Writing Highly Effective Audit Reports

Day 1: Audit reports – your shop window

The 5 dilemmas of audit reporting

• Video from IIA president
• What is a best practice report?
• Who do you need to convince?
• Top tips – communicating results
• The challenges of audit reporting
• Grabbing attention
• Getting the message across
• Getting action
• The need for impact
• Which of 6 reports shown would you be likely to read
• Ideas on creating impact
• How do you know a good report when you see one?
• What Management expect – recent survey of chief executive
• IIA professional standards
• Who are the reports really for?
• Exercise 1 – What are the factors that separate an excellent report from the rest?

The problems with audit reports

• Exercise 2 – Thirty five questions about your audit reports
• The 35 questions (all based on best practice) – how did you score?
• What are the factors preventing the achievement of these best practice measures
• Tips, techniques and ideas to help you score a maximum
• How to get 95% of recommendations implemented
• Use of charts and photos
• Dealing with minor issues
• Future focus
• Order of importance of the issues
• Actions rather than recommendations
• Action plans
• Discussion of the implications
• How to assess the needs of the audit customers

Analysis of actual reports

• Explanation of a proven method to evaluate audit reports
• The need to determine success criteriaWho should you involve?
• Exercise 3 – Analysis of 4 actual reports

The Executive Summary

• Exercise 4 – Comparison of 3 executive summaries
• The role of the Executive summary
• 20 tips for writing better summaries
• Targeting the Executive summary to the reader
• The benefits of writing the Executive summary before the main report.
• Asking a non-technical person to read it
• Exercise 5 – Role-play a meeting with senior management to discuss the report
• Feedback and discussion of the issues

Writing the Executive summary

• Reflecting on the issues raised in the role-play
• The need to cover the following issues
  • How many key issues are there?
  • What led to the control failures?
  • What did it or could it cost the business?
  • Were there any other impacts
  • Will the actions agreed deal with the risk?
  • What confidence will this give senior management
• Exercise 6 – Writing the Executive summary

Day 2: Best practice internal audit reports

Writing reports with impact

• How to market the audit reporting process
• Why audit reports are taken as a criticism of management
• Messages rather than content
• Outcomes rather than output
• Solutions not problems
• Auditor and reader mind-sets
• Ways to make the reports more positive
• Benefits and deliverables
• Conclusions
• Language and impact
• Simple and Complex language
• The use of ‘power words’ in your communications
• How to get on the same wavelength as your customer
• Highlighting the issues that matterAudit observations
• New paper on audit observations will be shared
• Causes and effects
• How to draft a report with impact
• Exercise 7 – Writing a report – taking account of the issues raised

Ideas on improving the review process

• Ways to improve the review process
• The need for a positive approach
• Techniques for effective review
• Putting yourself in the position of the writer and recipient
• Avoiding the use of the ‘red pen’
• Encouraging the auditor
• Avoiding making changes for change sake
• Messages rather than content
• Outcomes rather than output
• Exercise 8 – The review process

The main report

• Ideas for improving the main report
• Keeping it simple
• The report process
• Writing the main report
• Dealing with writers block
• Audit Objectives
• Scope
• Forming and expressing the audit opinion
• Wording tips
• Tone
• Writing effective coherent sentences and paragraphs
• The editing process – tips for success
• The power of Senior management comments
• Circulation lists
• Formatting ideas
• How to avoid repeating any sections in the Executive summary
• Words and phrases to avoid
• How to reduce the number of words
• Why the spellchecker sometimes does not help you
• Dealing with the difficulties of the English language
• Exercise 9 – Picking the biggest paragraph from a report and rewriting it in one third of the words originally used.

Finalising the report

• How to finalise the report more effectively
• Recommendations and actions plansManagement Comments
• How to reflect the right issues for the Audit Committee
• Audit Committee report examples
• The need to be on your customers side
• Follow up audits – using the action plan
• How to get management to take responsibility for actions
• 5 Ways to improve the follow-up process
• Exercise 10 – Follow up of reports
• Issuing the report
• Presenting or issuing reports (including use of e-mail and the Intranet)
• Alternative methods of reporting e.g. PowerPoint
• Examples of excellent reports will be provided
• The need to be on your customers side
• Reporting performance indicators
• Tracking actions
• 10 other Steps to success

Assessment and evaluation of your own reports