Collecting performance data: a CAE seeks a new benchmarking strategy to gauge his audit shop's effectiveness.(Chief Audit Executive of Robin Bank)

CARLTON IS THE CHIEF AUDIT EXECUTIVE of Robin Bank, a financial services institution located in a major U.S. city. The bank has grown considerably over the past few years, boasting 34 locations and nearly US $2.5 billion in total assets. It offers a wide range of community banking services to small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as to families and individuals.

Carlton's audit department consists of one audit manager and five staff auditors. He and his team work long hours to complete their annual audit plan, which includes projects related to complying with the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Professional experience within the department ranges from two months to 10 years.

While staring out his office window, Carlton ponders an issue that's been on his mind for some time--creating a balanced scorecard of performance measures for the audit department. Recently, a service firm hired to assess the department's quality recommended developing a comprehensive set of audit performance metrics. The firm also suggested establishing a monitoring framework and reporting results periodically to the audit committee.

In recent years, Carlton has struggled to summarize the wealth of data contained in his annual internal audit benchmarking report from The IIA's Global Audit Information Network (GAIN) program. He needs an effective methodology for reporting key performance information to audit …