How to Build an Audit Report

Share your findings about the project in question in your audit report.

An audit report is a document written by company officials to evaluate a given process, system or project. It's commonly used in accounting, project management and quality-related processes. While there are different variations of an audit report, each report varies depending on the company or system in question. However, there are basic sections that must be included in an audit report to improve the overall report legibility and to follow basic audit report formalities.

Instructions

1. Create a front page for the audit report. It should contain basic information, such as the company's name, the department or division doing the audit report, the name of the person responsible for the audit report and the date of the report.

2. Write a table of contents or an index page on the second page of the document. This should be updated as you write the report to ensure all of the data is correct.

3. Compose an executive summary, which is an abstract of the audit report. You should write this near the end of the report to ensure you highlight the key points of the report, but insert it after the index page.

4. Write a background section where you outline why the audit has been done. Since the reasons can vary depending on the purpose, it's important you're detailed in this section. Discuss the problem or concern that led to the audit.

5. Outline the objectives with the audit report. This should highlight what the audit is trying to achieve, such as analyzing a new system, improving a customer service process or finding a solution to a common problem or concern within the company.

6. Discuss the method used to solve the problem outlined in the background section. This can include running customer satisfaction tests for customer dissatisfaction or trying various types of software systems to determine what system is the ideal system for a company.

7. Write the results of the tests or methods to determine if any new findings have been made. If you've done tests with qualitative results, you can present the results in the form of a graph or as percentages. If you've done interviews with employees to determine what software works better and have quantitative data, include it as an appendix in the back of the report.

8. Conclude the report by writing about the findings and discoveries. You can highlight problems that have been solved due to the tests run during the audit period or other concerns that have surfaced from the employee interviews. Offer a list of recommendations to solve the problems and an action plan through which the solutions can be implemented.

9. Go back to the executive summary and describe the highlights of the report. The executive summary should include main points from each section, not just the main conclusions. Read through the report and edit it so you gain an objective tone, according to the Institute of Internal Auditors.

References

• Doc Stock: How to Write an Audit Report
• The Institute of Internal Auditors: Audit Report Writing