Scalable Audit Methods for Large Corporate Groups

We didn’t change the security model in 3 years… now we have over 200 custom security groups, and no one knows why. Sounds familiar? Across every industry...retail, healthcare, finance, manufacturing...Workday consultants are silently battling a hidden monster: Security Drift. Security in Workday HCM isn’t just about assigning permissions...it’s about balancing scalability, compliance, and usability without creating chaos under the hood. And this is where even seasoned consultants struggle. The Core Problem: ->Overlapping, undocumented, and over-privileged security groups. ->This makes audits a nightmare, increases data exposure risk, and creates massive technical debt over time. Let’s solve it with a strategy that’s audit-proof, scalable, and dynamic. ->Implementation Blueprint: ✅ Step 1: Clean the Foundation Do a Security Group Rationalization Audit. ->Example: Combine 15 custom groups for “Compensation View” into one, constrained by role and supervisory org. ✅ Step 2: Role Profiling & Documentation ->Create a Role Matrix for each worker type (e.g., HRBP, Payroll Admin). ->Use clear rules: Who they can see, what data they can modify, what BPs they should trigger. ✅ Step 3: Automate Role Assignments via Business Processes ->Automate security assignment using "Maintain Security Group Membership" BP based on job profile/org. ->Example: When someone becomes an HR Partner, they’re auto-assigned relevant security via Supervisory Org. ✅ Step 4: Introduce Dynamic Monitoring ->Implement anomaly detection (via reports or ML tools) to flag role misuse or abnormal access. ->Example: Alert if a recruiter accesses more than 5 payroll records in a day. ✅ Step 5: Consolidate with Intersection & Aggregation Security Groups ->Use these advanced groups to reduce sprawl and build security based on real-world scenarios. ->Example: An “HR Partner – India” group = HR Partner (role) + India (location org constraint). ✅ Step 6: Schedule Quarterly Security Reviews ->Involve HRIS, IT Security, and Business. Use a documented playbook. ->Create dashboards that visualize high-risk permissions and recently modified roles. ->Legacy Systems: Add more roles when it breaks. ->Workday Smart Design: Build roles that scale with your business and still pass audits. Pro Tip: Before creating a new security group...ask yourself: “Is this scalable for future org changes and audit-compliant?” If not, redesign the process instead of the permission. Have you ever had to rebuild Workday security from scratch? Would love to hear your strategy! #workdayhcm #workdayconsultant #workdaysecurity #workdaytips #workdayimplementation #hcmstrategy #hrtech #saasgovernance #hris #enterprisecloud #workdaypartner #cybersecurity

Auditing at scale: lessons from tens of billions of transactions in external audits, the expectation is shifting toward analysing all transactional data, not just samples. For large energy suppliers, that means working with datasets that quickly run into tens of billions of records Traditional environments like PostgreSQL can struggle here: 1. Hitting size and performance limits 2. Slower queries at scale 3. Heavy costs from duplicating and transferring data 4. Onboarding delays when access is tied to client systems One approach that’s proving effective for KPMG is Delta Sharing in Databricks. Instead of moving or replicating data, it enables secure, cross-cloud access to governed datasets Key takeaways for large-scale audits: 1) Scale: Handles petabyte-level datasets without the overhead 2) Speed: Spark SQL and PySpark enable faster queries 3) Governance: Unity Catalog centralises permissions and visibility 4) Flexibility: Data can be consumed in SQL, Python, or BI tools Impact: In KPMG’s case, audit analytics quality improved by 15 percentage points The broader lesson: when data is this big, audit quality depends as much on how you access the data as on what you do with it

Hello Everyone, Risk Based IA (RBIA) is one of the most widely used IA methodology RBIA is an audit approach that primarily focuses on the overall organizational risk framework. It provides assurance to stakeholders that risks are being managed effectively through proper and efficient internal controls thereby supporting the achievement of organizational objectives. Broad steps involved: 1) Understanding organization & its business: Gain an understanding of the organization, its business & its industry. Study the external environment such as regulatory, market, technological, business, emerging risks and assess how these may impact the organization. 2) Preparation of audit universe: Prepare the audit universe to map all auditable areas. This helps in effective risk assessment and ensures that no auditable area is missed. 3) Risk Assessment: Identify, assess potential risks to help in plan & execution (please note that risk register is not the duty of IA). Risks are then rated based on their significance. This is done based on experience within the organization, past audit results, discussions with stakeholders, the company’s risk register 4) Preparation of audit plan: Prepare the annual audit plan based on the risk assessment and assigned risk ratings. High risk areas are generally covered every year. The plan should be approved by Management / Audit Committee & periodically updated 5) Audit execution: Initiate & execute audit assignment as per the plan or on an ad-hoc basis. This involves process understanding and review, data collection, control testing, use of data analytics etc., to arrive at audit observations. Observations may include control design deficiencies or exceptions identified during testing. 6) Analysis of audit findings: Analyze audit findings and their significance. This helps identify gaps, control deficiencies, flaws in control design and areas for improvement. Identify root causes and assess risk impact. 7) Audit reporting: Prepare the audit report with recommendations & obtain management responses. Rate the risk severity & suggest corrective actions. After discussion and incorporation of responses the report is finalized and shared with Management & the Audit Committee. 8) Follow up on recommendations: Follow up on agreed recommendation after the completion of timelines and evaluate proof of implementation. 9) Continuous monitoring & improvement: Ensure the audit approach remains aligned with emerging risks. Incorporate feedback & lessons learnt from completed audits. 10) Quality review: Conduct quality checks of audit work by a reviewer to ensure standardization and effectiveness of audit activities. Overall the focus is more on risks facing the organization with higher risks is priority. However, this does not mean lower risk areas are to be ignored rather only the frequency may differ. Today’s low risk may become tomorrow’s high risk so a balanced approach is essential. Happy Learning Soneel