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Tariffs are everywhere in the news. They’ve become a frequent topic in earnings calls and investor discussions. Are they on your audit plan yet?

Real relationships allow for real conversations with audit customers and other executives: Internal Audit teams get more context on audit customers’ needs and priorities, helping them better understand the actual or potential impacts of key risks and issues. Audit customers get more value from assurance and advisory projects focused on the risk areas, processes, and opportunities they actually care about. Both parties benefit from higher levels of rapport, trust, and confidence, reframing Internal Auditors as business advisors and partners who are there to help — not as “corporate police.”

Leadership at my company was doing all they could to help Sales and Marketing increase sales in an incredibly tough economic climate. Internal Audit wanted to help. We met with one division’s Sales leaders to understand how they were contacting all of their key accounts, with the idea that this could help drive the most revenue the fastest. The execs immediately saw the value: Our analysis would give them detailed, independent feedback and analysis on key sales processes. We got the green light, spending three weeks meeting with Sales managers and following up with Marketing to corroborate key details. When I shared our observations with Corporate, I got responses like “Are you kidding me?” and “I had no idea.” It was the single most engaging meeting I’ve ever had with a large number of executives. Several recommendations were accepted immediately. Until then, these execs mostly knew us for our SOX work. Now, they knew we could do more.