Letter from the Editor

December 4, 2023


Hello ACUA Members!

Last week my county’s Superior Court summoned me for jury duty. I wound up being Juror #9 in a short two-day trial. The experience was nowhere as humorous as the Amazon Prime Video series “Jury Duty,” but it had its moments. While doing my civic duty was a bit of an inconvenience, it provided an interesting mental break. My only job was to listen and apply reason. No phones, emails, meetings, or daily distractions. Just calming focus.

I realized conducting an audit is like serving every position in a trial simultaneously. Like the attorneys, we must find facts, both positive and negative, and learn from our key witnesses and subject matter experts. We carefully document our workpapers, like the tireless court reporter capturing every word. As a judge, we keep the engagement relevant and on track until we, as our own jury, come to our conclusions.

One key difference is in a trial, you only measure against the law. Not what you think it should be, not what would be best. As auditors we have the amazing opportunity to go beyond merely judging compliance. We create recommendations to make things better. That is our value.

Like a law library, this issue of the C&U Journal adds several great resources to our collection. Ken Lish and Billy McCain from the National Science Foundation share their Promising Practices for NSF Award Management report, a must read for research universities. In a nod to October’s cybersecurity month, Bruce Tong presents his favorite IT tests when performing departmental audits, David Clark from BDO shares ways to leverage technology during audits, and Sabine Charles discusses authentication factors. Agnessa Vartanova invites you to consider culture in audits. Our ACUA news section includes award winners, an AI poll, and an artifact challenge.

As we strive to complete our audits before the hectic holiday season, let’s not forget the importance of listening and applying reason.

Sincerely,
Kara Hefner

About the Author

Kara Hefner

Kara L. Hefner, CPA, CIA, CFE is an Audit Manager at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has worked for the past five years. She has 19 additional years of internal auditing experience in university health care, Fortune...
Read Full Author Bio

Kara Hefner

Kara L. Hefner, CPA, CIA, CFE is an Audit Manager at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has worked for the past five years. She has 19 additional years of internal auditing experience in university health care, Fortune 500 public utilities, and student loan guarantors after beginning her career in public accounting. She is the current Editor of ACUA’s College and University Auditor Journal, a member of the ACUA Auditing & Accounting Principles (AAP) sub-committee, and is a frequent presenter at ACUA conferences.

Articles
ACUA Poll: Remote Work, Data Analytics and AuditCon
Auditing Pandemic Relief Funds: A Uniform Guidance Approach
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor
New Global Internal Audit Standards Released
Performing an Internal Self-Assessment of your Internal Audit Department
Reactions to the Proposed IIA Standards Changes
Share Your Expertise: ACUA Mentorship Program
What’s on Your Audit Plan?