For many consumers of audit reports in the executive suite and boardroom, the answer is probably “too long!”
Audit reports may run to extraordinary lengths; recently, I talked to one organization where they could easily be over a hundred pages.
100 pages is clearly too long for anybody to rationally expect our stakeholders in top management and on the board to want to read them.
When is there 100 pages of value, actionable information, in an audit report?
So, is the answer ten or twenty pages? Is it two or three?
Let’s tackle the question a different way.
XX
Audit reports are a communication vehicle.
The IIA Standards do not require that we write an audit report. Instead, they require that we communicate the results of our work to our stakeholders.
XX
What should we communicate?
XX
When you visit the dentist because you have a toothache, do you want even a three-page report?
You want to know:
(a) can he or she stop the pain?
(b) when will that be done?
(c) is there a serious problem? and
(d) what is this going to cost me?
You don’t want to be asked to read:
- a recap of your dental history
- the status of recommendations from your last visit
- a report on the depth of your gums
- and so on.
XX
If you take your car for a routine service, you want to know:
(a) is everything all right?
(b) is there something…
