Reimagining SOX Walkthroughs in 2025: A Call to Internal Auditors
In 2025, companies are navigating some of the most complex conditions we’ve seen in years. Market uncertainty, trade tensions, evolving cybersecurity threats, tighter budgets, supply chain disruptions, and rapid technological advances are all colliding. This means the old ways of doing things for internal audit departments won’t cut it anymore.
Companies need to be faster. Smarter. More responsive. And that starts with rethinking core processes—especially those tied to financial reporting and internal controls.
Walkthrough season is fast approaching, and for internal audit teams supporting 12/31 year-end corporations, it’s more than just another round of testing controls and reviewing processes. In 2025, walkthroughs are an opportunity to influence meaningful change.
Here’s the message: It’s time to challenge the status quo.
As internal auditors, your role is not just to confirm that a process exists and a control is in place. It’s to ask sharp, forward-thinking questions that push process owners and business leaders to reimagine how things are done.
Don’t just ask, “How does this work?” Ask, “Why are we still doing it this way?”
Manual processes that once made sense may now be bottlenecks. The tools and technology available today—especially automation and AI—open the door to more efficient, scalable, and resilient processes. And in today’s volatile and fast-moving environment, agility isn’t a luxury—it’s a requirement.
Key Questions Internal Auditors Should Ask During Walkthroughs
Consider these questions as each internal control pops up during SOX walkthrough meetings.
Can this control be automated?
If it’s manual, why? What tools exist in the ERP or tech stack that could automate this task?
What would be the business benefit if this control ran automatically in real-time?
Where are the delays or human dependencies in this process?
What happens if the person responsible is unavailable?
Could automation reduce handoffs or remove the dependency entirely?
What insights could AI or analytics provide at this stage?
Are we capturing data but not using it to improve the process?
Could predictive analytics help reduce risk or increase the speed of execution?
If this process had to scale overnight, could it?
What would break?
Is this control built for the current state or future growth?
Walkthrough Example: Order-to-Cash
Let’s take the fulfillment and delivery side of the order-to-cash (O2C) process:
Traditional Walkthrough Conversation: “We match the order to the delivery confirmation. Here’s the spreadsheet where we manually log the data each day.”
The 2025 Auditor’s Conversation:
- “Why is this a manual match? Could your ERP automatically reconcile shipping confirmations against orders?”
- “What happens when a delivery is late or doesn’t match—how quickly do you know? Could a dashboard help flag issues sooner?”
- “If order volume doubled, would this process still work as is?”
These aren’t just SOX compliance questions. They’re business agility questions. And when internal audit asks them, they unlock more than compliance—they drive value.
Bottom Line
Your walkthroughs in 2025 shouldn’t just be about evaluating the past—they should help shape the future.
By challenging process owners to rethink how work gets done, you help build more resilient, scalable, and agile operations. Manual controls aren’t just expensive—they slow companies down. And in today’s environment, companies don’t have time to be slow.
So this year, use your walkthroughs as a platform to lead.
Ask better questions. Push for change. And help your company move faster, smarter, and stronger.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you. These are products I’ve personally used and stand behind.
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