Audit
Audit
Risk
+4
Jul 27, 2026
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8 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 47
In this edition, I examine seven places where technically sound audit, risk and controls work can lose impact before it creates visible change. We will look at relevance, timing, judgement, authority, operating reality, governance and verification, before applying the ideas to a practical supplier due-diligence example and a short landing review you can use before significant work is issued. I have also included a brief recap of my latest Leadership Signals conversation with Trent Russell on what AI and analytics should genuinely change in how internal audit functions operate, together with a link to watch the full replay.
Risk
+2
Jul 20, 2026
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8 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 46
Internal audit functions are being asked to modernise reporting, introduce AI and analytics, improve stakeholder experience and respond faster, often while the assurance mandate remains unchanged. This edition introduces the Transformation Capacity Contract, a practical way for audit leaders to decide what must be protected, removed, sequenced, enabled and measured before change is added to an already stretched function.
Risk
+4
Jul 13, 2026
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6 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 45
This week’s edition is for Internal Audit Managers, Senior Managers and aspiring CAEs who can feel the job changing. The move into strategic IA leadership is not about doing less work. It is about protecting different things: judgement quality, stakeholder confidence, audit committee relevance, team capability and the future shape of the function. I’ll break down the five practical shifts from hands-on delivery to board-trusted audit leadership, including how to bring data, analytics and Human + AI thinking into the way the function evolves.
Risk
+3
Jul 6, 2026
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6 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 44
This week’s edition is about moving the internal audit AI conversation beyond isolated use cases, demos and efficiency gains. The bigger question is not simply where audit can use AI, but what should now change in planning, fieldwork, evidence, reporting, oversight, quality and leadership. I’ll share a practical Human + AI Operating Model Review for audit leaders, including the governance questions CAEs should be able to answer before scaling AI use across the function.
Risk
+6
Jun 29, 2026
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6 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 43
This week’s edition tackles one of the most common frustrations in internal audit: how to produce audit results that management actually feels, uses and acts on. Not because the report is louder, longer or more dramatic, but because the finding is translated into decision, consequence, ownership and evidence of movement. I’ll walk through a practical Management Felt-It Test you can use before issuing a significant result, plus a before-and-after example showing how to move from technically correct audit wording to something more commercially useful.
Risk
+3
Jun 22, 2026
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12 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 42
In this edition, I summarise my recent Beyond the Lines webinar with Sandro Boeri and what it means for Internal Audit leaders who want to audit culture and behaviour with credibility. The core argument Sandro brought to the table is simple: audit should not make vague claims about culture, but it can and should evidence how behaviour, pressure, incentives and escalation affect risk. The edition also includes practical questions audit teams can use now, a replay link, and a Toolkit spotlight on turning valid audit findings into decision-ready insight.
Risk
+6
Jun 15, 2026
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13 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 41
This week’s issue is a strategic update on the next chapter for Beyond the Lines. I’m sharing where BtL is heading, why it is moving beyond content, and how the new website, Board-Trusted CAE Scorecard, Board-Trusted CAE Toolkit and future Accelerator will fit together. I’ll also cover why Internal Audit Transformation should be measured by movement, not activity and share my practical 6 step movement check to test whether your audit work is actually creating movement, or whether it is just being documented, accepted and tracked.
Risk
+5
Jun 8, 2026
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7 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 40
This week’s issue looks at the handoff problem in internal audit. Good work rarely fails at the point of testing. It often loses force after the evidence has been gathered: when the message is translated, the decision is unclear, ownership becomes vague, follow-through turns administrative, or behaviour does not actually change. We’ll look at where those handoffs break down, how this connects to culture in action, and why the Board-Trusted CAE Toolkit is being built around a practical question: how do you take sound audit work and make it land with more decision clarity, ownership and movement?
Risk
+4
Jun 1, 2026
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8 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 39
This week’s Beyond the Lines briefing builds on my Leadership Signals conversation with Rania Bejjani on influence without authority, but it is not a webinar recap. It looks at why good internal audit work can still fail to land, and how audit leaders can make findings more decision-ready by clarifying context, consequence, trade-offs, ownership, resistance and the decision required. The issue includes a practical Audit Influence Filter and a “Do this Monday” exercise to help turn one stuck issue into a sharper conversation with management.
Risk
+6
May 18, 2026
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8 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 37
Edition #37 looks at a constraint internal audit does not always talk about directly: management attention. In a business already crowded with reports, controls, evidence requests, meetings, AI outputs and assurance activity, audit needs to be sharper about the attention it asks for and clearer about what leaders get back from it. We explore how AI, future-ready audit skills, control design and the Three Lines all need to help management focus on what matters, make better decisions and act with confidence.
Risk
+4
May 11, 2026
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8 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 36
May is Internal Audit Awareness Month, and the purpose of this is not just explain what internal audit does, but to advocate for the profession. My way of doing this is to show how internal audit turns insight into decisions, ownership and outcomes. This week’s edition includes the Audit Influence Chain, Strategic Audit Test, AI Confidence Review Playbook and the CAE to CAIO capability map. Welcome to edition #36.
Risk
+2
May 4, 2026
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9 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 35
This week’s issue explores how to modernise the Three Lines without creating more bureaucracy. Drawing on the first Beyond the Lines 'Leadership Signals' webinar with Kristian Bollerup, it looks at why assurance often breaks down in the handoffs, how duplication creates friction for the business, and what audit, risk and controls leaders can do to create clearer ownership, cleaner assurance coverage and better decisions. Welcome to edition #35.
Risk
+4
Apr 13, 2026
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12 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 32
This edition looks at one of the harder truths in audit and risk leadership: being capable is not always the same as being trusted. Some leaders are invited in because their judgement improves the room. Others are listened to politely, but do not materially shape decisions. I break down what creates that gap in practice, what boards are quietly testing for, and how stronger trust is often built long before the meeting starts. It is a practical read for leaders who want their work to land with more credibility, more influence and more consequence. Welcome to Edition #32.
Risk
+2
Apr 7, 2026
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15 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 31
Most controls do not fail because they are missing. They fail because they arrive too late, sit with the wrong person, or never change the decision that matters. This week’s issue looks at the gap between control activity and real behaviour, with practical examples from operations, supplier onboarding, incident management and inventory write-offs. Welcome to Edition #31.
Risk
+3
Mar 16, 2026
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10 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 28
Welcome to Edition #28. This weeks edition provides a practical operating model for CAEs, CROs, Control Leaders and Practitioners who need proof, not polished noise. Use the Evidence Chain to turn AI output into something you can actually defend.
Risk
+4
Mar 9, 2026
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11 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 27
Welcome to Edition #27. This week is a practical playbook for turning audit, risk and controls evidence into action that actually sticks. You’ll get a simple way to shape any finding, data point or control issue into a message senior leaders can absorb fast, plus a handful of reusable templates and real world rewrites you can copy straight into board papers, ExCo updates and follow ups. If you’ve ever watched a valid point get “noted” and then quietly die in an action log, this edition is built to change that.
Risk
+3
Mar 2, 2026
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8 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 26
Welcome to Edition #26 of Beyond the Lines. This edition is about the skill most audit, risk and controls professionals were never trained for: getting decisions made without authority. AI is accelerating output, but outcomes are still decided by humans in meetings. The people who create impact are the ones who can route a decision to the right person, frame the trade-offs cleanly, and close calmly without turning it into politics.
Risk
+4
Feb 23, 2026
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9 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 25
Welcome to Edition #25 of Beyond the Lines. This edition is a practical playbook for spotting fraud risk in real life by auditing the bypasses, not the “happy path”, across the finance processes where money actually moves. You’ll get the patterns to look for, the questions that surface the truth fast, and simple control moves that change behaviour without slowing the business down.
Risk
+2
Feb 16, 2026
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7 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 24
Welcome to Edition #24 of Beyond the Lines. In this edition we’re getting honest about what Audit Committees actually want in 2026. Not bigger packs, more dashboards, or “comprehensive” updates. They want clarity, early warning, clear ownership, and decision-ready trade-offs they can act on. I’ll show you a simple Decision Brief format you can use before your next meeting, plus practical ways to design controls that speed decisions and reduce surprises, not add admin.
Risk
+3
Feb 9, 2026
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9 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 23
Welcome to Edition #23 of Beyond the Lines. This edition is a practical playbook for using AI across planning, testing, evidence and reporting without losing credibility. Plus an invite to my upcoming webinar with Impero on refreshing or retiring internal controls.
Risk
+3
Jan 26, 2026
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12 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 21
Welcome to Issue 21. It’s Week 3 of Risk Culture Month, and we’re diving deep into how escalation really works in practice, not what the policy claims. Escalation should not feel like a career move. It should feel like routine work, with clear triggers, calm scripts, and decisions that leave an evidence trail without anyone chasing it. Ask yourself, is this true in my organisation?
Risk
+3
Jan 19, 2026
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8 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 20
Welcome to Edition #20 of Beyond the Lines. This edition is about something most organisations say they want, but rarely engineer properly: ownership and accountability. Not as values on a poster, but as operating mechanics you can actually install. We are focusing on how risk culture shows up in single point ownership, exception friction, and action closure, and why those three levers are the difference between a calm close and constant surprises.
Risk
+3
Jan 12, 2026
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10 min read
Beyond the Lines – Issue 19
Welcome to Beyond the LinesTM - Issue 19. We’re starting Risk Culture Month with a simple idea: risk culture isn’t a slogan, it’s visible in control outcomes. When controls fail under pressure, the root cause is usually the same four mechanics breaking down in the flow of work: ownership, challenge, accountability and escalation. In this issue, I’ll show you what those failures look like in real organisations, what “good” looks like instead, and a practical one week reset you can run immediately.