To communicate internal control weaknesses to external auditors, start with clear, organized documentation detailing each weakness, its impact, and any corrective actions taken. Be transparent, sticking to facts without minimizing or exaggerating issues. Emphasize corrective actions and any timelines for improvements to show a proactive stance.

Be proactive and transparent, prepare clear documentation, provide a root cause analysis, outline corrective action plan and the commitment of management, facilitate open dialogue, provide regular updates and emphasize a culture of compliance.

Communication with external auditors should be prompt, transparent and fact based. Specific of weakness in controls/ processes should be documented rather than a generic conclusion so that external auditors can also suggest remediation steps. Impact of weakness, mitigation action plan with timelines and leveraging alternative controls/ processess should be clearly communicated along with a message that core leadership is made aware of wekness and aligned to mitigate it soonest

Just be transparent with them, their recommendations might help your business given their experiences, exposure and expertise. After all its your responsibility to give them sufficient and appropriate information.

What really makes the difference in the relationship with the external auditors is being direct, to the point and consistent to the way you approach, deal and solve any issue. Problems small or big will always be a reality in the business world, however building an honest communication with the external auditors will assist and enhance the importance of the finance leaders.

According to auditing standards, internal control flaws must be communicated to external auditors in a timely, unambiguous, and structured manner that distinguishes material weaknesses from substantial shortcomings. The flaws, financial reporting risks, and supporting evidence should be clearly described in this message to help auditors assess the likelihood of misstatements. Interim auditor conversations before final reporting clarify misunderstandings and allow management to analyze and address issues proactively, improving transparency and accountability throughout the audit process.

Ok firstly we need to understand what is the internal control weakness about and which area it is impacting. There are different types of internal control weakness, which could be impacting is not materially substantial and could be fixed easily with small tweaking in the process. External auditors are not the right guys to fix internal control weakness, it need to be raised to your supervisor to devise a plan to fix. If this seems not working your supervisor may raise it with senior management who can involve the internal auditors to retest the process inorder to fix the deficiency involved. During External auditing if they are having review according to the audit plan you may share the papers related to this deficiency.

I assume you are referring to the External Auditors, e.g. performing your financial year end audit as required by statute, and that they have asked you about this. if so, be transparent and honest. Equally important in my view is to implement the necessary controls to close the gap as soon as possible. Then, have your own Internal Audit department (or if none, an appropriate independent part of the business competent to do so) perform substantive procedures to make sure nothing went wrong that the controls would have prevented had they been in place. If issues are uncovered, take the appropriate action. The main thing is to close the gap such that the risks are now mitigated through the newly implemented controls.

Dès l'ouverture de la mission d'audit c'est préférable de dire clairement aux auditeurs internes vos faiblesses de contrôles internes relevés et vos mesures d'atténuation des risques que vous avez prises. Si ça marche également ou pas. Ça leur permettra de mieux orienter leur mission. Ils sauront que vous êtes conscients de vos risques et tiennent à les remédier.