NEXIA SAB&T

The Internal Audit unit of Nexia SAB&T conducts internal audits in diverse environments, within organisations that vary in purpose, size, complexity, and structure guided by the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing as issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), which provide clear guidance on Assurance and Consulting Services within the Internal Audit environment.

Out-source vs Co-source

Nexia SAB&T can reduce their clients’ costs, free up capital, and enhance their ability to focus on what they do best, their primary operations, by providing either out-sourced or co-sourced internal audit services. With organisations being driven to do more with less, the internal audit (IA) function has logically become the target for strategic sourcing. Achieving effective IA capabilities requires a significant level of investment in skilled resources, methods, training and technical infrastructure.

Co-sourcing Services

Nexia SAB&T can supplement organisations’ existing internal audit capabilities, by providing specialised skill sets and undertaking once-off audit assignments as needed.

Out-sourcing Services

Where an organisation does not have an in-house Internal Audit function, Nexia SAB&T can advise them on critical business risks, implementation of effective controls and compliance processes, identifying better practices, reducing the cost of operations and realising improvement opportunities.

Professional Internal Audit Resourcing

Nexia SAB&T’s internal audit unit consists of appropriately skilled and experienced audit professionals that are readily available, to undertake work under the direction of an organisation’s internal audit function. These engagements may be undertaken on a once-off or on a continuing basis.

Nexia SAB&T’s internal audit unit works with heads of internal audit, executive management and audit committees to develop a quality internal audit function that delivers strategic business assurance, identifies business opportunities and enhances organisational value.

Assurance Services

Internal Audit and related assurance services provided by Nexia SAB&T involve the internal auditor’s objective assessment of evidence to provide an independent opinion or conclusions regarding an entity, its operations, functions, processes, systems, or other subject matter. Assurance services provided by Nexia SAB&T include the following types of audit:

Financial Audit

A review of an organisation’s objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies.

Governance Audit

Assessing and making appropriate recommendations for improving the governance processes in accomplishment of the following objectives:

• Communicating risk and control information to appropriate areas of the organisation
• Coordinating the activities of and communicating information among the board, external and internal auditors, and management
• Ensuring effective organisational performance management and accountability
• Promoting appropriate ethics and values within the organisation

Operational Audit

A systematic review of effectiveness, efficiency and economy of operations. An operational audit is a future-oriented, systematic, and independent evaluation of organisational activities.

Performance Audit

An independent examination of a program, function, operation or the management systems and procedures of an organisation to assess whether the entity is achieving economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the employment of available resources.

Integrated Auditing

Nexia SAB&T understand that more and more organisations are seeking an internal audit service provider that focuses simultaneously on its financial, operational and IT control processes.

Integrated audits save time and money, while at the same time minimising audit risk.

Nexia SAB&T’s internal audit unit deploys multi-disciplinary teams of professionals experienced in financial and operational internal auditing and risk assessment to augment and enhance an organisations’ existing internal audit capabilities. The teams work at making internal audit functions, enterprise risk management programmes, as well as risk and controls management more efficient and effective.

Governance, Regulatory & Compliance Services

Nexia SAB&T provide consulting services which are advisory in nature, and are generally performed at the specific request of their clients.

Governance, regulatory and compliance issues continue to be complex business challenges. Increased accountability and potential exposure to liability means accounting authorities need to ensure that corporate governance standards are adhered to and that robust compliance management systems are in place.

Nexia SAB&T’s internal audit unit can assist management to identify applicable laws and regulations to gain a better understanding of the regulatory environment. Their approach combines an analysis of the legal framework together with an assessment of the systems and processes which can help to ensure compliance and sound corporate governance.

Some of the Governance, Regulatory & Compliance services Nexia SAB&T provide include:

• Board and audit committee assessments
• Board training
• Development of internal control frameworks, in line with CoSO
• Governance framework design
• Quality assurance reviews
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance / readiness assessments

Combined Assurance

King III recognizes the possibility of “too much” assurance and has recommended a combined assurance approach. In chapter three it states that the audit committee should ensure that a combined assurance model is applied to provide a coordinated approach to all assurance activities.

The internal audit unit of Nexia SAB&T is integrated with its enterprise risk management and governance assurance units and can assist in developing and implementing a combined assurance plan.

Our service offering:

*Assurance engagements

*Limited assurance engagements

*Audits of Performance Information

*Performance Audits

*Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance

*Specialised Audits (agreed-upon procedures / factual findings)

Our staff

Our greatest strength lies in our people and their commitment to exceed our clients’ expectations. We have invested substantial resources in training and recruiting quality talent. A formal system of mentorship, development and performance evaluation is in place to recognise, reward and guide our staff throughout their careers at Nexia SAB&T.

Value added services

Technical Advice and Interpretations – Nexia SAB&T has a dedicated technical division with skilled and experienced individuals to research topics and formulate opinions on the application of accounting and legislative standards and accounting for corporate structures and actions.

The Information Technology Audit and Assurance unit of Nexia SAB&T provides services that address organisations exposure to new and emerging risks stemming from changes in the environment in which businesses operates as they become more dependent on technology to support business processes.

As IT environments within organisations become more complex and critical for normal business operations some of the IT risk exposures that Nexia SAB&T is able to assess for their clients include:

*Full dependence or reliance on services provided by application system vendors

*Inadequate level of information security for the environment, which could lead to system vulnerabilities

*Inadequate level of user management within the IT applications which could lead to data leakage, loss or manipulation

*Limitation of normal operations due to unreliable systems availability

IT Audit and Assurance

Nexia SAB&T provides IT audits of organisations’ IT environments either independently or in cooperation with the organisations’ external or internal audit functions that examine the IT environment, the internal processes followed within the IT environment, assess the design of internal controls, conclude on the adequacy and effectiveness of controls, and provide suggestions for addressing those risks that are not being managed appropriately.

Some of the IT Audit and Assurance services Nexia SAB&T offer include:

*Application control reviews

*Assessment of server configuration

*Conversion reviews

*General control reviews

*IT governance reviews

*Network vulnerability assessments

*Project pre, post and implementation reviews

*Software license management reviews

*System development life cycle reviews

*User access reviews

IT Advisory Services

Nexia SAB&T also provide IT advisory services to address the issues related to both risk and performance improvement by providing assistance to management in the development and implementation of:

*IT governance frameworks

*IT policies, procedures and processes

*IT programme and project management

*IT risk frameworks & registers

*IT strategies

*Responses to IT audit queries to ensure IT compliance

Data Analytics

The data analytics service Nexia SAB&T provide comprises processes and activities designed to obtain and evaluate data to extract useful information. These results may be used to identify areas of key risk, fraud, errors or misuse; improve business efficiencies; verify process effectiveness; and influence business decisions. Nexia SAB&T offer data analytics services in response to ad-hoc requests, or the implementation of continuous auditing processes.

Computer Assisted Audit Techniques (CAATs)

Businesses may process thousands or even many millions of transactions every year. To properly test that controls are operating effectively and consistently is virtually impossible using traditional audit methods. CAATs allow auditors to determine whether a control has operated effectively for every transaction as easily as testing a single one using traditional methods.

Continuous Auditing

Continuous auditing is an automated method used to perform auditing activities, such as control and risk assessments, on a more frequent basis. Technology plays a key role in continuous audit activities by helping to automate the identification of exceptions or anomalies, analyse patterns within the digits of key numeric fields, review trends, and test controls, among other activities. Not only does it enable the integrity of information to be evaluated at any given point in time, it also means that the information is able to be verified constantly for errors, fraud, and inefficiencies. The activity is continuous in that it allows for testing throughout the year as opposed to an end of year snapshot.

The Management and Business Consultancy unit of Nexia SAB&T provides consulting services to both the private and public sectors. In pursuit of service excellence, services are driven by the client’s needs with a view towards building long-term partnerships.  Services offered include the following:

Asset Management

Nexia SAB&T provide a complete and reliable service in the management of assets. This service includes the compilation of an asset register, identifying of the assets and their value, tracking of assets and reporting on the asset environment of clients.

Business Improvement / Process Re-engineering

Business Performance is a series of business processes and applications that provide the basis for execution of a business strategy. In today’s times businesses need to be more efficient, transparent i.e. reduce risks, improve business performance, minimise costs and enhance revenue. Nexia SAB&T understand the “business of business” and “driving forces of process” and as such are able to assist clients to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their company’s operations.

Business Process Outsourcing

This entails the outsourcing by entities of various functions such as asset management, supply chain management, human resource function, finance function, non-core functions or projects, which the entity may not be able to deliver on with the resources that it has.

Change Management

Nexia SAB&T provides change management agents, who monitor change initiatives at entities, to ensure they meet the envisaged objectives on time and remain within budget. Our agents focus on the human aspect of change, which includes changes to business processes, systems, technologies, job roles and organisational structures.

Change management strategies and plans are developed to maximise employee adoption, while minimising resistance to change. Use of change agents results in faster adoption, higher ultimate utilisation to increase benefit realisation, value creation and return on investment.

Change managers may also act as coaches for senior management and executives by providing support during the change adoption process.

Corporate and Asset Valuations

In recent years, the traditional large accounting firms have come under increasing scrutiny with regard to their real and perceived independence in providing non-audit services to audit clients.

This has led to these firms having to introduce time-consuming and costly global “conflict checks” prior to accepting any valuation engagement, resulting in longer engagement turnaround times and higher fees for valuations. Often, these firms are prohibited from accepting an engagement due to an existing relationship with an associated or group company. This has led to a demand for high-quality valuations services from independent firms. In response to this demand, Nexia SAB&T has established a specialist valuations practice, comprising experts who have significant specialist valuation experience.

Nexia SAB&T has also been accredited by the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) as a firm that has met the quality standards set by them to arrive at fair and reasonable opinions.

Donor Fund Management

There are numerous organisations which undertake projects in South Africa by means of donating funds. Nexia SAB&T have successfully conducted many assignments for various donor funding organisations and government organisations and therefore hold a wealth of experience in this sector.

Due Diligence Investigations

The scope of these investigations depend on the scenario for which it is required (e.g. mergers or acquisitions) and the risk, size and scale of the transaction. Nexia SAB&T’s detailed work plan covers the following areas: statutory information, operational, financial, tax, human resources, information technology, and company strategy.

Financial Management Support

Nexia SAB&T assist entities to achieve their operational objectives. Such activities include but are not limited to the following:

*Assistance with clearing of audit queries

*Debtors control, budget control, reconciliation and clearing of suspense accounts

*Development and reconciliation of asset registers

*Development of standard charts of account

*Outsourcing of the financial function

*Payroll, PAYE & VAT reconciliations

*Policy and procedure design and implementation

*Preparation of Annual Financial Statements including performing reconciliations and preparing audit files

Human Capital Optimisation

Nexia SAB&T provide a comprehensive human resource service to clients. This service amongst others include the evaluation of staff, determining the skills set needed by incumbents, performance management, coaching and mentoring, human resource planning and re-alignment and business process outsourcing.

Legal Services / Industrial Relations Consulting

Nexia SAB&T provide consulting and advisory services to clients across a wide spectrum of legal spheres.

Organisational Development

Nexia SAB&T’s organisational developers work with clients to streamline their structures and plan for future development of their entity. They provide information and an external perspective on what the entity needs.

Organisational development consists of three aspects: structure, personnel and procedure.

Structural organisational developers analyse entity structures and responsibilities to determine reporting lines for the various business components, the amount of time various business activities take and who is responsible for each function.

Organisational development consultants who specialise in personnel matters interview employees to identify how their job descriptions tie to the activities they actually perform.

Procedural organisational developers observe employees, conduct walk-throughs of processes to identify potential bottle-necks and the various contact points within processes.

Ultimately the client is presented with a detailed report and a set of recommendations which may include: restructuring, changing reward systems, provision of training and education, retrenchment, or changes in business focus.

Probity investigations

Nexia SAB&T provides probity services during procurement and vetting processes.

Procurement Management

Nexia SAB&T assist in both the private and public sectors in the provision of a complete and comprehensive procurement services. This includes the compilation of terms of reference, preparation of budgets, sourcing of technical expertise, evaluation of proposals and negotiation of contracts.

Project and Programme Management

Nexia SAB&T provide project management expertise to various sectors their qualified programme and project managers are suitably qualified to optimise the project management experience using the project management principles as indicated in PMBok and Prince2.

Skills Development

Nexia SAB&T offer services and skills in the field of capacity building and skills transfer. These services and skills include project management, curriculum development and design, workshop facilitation, drafting and implementation of workplace skills plans and executive coaching.

Transaction Advisory and Corporate Finance

Nexia SAB&T provide transaction advisory and corporate finance services that include all the aspect as contained in the following diagram:

Nexia SAB&T Forensics is a multi-disciplinary service that helps organisations detect, prevent and combat fraud and corruption through a multiplicity of supportive actions.

The framework which we utilise ensures that our approach is:

*Holistic

*Integrated

*Tailor-made

*Operates independently but complimentary to existing management and administrative functions of the organisations

*Subjected to continuous risk assessment

*Set on reasonable targets with timelines

*A balanced mixture of prevention, investigation and/or prosecution

All these are supported by comprehensive education, training and awareness programmes.