Firms, professional bodies, and regulators alike, are strongly encouraging practitioners to employ effective RCA as way to substantially improve audit quality, deal with deficiencies and drive improvements within firms and towards clients.
RCA training with Sologic revealed to us that much of what we considered strategic planning was, in fact, tactical problem solving. Getting to the root causes of issues affecting communication, project planning and HR has dealt with more problems than we could have ever anticipated.
Learning and Development Director, International Accounting Firm
So, what exactly is an effective RCA and what does it deliver in terms of improved audit quality? At its core, RCA is a process for identifying the causes of problems or events in order to prevent them from recurring. It is based on the idea that effective management requires more than putting out fires for problems that develop but finding a way to prevent them from happening in the first place. RCA can also be employed as a means of identifying best practice, supporting continual improvement and rewarding evidence-based decision making.
The methodology assists audit professionals with:
- Identifying underlying causes of significant problems or successes
- Delivering solutions with immediate and lasting impact
- Helping establish best practice and greater efficiency
- Compliance with the expectations and guidelines of regulators
- Building a better reputation and experience for clients
- Instilling a deep-rooted positive problem-solving culture in your firm
- Automated reports for improved transparency and compliance
- Creating a competitive edge for winning new business
Sologic is the global leader in providing root cause analysis training, skills development and software to the Audit and Accountancy profession. Our evidence based method enables firms to discover the genuine systemic and non-systemic causes of failure and where to focus their process improvement efforts.
The PCAOB has a specific initiative to encourage auditors to use root cause analysis to "...seek improvements in firms' overall systems of quality controls through analysis of measures or indicators of audit quality to further improve and sustain audits."
If you want to encourage rigor, consistency and transparency, reduce bias and identify truly effective solutions Sologic’s Root Cause Analysis method will give your organization the skills, tools and culture it needs