal audit is not out of the enterprise's own needs, so the status of internal audit in the enterprise is not high, and its working mode can be vividly summarized as "knowing nothing beforehand and being wise afterwards". For example, the resignation audit of managers will not be carried out until someone is transferred or promoted, and the role of audit cannot be highlighted. 4. Almighty role. Enterprise internal audit business involves almost every economic activity of scientific research, production and management, such as bidding for construction projects and price comparison of materials. On the surface, internal auditors supervise every economic activity, but in fact, this is only a form, which has not played a substantive role, because many internal auditors do not have the knowledge and business skills in infrastructure audit, economic responsibility audit, bidding audit and so on. 5. The role of poverty. Internal auditors are often required to accept a poor environment. For example, in terms of treatment, many units "bid" (reward) for internal auditors is not based on the value contribution of internal audit work, but think that the internal audit work is not so valuable and set a very low "price" at will. In the whole financial reporting business process, accountants are in the upper "process" and internal auditors are in the lower "process"; In terms of business knowledge and skills, internal auditors need to have more knowledge and higher business skills than accountants, because they should not only understand statements, but also point out the "defects" of statements and put forward management suggestions and solutions to problems. Therefore, the labor complexity of internal auditors is higher than that of accountants, and their contribution should be higher than or not lower than that of accountants. But in reality, the income of internal auditors is much lower than that of accountants. 6. The role of Monday morning quarterback. The audit is mainly conducted afterwards. If some business risks have occurred and caused serious losses, even if the accounts are carefully reviewed and the internal control loopholes are thoroughly analyzed, I am afraid it will not help. In the face of these disharmonies in internal audit work, one question after another will come to mind: is the relationship between internal audit and audited object the relationship between supervisor and supervised? Playing "Catch me if you dare"? Is it a contradiction? If so, can the internal audit that conflicts with the organization create value for shareholders? Where is the vitality of internal audit? Can internal auditors regard this work as a noble profession? How to experience the fun of auditing profession? 1. Internal audit is a servant and two masters, and the role orientation under the national audit system is contradictory. Article 2 of the Provisions of the National Audit Office on Internal Audit clearly stipulates that the internal audit of an enterprise is an internal organization of enterprise management and independently exercises its supervisory function. At the same time, Article 29 of the Audit Law stipulates that the internal audit of enterprises, as an integral part of the national audit system, should be carried out under the guidance and supervision of the national audit. This dual identity makes many enterprises regard internal audit as the "insider" and "scout" of national audit institutions. Internal audit institutions and personnel can not get the trust of enterprise leaders, and it is not easy to understand the real situation of major economic activities of enterprises. 2. The internal audit is based on a single set, and the enterprise lacks internal motivation. The internal audit of enterprises in China was established under the intervention of the government, not for the internal needs of enterprises. The person in charge of the enterprise is only the operator of the enterprise assets, not the owner of the enterprise assets. He has no subjective requirements for internal audit, lacks understanding of the nature, function and function of internal audit, and does not regard internal audit institutions as an important part of the enterprise. Some business leaders even regard internal audit institutions and personnel as dissidents, unwilling and afraid to equip them with proficient personnel. In the case of streamlining the merged institutions, the internal audit institutions of enterprises will become victims. 3. The audit orientation is "lost", and the focus of audit work often changes. In recent years, audit has been paid more and more attention, but the risks in the production and operation of enterprises are still endless. What is the reason? In addition to the system, another very important issue is that the focus of audit work often changes. It is difficult to follow a set direction when one job is not finished and suddenly transferred to another job. Regardless of the actual production and operation of enterprises, the audit departments of some enterprises set goals that are not in harmony with their own positioning, shouting unrealistic slogans such as "no accounts that cannot be opened, no problems that cannot be discovered, and no tasks that cannot be completed". If the internal audit department does not have the ability to carry out infrastructure audit, management audit and internal control audit, and does not position itself as an all-round audit according to the specific actual situation of the enterprise, it can only be the opposite. 4. Inertia resistance formed by traditional ideas. In the past, there was a tendency to highlight supervision in internal audit, which made internal auditors have an inherent concept that only by emphasizing supervision and checking and correcting mistakes can internal audit reflect its value. This understanding is not comprehensive enough. It seems that auditing only has the function of supervision, and unless problems are found out, they are not real auditors. 5. I can't see the impact of scientific and technological development on audit work. In the real economic society, people often regard audit as audit, and think that turning over vouchers and books is audit. Auditors with this understanding despise themselves and do not strive for progress; Non-auditors with this understanding look down on auditing, resulting in the wrong idea that anyone can do auditing. Imagine that if the financial network is completed, the background functions of the financial system are all available, and the work of auditing vouchers and account books is gone, will there be no need for auditors? If China's market economy system is completely established, and the audit objects are diverse and have their own characteristics, it is impossible to implement a unified audit model. How can we understand the economic activities of enterprises? 6. Resistance of corporate culture. Any enterprise is faced with the problem of corporate culture. When an enterprise tries to further improve management, optimize organization and business processes to improve work efficiency and economic benefits, corporate culture may show great resistance like an iceberg floating on the sea. For an enterprise committed to building efficient internal control, it is not easy to ask employees to be honest, not only not to hide problems, but also to find problems in time and actively discover all hidden dangers, and to tolerate any supervision and criticism. For example, in the production and operation activities of enterprises, few employees actively report abnormal events such as violating business ethics, conflicts between public and private interests, accepting property from dealers or asking for illegal interests. Some employees often report good news instead of bad news at work, thinking that doing more is better than doing less, shirking responsibility or hanging high when encountering problems, and so on. 7. The approval of "Promotion" is invalid. When introducing audit work, we pay more attention to traditional fields such as financial audit and infrastructure audit, but fail to recommend new fields such as internal control audit and human resources audit. When talking about functions, we often only talk about supervision, not about services, evaluation, certification and other functions, especially value-added services to enterprises; When talking about the relationship with the audited object, we often only talk about the relationship between supervision and supervision, not about partnership; When it comes to the results of audit work, we often only emphasize how many violations of laws and regulations have been discovered, how many clues to major cases have been discovered, and how many "hard" indicators such as small coffers have been discovered, without mentioning the "soft" indicators that have contributed to enterprises. This kind of incomplete publicity and introduction has caused people to have the illusion of auditing, equating auditing with the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and even the auditors themselves "misread" auditing, resulting in other important functions and contributions of auditing being kept unknown in the boudoir. 1. The transformation of roles should start with ideas. First of all, internal auditors should change their ideas and regard internal audit as a profession that adds value to enterprises, improves their competitiveness and brings value to people who come into contact with internal audit, rather than simply issuing an audit report. If internal auditors can't even see the value of their own work, and their concepts are still at the level of supervision, and neither the audit client nor the audit object can agree with your work, how can they be required to cooperate with the audit? Internal auditors can only know what to do if they deeply understand their role in the organization. 2. Break through the framework of financial audit and ex post audit, and expand the field of internal audit. China's internal audit has experienced three stages of development: the first stage is mainly to carry out financial compliance audit; In 1990s, on the basis of adhering to financial compliance audit, internal audit gradually carried out management benefit audit marked by budget management audit, project investment audit, purchase and sale price comparison audit and economic responsibility audit. Since the 20th century, internal audit has gradually changed from financial audit to management benefit audit. The Statement of Practice Standards and Duties formulated and revised by the International Institute of Internal Auditors points out: "Internal audit is an independent and objective assurance and consulting activity, aiming at increasing value and improving the operation of the organization. It evaluates and improves the effectiveness of risk management, control and management processes through a systematic approach to help organizations achieve their goals. " Li Jinhua, the former Auditor-General of the National Audit Office, once pointed out that the orientation of internal audit should be four words: "management+benefit". We should conform to this evolution trend, and the audit scope should be changed from traditional financial audit to modern internal audit, and afterwards audit should be changed to in-process and afterwards audit. The focus and pursuit level of audit should be expanded. The traditional corporate governance theory is a shareholder-centered "shareholder governance model", but with the development of social economy and the change of corporate governance, the traditional corporate governance theory has been abandoned and a new "stakeholder governance model" based on stakeholder governance has emerged. According to the stakeholder theory, the subject of corporate governance is not limited to shareholders, but refers to a wide range of stakeholders, including shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, governments, communities and so on. Based on the independent status of internal audit, it is natural to assume the above multiple roles, participate in the corporate governance system, and correct the defects and deficiencies of corporate governance. In essence, internal audit has become an important part of the current corporate governance framework. Therefore, the internal auditor should be a person with a big thinking pattern, not only for himself, but also for others; Pay attention not only to the present, but also to the future; Not only care about this enterprise, but also care about related enterprises; Not only the organization you serve, but also the organization that helps improve others; Not only improve the present, but also consider improving the future. Only by expanding the focus of attention, the level of pursuit, the direction of efforts and the level of improvement can the value of internal audit be amplified. 4. We must abandon the audit misunderstanding that the more problems we find, the better. Checking problems is not the ultimate goal of auditing. The more questions are investigated, it does not mean that the performance of the audit will be greater, but we should consider improving the future work of the enterprise. Only by changing the audit from "loss discovery" to "risk prevention" can we reduce the accumulation and amplification effect of errors and control the potential system risks. 5. We should handle the relationship between internal audit supervision function and other functions. With the continuous development of social economy, the function of internal audit has gradually evolved from supervision to identification, evaluation, confirmation and consultation. When the internal audit loses its supervisory function, it loses its soul. However, if the internal audit only pays attention to supervision, it will lose its broad development space and significance. Therefore, in enterprises, we must carefully handle the relationship between the supervision function of internal audit and other functions, that is, the problem of service and supervision. (Author: China Aerospace Science and Industry Group Liuzhou 80 1 Factory Finance Department)