Internal Audit Outsourcing

A full internal audit function without the headcount — outsourced or co-sourced, led by a CMIIA-qualified partner, and built around a risk-based plan your audit committee actually owns.

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Most organisations that need internal audit cannot sensibly employ it: a credible function needs an experienced head, a mix of specialist skills from financial controls to IT, and enough independence from management to say uncomfortable things — a combination one or two in-house hires cannot provide, and a full department costs more than the assurance is worth below a certain size.

Outsourcing resolves the arithmetic: Acumon provides the function — annual planning, fieldwork, follow-up and audit committee reporting — drawing each review's team from the full firm's specialisms. Co-sourcing does the same alongside the team you already have, adding capacity for peaks and skills for the audits your people cannot cover alone.

Fully Outsourced: the Function, Delivered

Under full outsourcing, Acumon operates as your internal audit function: we build the risk-based annual plan with the audit committee, deliver the reviews, track management actions, and report each cycle to the committee with an independent view of the control environment. You get a partner-led service with continuity of knowledge year over year — and the standing capability regulators, funders and governance codes increasingly expect, at a fraction of an employed function's cost.

Co-Sourcing: Strength Where You Need It

Established internal audit teams hit two recurring walls: capacity, when the plan outgrows the headcount, and capability, when a review needs IT audit, fraud, treasury or regulatory depth the team does not hold. Co-sourcing supplies both on demand — discrete audits delivered whole, or specialists embedded within your team's engagements — under your head of internal audit's direction and methodology. Your function keeps the relationship and the knowledge; we fill the gaps without the recruitment lag.

Risk-Based Plans, Not Rote Cycles

An internal audit plan that tours the same departments annually is a schedule, not assurance. We build plans from your risk register and the board's actual concerns — and revisit them as risks move, because they do. The plan states plainly what assurance the committee is buying, what is deliberately out of scope, and how coverage maps to the risks that would genuinely hurt the organisation. That candour is what makes the reporting worth reading.

Sectors Where Internal Audit Is Expected

The practice's experience spans the sectors where internal audit is a governance expectation rather than a choice: charities and not-for-profits, housing providers, academy trusts and further and higher education institutions, non-departmental public bodies, and regulated and listed businesses facing the UK Corporate Governance Code's strengthened internal controls expectations. Partner-level public sector and mid-tier corporate experience means committee reporting arrives in the register those audiences expect.

What the Audit Committee Receives

Every engagement lands as decision-ready reporting: findings graded by risk with agreed management actions, tracked to closure and escalated when they stall; periodic summaries giving the committee a cumulative view of the control environment rather than isolated snapshots; and an annual opinion where the terms of reference call for one. Ad-hoc reviews — a control breakdown, a whistleblowing follow-up, a pre-regulatory health check — mobilise quickly between planned cycles, typically within one to two weeks.

What You Get With Acumon

Fully outsourced internal audit: planning, fieldwork, tracking and committee reporting
Co-sourced capacity and specialist skills under your own IA methodology
Risk-based annual plans built with, and owned by, the audit committee
Partner-led by a Chartered Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors
IT audit, fraud, governance and financial controls specialisms on demand
Management actions tracked to closure, with stalled actions escalated
Charity, housing, education and public sector reporting experience
Ad-hoc reviews mobilised typically within one to two weeks

Why Acumon for Internal Audit Outsourcing?

Led by a Partner who is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (CMIIA), with 20+ years of internal audit experience
Outsourced, co-sourced and ad-hoc engagement models
Public sector experience includes NDPBs, academy trusts, FE and HE institutions
Ad-hoc engagements typically mobilised within 1-2 weeks of instruction
Full-service firm behind each review: IT, tax, VAT and forensic specialists on call

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Outsourced or co-sourced — which do we need?

It follows from what you already have. No internal audit function, or one person carrying it alongside another job: full outsourcing gives you the whole capability at predictable cost. An established team that is stretched or missing specialisms: co-sourcing adds exactly the capacity or skills the plan needs, under your methodology. Organisations also move between models over time — starting outsourced, then building in-house around a co-sourced core — and we support both directions.

How is outsourced internal audit independent if we pay for it?

Independence in internal audit means independence from management and the activities audited, secured by structure: our reporting line runs to the audit committee, not the executives whose areas we review; scope and plan are the committee's to approve; and findings are graded by our judgement, not negotiated. An external provider is often more independent in practice than an employed team — we do not share a career ladder, a bonus pool or a corridor with the people we audit.

We are a charity / academy trust — is internal audit actually required?

Increasingly, in substance if not always in name. Academy trusts must have an internal scrutiny programme reporting to the audit and risk committee; regulated housing providers face assurance expectations on controls; larger charities' governance codes and funders expect independent assurance beyond the external audit. A proportionate outsourced arrangement — often a handful of focused reviews a year — meets the expectation without the cost of a standing function, and we scale it to the organisation honestly.

Can the same firm do our external audit and internal audit?

Generally no for the same entity — external audit independence rules restrict it, and good governance frowns on it even where technically permitted. In practice this is an argument for us rather than against: most organisations' external audit is elsewhere, which leaves Acumon free to act as internal auditor with no conflict. Where Acumon is your external auditor, we will say plainly that the internal audit role should sit with someone else.

Get in Touch

Ready to Sort Your Internal Audit Outsourcing?

Tell us what you need. Within one business day, a qualified accountant will be in touch to talk it through and give you a clear, fixed-fee quote — no obligation.

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