Richard Chambers has returned to the topic of audit reports in 5 Strategies For More Timely Internal Audit Reports.
I agree with much of what he has to say, especially this:
…it can sometimes take as long to issue a report as it took to perform the audit!
This is a major problem, a total waste of scarce and valuable time.
There is never enough time to complete audits of all the issues and areas where there is a risk to the enterprise. The idea that we are wasting time writing and re-writing audit reports should turn everybody’s stomach.
Richard has some good ideas. His five strategies are:
- Share internal audit results with client “as you go”.
- Eliminate or reduce levels of review.
- Use team editing or report conferencing.
- Use automated working papers’ report-writing features.
- Streamline the report format.
That last strategy is, in many ways, the most telling. To quote Richard again:
Internal audit departments that have successfully reduced their reports’ cycle time generally produce leaner audit reports, which makes them not only easy to edit but easy to read. The shorter a report is, the less time it typically takes to write and edit. Complexity can also slow the review process, so generally speaking, simpler is better, too. And reaching consensus with clients can become onerous with…
