ABSTRACT
Creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas. Creativity and auditing have been seen for too long as mutually exclusive. An artistic auditor, accountant, or compliance officer—an oxymoron. Identifying present and emerging risks requires imagination. Finding innovative ways to examine risks within thousands or millions of transactions requires creativity. Internal auditors can use creativity to audit better, learn "what is really going on," look more expertly at patterns, dynamics, motivations, and explanations, rather than just what is on the surface. Creativity is essential for modern internal auditing. It is no longer enough to re-use checklists and perform controls-based auditing. Creative auditors are able to plan better, handle fieldwork dynamics with resilience and ingenuity, and write more engaging reports. As business conditions continue to evolve, internal auditors need creativity to anticipate risks, develop better procedures to evaluate them, and leverage technology for better data analytics and continuous auditing.
