Description

A focused course, tailored for you

The Payments Processor Internal Audit Plan Playbook

Build a risk-based audit plan that covers card processing, SOX ITGCs, and PCI DSS v4.0.1 in one workpaper trail the audit committee actually reads.

The annual audit plan memo, the PCI v4.0.1 customised approach evidence trail, the SOX 404 ITGC universe over authorisation and settlement, and the audit committee one-pager all need to reconcile to one risk universe, and right now they do not.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

An Internal Audit Manager at a listed payments processor is asked to plan and execute an annual audit programme that covers card acquiring, issuer processing, money movement, payroll services, and a stack of gateway integrations. The risk universe is large, the audit committee wants a defensible scope, the external auditors want to see how the IA work supports the SOX opinion, and the PCI QSA cycle now lands inside the same calendar. Each function has its own SOC 1 or SOC 2 report, some inherited from acquisitions, and the IA team is expected to know exactly which controls in those reports can be relied on and which still need direct testing. The plan refresh memo is where these decisions get fixed for the year. If the memo treats PCI, SOX ITGC, and SOC report reliance as three separate workstreams, the team double-tests in one place and leaves a gap in another, and the audit committee chair asks the same question for the third quarter in a row. The skill the role needs is plan construction that holds up under all three lenses at once, audit committee writing that lets the chair sign off without follow-up, and a remediation tracker that closes findings before they age into a repeat issue.

What you walk away with

Build a risk-scored annual audit plan for a payments processor that reconciles merchant acquiring, issuer processing, money movement, and gateway business lines into one defensible universe.
Decide control-by-control where reliance on an inherited SOC 1 or SOC 2 report is defensible under SOX 404 and where the IA team still tests directly.
Map PCI DSS v4.0.1 customised approach controls into the IA workpaper so the QSA cycle and the IA testing reinforce each other instead of duplicating.
Write an audit committee memo and quarterly status pack the chair reads in one pass and signs off on without follow-up questions.
Run a remediation tracker that closes findings before they age into a repeat issue and that the external auditor accepts as evidence of operating effectiveness.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The payments processor risk universe

Build the risk universe for a listed payments processor across merchant acquiring, issuer processing, money movement, payroll services, and gateway integrations. Score each business line on financial materiality, customer impact, regulatory attention, and inherent fraud exposure, and document the scoring rationale in a memo the audit committee chair can follow without a glossary.

Module 2. Annual IA plan construction

Move from the risk universe to a twelve-month audit plan with named engagements, lead auditor, hours, and quarterly slot. Cover the trade-offs between full-scope reviews, focused operational audits, advisory engagements, and SOX-cycle reliance work, and the rationale for what is in plan, what is on the contingency list, and what is deferred.

Module 3. SOX 404 ITGC scope for authorisation and settlement

Define the SOX 404 ITGC universe for the authorisation, clearing, and settlement platforms. Walk through application-level access, change management, batch processing, key management, and interface controls on the issuer and acquirer rails, and the testing approach the external auditor will accept as evidence under AS 2201.

Module 4. PCI DSS v4.0.1 customised approach inside the IA plan

Bring PCI DSS v4.0.1 testing into the IA workpaper. Cover the customised approach control objective, the targeted risk analysis, the supporting evidence the QSA expects, and the IA testing posture that lets one piece of evidence support both the QSA report on compliance and the SOX assertion on the same control.

Module 5. Reliance on inherited SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports

Decide where the IA function relies on a service organisation control report and where it tests directly. Walk through bridge letters, complementary user entity controls, carve-out vs inclusive scoping, and the documentation the external auditor and the audit committee chair both need to accept the reliance position for a given control.

Module 6. BSA, AML, and OFAC for money movement

Scope the IA work over the money movement, payroll funding, and merchant funding flows. Cover BSA programme governance, AML transaction monitoring tuning, OFAC sanctions screening, suspicious activity reporting, and the IA testing approach that satisfies the regulator examination cycle without becoming a second compliance department.

Module 7. Vendor and gateway integration audits

Audit the integrations with gateway partners, processor partners, and acquired technology stacks. Cover vendor risk classification, integration architecture review, data flow mapping for cardholder and payroll data, contract reliance on the partner SOC report, and the IA evidence trail that supports a clean opinion on the integration as it exists today.

Module 8. Fraud, dispute, and chargeback operations audits

Plan and execute IA reviews over fraud operations, dispute management, and chargeback processing. Cover the operational metrics that flag control failure early, the network rule changes that move the testing target, and the workpaper format that lets the audit committee see the trend without rereading the full report.

Module 9. Data privacy, GLBA, and state privacy law coverage

Cover the IA scope over GLBA safeguards, state-level privacy laws on cardholder and consumer data, and the cross-border data flows the processor runs. Walk through the testing of the privacy programme, the breach response runbook, and the evidence trail the audit committee needs when a state attorney general asks about a control.

Module 10. Audit committee memo writing

Write the audit committee memo and quarterly status pack so the chair reads it once and signs off. Cover the one-page summary, the risk-and-finding heat map, the SOX-readiness call-out, the PCI status line, and the open-finding aging chart, and the writing discipline that keeps each section short enough to actually be read.

Module 11. Remediation tracking and repeat-finding prevention

Run a remediation tracker that closes findings before they age into a repeat issue. Cover the finding lifecycle, the control owner accountability model, the validation testing that proves operating effectiveness, and the escalation path when a finding goes past due, so the external auditor accepts the closed status without rework.

Module 12. Coordinating with the external auditor and the QSA

Coordinate the IA work with the external SOX auditor and the PCI QSA so each one credits the other's evidence where it should. Cover the walkthrough package, the testing schedule alignment, the shared documentation, and the relationship management that turns three audit cycles a year into one continuous evidence pipeline.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Refreshing the annual audit plan for the audit committee chair this quarter.

Deciding where to rely on an inherited SOC 1 or SOC 2 report and where the IA team still tests directly.

Bringing PCI DSS v4.0.1 customised approach evidence into the IA workpaper without duplicating QSA work.

Writing the audit committee memo so the chair signs off on the plan in one pass.

What you get with this course

Twelve text-based modules in the Art of Service learning environment, each with worked examples drawn from a listed payments processor.
Downloadable templates for the risk universe scoring sheet, the annual IA plan memo, the audit committee one-pager, the SOC reliance decision log, the PCI v4.0.1 customised approach evidence map, and the remediation tracker.
The hand-built implementation playbook for the recipient's IA function, prepared after enrolment and delivered alongside course access.
Thirty-day satisfaction window.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Within 24 hours: course access in the Art of Service learning environment, all twelve modules available, all templates downloadable, hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Week one: risk universe scoring sheet drafted for the recipient's business lines using the module 1 worked example.

Weeks two and three: annual IA plan memo, SOX 404 ITGC scope, and SOC reliance decision log built from the module 2, 3, and 5 worked examples.

Week four: PCI DSS v4.0.1 customised approach evidence map, audit committee one-page memo, and remediation tracker built from modules 4, 10, and 11.

Before and after

Before

The annual audit plan, the PCI v4.0.1 evidence trail, the SOX 404 ITGC scope, and the SOC report reliance decisions live in four different workpapers, the audit committee chair asks the same question every quarter, and the external auditor still wants supplementary testing the IA team thought was already covered.

After

One risk-scored audit plan reconciles all four lenses, the audit committee memo is one page and signs off in the first read, PCI v4.0.1 evidence flows directly into the SOX workpaper, and the external auditor relies on the IA testing without supplementary rework.

What happens if you do not address this

Without a reconciled plan, the IA function spends the cycle double-testing controls the SOC report already covered while missing the PCI customised approach evidence the QSA actually needs, the audit committee chair keeps asking the same scope question, and the external auditor either expands its own testing or qualifies its reliance on the IA work. Repeat findings age, remediation slips, and the regulator examination cycle lands on an IA function visibly behind plan.

Who it is for

An Internal Audit Manager or Senior Manager inside a listed merchant acquirer, issuer processor, or full-stack payments company. Owns the annual IA plan for one or more business lines, presents to the audit committee, coordinates with the external auditor on SOX 404 reliance, and has the PCI DSS v4.0.1 transition inside the current audit cycle. Has a CIA or CISA, has audited financial services before, and is the person the CAE puts in front of the committee chair when a finding gets technical.

Who this is NOT for. Not for first-year IA staff who have not led a planning cycle. Not for SOX project managers in a non-payments industry. Not for external auditors. Not for compliance officers who do not own the IA plan.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Around twelve to fifteen hours of focused reading and template work over four weeks. Most learners run it in parallel with the live audit plan refresh cycle so the templates get populated against real engagements.

Why $199 is the right number

A Big4 advisory engagement for an annual IA plan refresh runs into six figures and lands as a slide deck the team still has to operationalise. The IIA payments processor guidance is generic to the industry, not to the recipient's business lines, and does not cover the PCI v4.0.1 customised approach inside the IA workpaper. This course provides the same plan-construction discipline as the advisory engagement, with downloadable templates that populate against the recipient's actual business lines and a hand-built implementation playbook for the specific IA function.

FAQ

Does the course assume a specific GRC platform?

No. The templates are tool-neutral. Worked examples reference common workpaper structures, and the playbook is adapted to the recipient's actual platform when it is built.

Does this work for a non-listed processor?

Yes. The SOX 404 modules are most useful for a listed entity, but the risk universe, SOC reliance, PCI v4.0.1, and audit committee writing modules transfer to a private processor or a bank-owned acquirer with no rework.

Is the PCI v4.0.1 content current?

Yes. The customised approach module is built against the v4.0.1 standard and the targeted risk analysis evidence requirements as published by the PCI SSC.

Can the team enrol together?

Yes. The single-seat price covers one learner. For a team enrolment, reply to the welcome email and a team licence is set up.

What if it does not fit my function?

Thirty-day satisfaction window. Reply to the welcome email within thirty days and the charge is reversed.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.