Things to Avoid When Writing the Audit Report

Auditing is about the evaluation of systems and frameworks. It is not an inspection! It is a health check which could indicate areas for improvement. Auditors have to assess the health of an organization against specified criteria. As a result of this process, It is common to find some nonconformities.

Audit nonconformities are likely to be linked to individuals responsible. However, the intent of the audit is to evaluate the effectiveness of the system and not the individuals. Hence, the auditor must avoid the following when writing their report:

1. Avoid naming staff in your report! At the same time, be specific about the findings. Write down what went wrong and support your findings with evidence. It is acceptable to write the department’s name or the location that linked to the audit finding.
2. The auditors are auditing systems, frameworks and functions. It is part of any live system to have some weakness and areas for improvement. Therefore, personal opinions, judgments, and thoughts of the auditor should not be expressed during the audit. Try to avoid subjective terms such as “unfortunately”, “inappropriately”, “unsuitability” or “incorrectly” when writing the audit report. Remember, the evidence you are using as proof must be objective, measurable, and tangible.
3. It is not the role of the auditor to comment, guess or judge the root cause for a gap in the system. Often the source of the gap is complex and multifaceted.  
4. The auditors must leave the corrective actions to the auditee. Finding the root cause or coming up with an action plan is not part of the auditor’s job. An exception to this point may be when conducting internal audits where the point of auditing is to find gaps and to fix them before external audits.

About LMS TRG 

Fulfilling auditing requirements is an essential factor for businesses complying with schemes such as ISO 9001:2015 or the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

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