South East Training - Business Process Auditing Toolkit

 The Business Process Auditing Toolkit is owned by South East Training. 

You may use this resource for free on the condition that you include this statement on each page.  

Copyright South East Training 2010    Available for free from: www.businessprocessauditing.co.uk

Audit Report

Content

The audit report should include the following:

  • Title, Dates, Audit Team
  • Executive Summary
  • Purpose and Scope
  • Audit Criteria
  • Key Personnel Interviewed
  • Introduction / Context
  • Findings
  • Conclusions 
  • Acknowledgements
  • Signature of the Lead Auditor 

At South East Training, we advocate against the auditors including recommendations in the report.  The responsibility for process improvement lies with the business process owner.  The auditors' independence from the process and the corrective action may be compromised if they are seen to be taking ownership of the solutions.  However, the client may choose to add recommendations.  If this happens, the report should make clear that these have been added by the client rather than the auditors.

Tips for Completion of the Report

The audit findings should be presented exactly as they were at the closing meeting. It is possible that the auditee has already started to take corrective action by the time they receive the report and would not be happy if they were to see the findings had been changed.

As with the observation statements, avoid the following:

The audit team could not identify….. (This suggests you weren't looking hard enough)

There appears to be….. (You are not certain)

It seems that….. (You are not certain)

Anecdotal evidence suggests that…. (You don’t have the evidence)

This obviously means/is because/makes….. (This suggest 'auditor opinion', which is not objective)

Go back to the Home page.