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Glossary/Audit procedures

Global Internal Audit Standards

The Global Internal Audit Standards are the IIA's 2024 standards, effective January 9, 2025, organized into five domains and 15 principles and replacing the 2017 International Standards.

CORAA TeamUpdated November 5, 2026

Definition

The Institute of Internal Auditors released the Global Internal Audit Standards in January 2024 and they took effect on January 9, 2025. They replaced the 2017 International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. The Standards are organized into five domains: Purpose of Internal Auditing, Ethics and Professionalism, Governing the Internal Audit Function, Managing the Internal Audit Function and Performing Internal Audit Services. They contain 15 principles, with requirements, considerations for implementation and examples of evidence.

Why it matters in an audit or review

Conformance with the Standards underlies the quality assessment of an internal audit function. The Standards call for an external quality assessment at least once every five years. An external auditor deciding whether to use internal audit's work looks at objectivity, competence and a systematic approach, and conformance with recognized standards is part of that picture.

Example

Illustrative: an internal audit department updates its charter and methodology in 2025 to reference the domains and principles. It schedules an external quality assessment for 2028, which falls inside the five-year requirement.

Common mistakes

  • Still citing the 2017 Standards after the transition.
  • Treating the Standards as optional for IIA-aligned functions.

Sources

  • The IIA, Global Internal Audit Standards, https://www.theiia.org
  • The IIA, Standard 8.4, External Quality Assessment

Definitions paraphrase AICPA and FASB guidance; read the standard itself before relying on a requirement. Example figures are illustrative. This page is guidance, not professional advice. Report an error

Standards

IIA GIAS

Related terms

  • Internal audit
    Internal audit is an independent, objective function inside an organization that gives the board and management assurance and advice on governance, risk management and control, guided by the IIA's Global Internal Audit Standards.
  • Internal audit charter
    An internal audit charter is the formal document, approved by the board, that sets out the internal audit function's purpose, authority, responsibility and position in the organization under the IIA's Global Internal Audit Standards.
  • Chief audit executive
    The chief audit executive is the leader of the internal audit function, who reports functionally to the board and is responsible for managing the function and conforming with the Global Internal Audit Standards.
  • Three Lines Model
    The Three Lines Model is the IIA's 2020 governance model that assigns management the first and second line roles, internal audit the third line role of independent assurance, and a governing body accountability.

Go deeper

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