IT General Controls and Application Controls Auditing Training Course

Course Introduction

IT General Controls and Application Controls Auditing Training Course provides a comprehensive and practical framework for professionals responsible for evaluating the controls that support reliable, secure, authorised, and accurate information systems. The programme develops the knowledge required to audit foundational technology controls and application-level safeguards while understanding how weaknesses in one control layer can affect financial reporting, operational processes, data integrity, and organisational assurance.

The course examines the relationship between IT general controls and application controls and explains how auditors can determine whether technology environments provide an appropriate foundation for dependable information processing. Participants will explore control objectives, risk assessment, audit planning, walkthroughs, control design evaluation, operating-effectiveness testing, evidence gathering, sampling, exceptions, findings, reporting, and follow-up procedures.

IT general controls coverage includes user access administration, privileged access, change management, IT operations, backup and recovery, system development, configuration management, job scheduling, incident management, and technology infrastructure controls. Application control coverage includes input validation, authorisation, completeness, accuracy, automated calculations, processing logic, interfaces, reconciliations, exception handling, workflow controls, and system-generated outputs.

The programme also addresses modern application environments in which traditional control boundaries are increasingly affected by cloud services, enterprise applications, APIs, automation, DevOps, software-as-a-service platforms, robotic process automation, and integrated digital ecosystems. Participants will learn how to assess control ownership and responsibility when systems, infrastructure, applications, and services are distributed across internal teams and external technology providers.

Through practical audit exercises and case-based scenarios, participants will develop stronger capabilities in designing audit tests, evaluating evidence, identifying control deficiencies, distinguishing design weaknesses from operating failures, and assessing the impact of exceptions. The programme also strengthens professional judgement and documentation skills needed to support defensible conclusions and communicate technical control issues in meaningful business terms.

By completing this programme, participants will be better equipped to conduct focused audits of IT general controls and application controls across financial, operational, and enterprise systems. The course supports stronger technology governance, improved system reliability, effective control testing, better audit evidence, reduced technology risk, and more credible assurance over information processing and automated business activities.

Duration

10 days

Who Should Attend

• Internal auditors responsible for auditing IT general controls, application controls, information systems, and technology-enabled business processes.

• IT auditors seeking advanced techniques for evaluating control design, operating effectiveness, exceptions, evidence, and remediation.

• External auditors assessing information systems controls that support financial reporting, operational processes, and audit reliance.

• Information security professionals seeking stronger understanding of access, change, operations, and application control assurance.

• IT managers responsible for implementing and maintaining general technology controls and application control environments.

• Application owners and system administrators responsible for application security, configuration, access, processing integrity, and system reliability.

• Risk management professionals assessing technology, application, information processing, operational, and control-related risks.

• Compliance professionals evaluating technology controls against organisational policies, regulatory requirements, and contractual obligations.

• Finance professionals involved in evaluating automated controls supporting financial reporting, transaction processing, and accounting systems.

• ERP and enterprise application professionals seeking practical knowledge of control assessment, audit testing, and assurance requirements.

• Systems development, DevOps, and technology project professionals responsible for embedding effective controls throughout the system lifecycle.

• IT governance, risk, and compliance specialists coordinating control frameworks, assurance reviews, risk registers, and remediation activities.

• Data governance professionals assessing information integrity, application processing controls, interfaces, reconciliations, and automated data flows.

• Audit committee members, senior managers, and technology leaders seeking stronger understanding of IT control assurance and audit findings.

Course Objectives

• Develop advanced knowledge of IT general controls and application controls, including their objectives, relationships, risks, dependencies, and importance to reliable information processing.

• Apply structured methodologies for identifying, assessing, prioritising, documenting, and monitoring risks arising from weaknesses in technology and application control environments.

• Evaluate the design and operating effectiveness of IT general controls covering access management, change management, operations, system development, backup, and infrastructure.

• Assess application controls governing input validation, transaction authorisation, processing accuracy, completeness, automated calculations, interfaces, reconciliations, and system outputs.

• Develop risk-based IT control audit plans with appropriate objectives, scope, criteria, walkthrough procedures, testing approaches, sampling methods, and evidence requirements.

• Apply practical techniques for testing control design and operating effectiveness while distinguishing isolated exceptions, systematic failures, compensating controls, and control deficiencies.

• Evaluate identity and access controls, privileged access, segregation of duties, user provisioning, account termination, authentication, and periodic access reviews across technology environments.

• Assess change management and systems development controls to determine whether modifications are authorised, tested, approved, documented, and appropriately migrated into production environments.

• Evaluate automated application controls and configurable system rules to determine whether business processes consistently produce accurate, complete, valid, authorised, and reliable results.

• Apply audit analytics and technology-enabled testing techniques to identify unusual transactions, duplicate processing, access anomalies, configuration exceptions, and control breakdowns.

• Produce clear, evidence-based IT control findings and reports that communicate control deficiencies, root causes, business impacts, risks, recommendations, and management responses.

• Develop forward-looking IT control assurance strategies addressing cloud applications, APIs, automation, DevOps, artificial intelligence, integrated platforms, and increasingly dynamic technology environments.

Comprehensive Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of IT General Controls and Application Controls Auditing

• Principles, objectives, scope, terminology, and professional responsibilities associated with IT control auditing.

• Relationships between IT general controls, application controls, business processes, financial reporting, operational reliability, and information assurance.

• IT control audit lifecycle covering risk assessment, planning, walkthroughs, testing, evidence evaluation, reporting, remediation, and follow-up.

• Control objectives, control assertions, control dependencies, risk relationships, and the importance of a reliable technology control environment.

Module 2: IT Control Governance, Risk and Control Frameworks

• IT governance structures, accountability, policies, standards, control ownership, management oversight, and technology risk responsibilities.

• Development of IT control frameworks linking business objectives, technology risks, control objectives, control activities, and assurance requirements.

• Risk assessment approaches for identifying threats and vulnerabilities affecting general controls, application controls, data integrity, and system reliability.

• Evaluating control frameworks, policies, procedures, standards, governance committees, management reporting, and control monitoring arrangements.

Module 3: IT Control Audit Planning and Risk Assessment

• Identification and assessment of risks across infrastructure, applications, databases, interfaces, users, technology processes, and business dependencies.

• Risk-based IT control audit planning, engagement prioritisation, audit universe development, resource allocation, and assurance coverage.

• Defining audit scope, objectives, criteria, control populations, testing strategies, evidence requirements, and engagement deliverables.

• Process walkthroughs, risk-control matrices, control mapping, preliminary analytics, and development of targeted IT control audit programmes.

Module 4: User Access and Identity Management Controls

• User account provisioning, modification, termination, access approvals, role assignments, periodic reviews, and account reconciliation controls.

• Privileged access management, administrator accounts, elevated permissions, emergency access, service accounts, and monitoring requirements.

• Authentication controls including passwords, multifactor authentication, single sign-on, identity federation, and secure remote access mechanisms.

• Testing access controls for excessive privileges, dormant accounts, inappropriate access, shared credentials, conflicting roles, and unauthorised changes.

Module 5: Change Management and Systems Development Controls

• Change management governance covering change requests, risk assessment, approvals, testing, segregation of duties, deployment, and documentation.

• Systems development lifecycle controls covering requirements, design, coding, testing, acceptance, release, implementation, and post-implementation review.

• Emergency change processes, expedited releases, configuration changes, infrastructure modifications, and retrospective approval requirements.

• Audit testing of change populations, approvals, test evidence, migration records, developer access, production changes, and unauthorised modifications.

Module 6: IT Operations and Infrastructure General Controls

• IT operations controls covering job scheduling, batch processing, system monitoring, incident management, problem management, and operational procedures.

• Backup and recovery controls including backup frequency, storage, protection, restoration testing, retention, and monitoring of failed processes.

• Configuration management, system administration, patch management, capacity monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, and technology operations governance.

• Audit testing of operational records, system logs, monitoring evidence, incident tickets, scheduled jobs, configuration baselines, and control exceptions.

Module 7: Application Control Frameworks and Control Design

• Application control objectives covering input, processing, output, interface, authorisation, completeness, accuracy, validity, and exception management.

• Control design techniques for automated validations, workflow approvals, business rules, tolerance limits, system calculations, and transaction restrictions.

• Evaluation of preventive and detective application controls and their relationships with manual controls and IT general controls.

• Mapping application controls to business processes, risks, assertions, system functions, data flows, and expected control outcomes.

Module 8: Input, Processing and Output Controls Auditing

• Input controls including data validation, field restrictions, mandatory information, format checks, duplicate detection, and transaction authorisation.

• Processing controls covering automated calculations, business rules, sequencing, completeness checks, exception handling, and transaction integrity.

• Output controls including report accuracy, distribution restrictions, reconciliation, approval, exception reporting, and protection of sensitive information.

• Practical testing of application processing using transaction samples, reperformance, system configurations, system-generated evidence, and analytical procedures.

Module 9: Interfaces, Data Integrity and Reconciliation Controls

• Auditing application interfaces, data transfers, integration points, APIs, middleware, automated feeds, and cross-system transaction processing.

• Evaluation of interface completeness, accuracy, sequencing, error handling, rejected transactions, duplicate records, and reconciliation procedures.

• Testing data migration, master data interfaces, batch transfers, automated integrations, and system-to-system information exchanges.

• Reconciliation controls, exception investigation, balancing procedures, data integrity monitoring, and management review of unresolved differences.

Module 10: Automated Controls, ERP and Enterprise Application Auditing

• Auditing automated controls within ERP, financial, human resources, procurement, revenue, inventory, and other enterprise applications.

• Evaluation of configurable business rules, approval workflows, tolerance thresholds, automated calculations, system validations, and transaction restrictions.

• Testing application configuration changes, control parameters, master data dependencies, role configurations, and automated processing logic.

• Assessing reliance on automated controls and determining whether supporting IT general controls provide an appropriate control foundation.

Module 11: Data Analytics and Technology-Enabled IT Control Testing

• Data extraction, validation, transformation, and analysis techniques for testing large populations of technology and application transactions.

• Analytical procedures for identifying duplicate transactions, unusual entries, access anomalies, failed controls, overrides, exceptions, and processing irregularities.

• Automated control testing, scripts, continuous monitoring, exception reporting, and technology-assisted approaches for improving audit coverage.

• Designing reproducible analytics procedures with appropriate documentation, data validation, evidence retention, and review controls.

Module 12: Cloud, SaaS, APIs and Modern Application Control Environments

• Auditing application controls within cloud-hosted systems, software-as-a-service platforms, platform services, and distributed technology environments.

• Shared responsibility considerations for application configuration, access management, infrastructure controls, data protection, monitoring, and service availability.

• API and integration control risks involving authentication, authorisation, data transmission, rate restrictions, error handling, and interface monitoring.

• Evaluating application control evidence where system configuration, infrastructure, hosting, and security responsibilities are distributed across multiple providers.

Module 13: Evidence, Sampling and Control Testing Methodologies

• Principles of sufficient, appropriate, reliable, relevant, traceable, and reproducible evidence for IT general and application control audits.

• Control testing methodologies including inquiry, inspection, observation, walkthroughs, reperformance, sampling, configuration review, and automated testing.

• Sampling approaches for control populations, exception evaluation, deviation analysis, compensating controls, and determination of testing conclusions.

• IT audit working papers, evidence indexing, testing documentation, review processes, audit trails, and quality assurance requirements.

Module 14: Control Deficiencies, Root Cause and Risk Impact Analysis

• Identification and classification of control deficiencies, design weaknesses, operating failures, exceptions, observations, and systemic control problems.

• Root cause analysis for recurring technology control weaknesses involving people, processes, systems, governance, configurations, and organisational responsibilities.

• Evaluation of business, financial, operational, compliance, security, and reporting impacts arising from IT and application control deficiencies.

• Assessing compensating controls, residual risks, management responses, remediation priorities, and the significance of unresolved control weaknesses.

Module 15: IT Control Audit Reporting, Remediation and Follow-Up

• Development of clear audit findings connecting criteria, condition, cause, effect, risk implications, evidence, recommendations, and management responses.

• Communicating complex IT control weaknesses in business language appropriate for executives, process owners, technology leaders, and audit committees.

• Developing practical recommendations addressing control design, implementation, ownership, monitoring, system configuration, process weaknesses, and root causes.

• Follow-up procedures for validating remediation, retesting controls, reassessing residual risks, tracking overdue actions, and escalating unresolved deficiencies.

Module 16: Advanced IT Control Assurance and Emerging Technology Risks

• Integrated assurance across IT general controls, application controls, cybersecurity, cloud environments, data governance, business processes, and third-party services.

• Emerging control challenges associated with artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, low-code platforms, DevOps, APIs, and autonomous business processes.

• Continuous control monitoring, automated assurance, real-time exception detection, control analytics, and technology-enabled audit transformation.

• Developing a forward-looking IT control audit strategy that strengthens system reliability, application integrity, technology governance, resilience, and stakeholder confidence.

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808

Training Venue 

The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.

Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808

Terms of Payment:

Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.