Non-compliance with general data processing principles can be costly; the largest fine issued for regulatory compliance is 252.71 million euros in February 20251. Yet, many enterprises still rely on outdated, fragmented audit processes that lack real-time risk visibility.
Audit management in ServiceNow GRC provides an integrated, automated approach to auditing, reducing compliance risks and cutting audit processing time by up to 60%. With centralized reporting, AI-powered risk detection, and seamless workflow automation, enterprises can stay ahead of evolving GRC regulations.
This blog breaks down key capabilities of ServiceNow GRC audit management, demonstrating how businesses can enhance compliance, mitigate risks, and improve operational efficiency.
What is Audit Management in ServiceNow GRC?
ServiceNow GRC’s audit management helps enterprises efficiently facilitate audit planning, execution, and reporting. It ensures that key stakeholders, including audit committee members and executive board members, receive insightful viewpoint into the effectiveness of their current risk and compliance management strategy.
The objective of audit management in ServiceNow GRC is to:
- Identify and assess the potential compliance risks.
- Establish effective controls to mitigate identified risk.
- Ensure continuous monitoring of regulatory requirements.
- Identify defects and remediate control deficiencies.
Benefits of Audit Management with ServiceNow GRC
- Risk Based Audit Planning: Leverage risk intelligence to prioritize audits effectively, ensuring compliance and minimizing regulatory penalties.
- Compliance Insights: Utilize AI-driven analytics and advanced reporting to detect anomalies, predict risks, and take data driven decisions.
- Issue Management: Automate issue tracking and resolution processes to strengthen internal controls and reduce operational disruptions.
- Integrated GRC Operations: Foster collaboration between risk, audit, and compliance functions through module integration, improving efficiency.
- Proactive Compliance & Security Monitoring: Enable real-time tracking of regulatory requirements and cybersecurity risks to maintain compliance and mitigate threats.
Getting Started with ServiceNow GRC Audit Management
ServiceNow provides role-based access control (RBAC), ensuring users have permissions according to their responsibilities. Based on responsibility, a user can create engagements, work on the assigned tasks, delete arrangements or customize the whole configuration.
To begin using Audit Management in ServiceNow GRC, organizations must activate the ‘GRC: Audit Management’ plugin.
The following applications are automatically installed when the Audit Management application is activated:
- GRC: Profiles
- Performance Analytics – GRC: Audit Management
- GRC: Performance Analytics Premium Integration
Roles and Responsibilities in Audit Management
With the plugins installed by GRC, audit management comes to the roles and delegation features provided by ServiceNow. These roles identify which user can do what on the audit modules. When GRC: Audit Management is installed, roles define what actions a user can perform within the audit modules.
- Audit User (sn_audit.user): It can be assigned to audit tasks and milestones and create test plans or test templates.
- Audit Manager (sn_audit.manager): The audit manager inherits the role of the audit user and hence the privileges associated with the part. In addition, the audit manager has their own permissions granted by the position, including creating an engagement.
- Audit Admin (sn_audit.admin): Audit admin inherits the audit manager role. The permissions associated with the audit admin role are deletion of engagement, test plans, test templates, audit tasks etc.
- Audit Developer (sn_audit.developer): The audit developer inherits the role of audit admin. An audit developer can create or delete audit report templates.
- Engagement Project Manager (sn_audit_advanced.engagement_project_manager): The user inherits the audit manager role; their responsibilities include creating advanced planning of engagements, estimating resources and costs, and approving timecards.
- External Auditors (sn_audit.external_auditor): The user can be assigned to any audit task. He can read the closed engagements and closed audit tasks and work on the audit tasks assigned to him.
Types of Audits
Organizations conduct various audits to assess compliance, governance, and operational efficiency. While ServiceNow provides a flexible framework to categorize audits based on business needs, the most common types include:
1. Internal Audit
- Assesses internal controls, corporate governance, and operational processes.
- Helps in risk mitigation and regulatory compliance.
2. External Audit
- Conducted by independent auditors to verify financial statements and regulatory compliance.
- Often required by government bodies and investors.
3. SOX Audit (Sarbanes-Oxley Act Compliance)
- Evaluates financial reporting controls and data integrity.
- Ensures organizations adhere to SOX regulatory requirements.
- Focuses on preventing fraud and maintaining transparency.
4. IT Audit
- Examines an organization’s IT infrastructure, security policies, and operations.
- Ensures compliance with IT governance frameworks like NIST, ISO 27001, or COBIT.
5. Vendor Audit
- Evaluates third-party vendor compliance, security practices, and contractual obligations.
- Ensures vendors align with the organization's risk and compliance policies.
6. Continuous Audits
- Uses automation and real-time monitoring to assess controls and risks continuously.
- Enables early detection of anomalies and policy violations.
- Helps maintain ongoing compliance and operational efficiency.
How ServiceNow Automates the Audit process?
Step 1: Audit Planning (Module: Plan & Engagement)
Audit teams define audit objectives, frequency, and scope. ServiceNow enables users to create audit plans based on regulatory requirements and risk assessments.
Auditors can create engagements to manage audit information and include relevant entities, controls, and tests.
Engagements serve as the central workspace to manage audits, including tasks, schedules, and stakeholders.
Step 2: Engagement Setup & Scope Definition (Module: Engagement & Milestones) Auditors create engagements that outline key timelines, audit costs, and scope.
- Milestones track progress to ensure timely execution.
- Auditors can add entities to an engagement scope after creating engagements.
Step 3: Audit Execution & Testing (Module: Audit Task, Control Test, Observation) Auditors perform control tests to validate compliance and operational effectiveness.
Observations document any findings or compliance failures.
Audit administrators and managers can:
- Create control tests to periodically check whether controls are operating correctly, with an option to generate them automatically.
- Create audit task activities to document evidence of control effectiveness.
Step 4: Evidence Collection & Validation (Module: Interviews, Walkthroughs, Evidence Request)
Auditors conduct interviews and walkthroughs to assess control functionality. Evidence requests ensure proper documentation of audit findings.
Audit administrators and managers can:
- Create interviews with control owners to gather evidence on control operations.
- Create walkthroughs to observe and document control functionality.
Step 5: Audit Reporting & Compliance Insights (Module: Advanced Reporting & Compliance Dashboard)
ServiceNow generates real-time compliance reports and AI-driven risk insights. Stakeholders gain visibility into risk trends and unresolved issues.
Auditors can generate audit reports to summarize engagement findings for executives.
Conclusion
ServiceNow GRC in audit management simplifies and strengthens audit processes by automating planning, execution, and reporting. With AI-driven insights, real-time compliance monitoring, and seamless integration across modules, enterprises can enhance governance, mitigate risks, and improve operational efficiency.
ServiceNow ensures a proactive approach to risk and compliance management by eliminating manual inefficiencies and enabling data-driven decision-making.
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