Writing Effective Audit Reports

Auditors often, inadvertently, create ineffective audit reports – they are unclear, offer no logical sequence and require audit seniors to spend significant amounts of their time correcting and editing first drafts.

This course provides a stimulating introduction to audit report writing and focuses on report preparation, structure and effectiveness.

Suitability and duration

Suitability: Beginner - Intermediate

Duration: 2 days

Who should attend

This intensive hands-on course is open to all-comers, although auditors with less experience will find it of greatest value. The heart of the course is not in grammar or spelling, many other courses deal with those matters – it is in the correct sequencing and presentation of content. The result is the production of compelling and insightful reports that cannot be put to one side and that add significant value.

Benefits

Skills

After completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the target audience for a report
• Write a report using information that meets target audiences’ requirements
• Bring into play a writing technique that maximises acceptance of the audit viewpoint
• Employ tone and voice to project the report’s contents
• Apply strategies to maximise conciseness, readability and clarity
• Implement writing techniques that improve the value outcome of an audit

Support Materials

This course is accompanied by an indexed 90 page manual that includes briefings, examples, illustrations, checklists and strategies for use in audit report writing.

Programme

Report writing: audience and framework

• Points of Practice - better audit reports
• The target audience
• Structure of audit reports
• Points of Practice – cultural perspective
• Trends and changes in audit reporting
• Points of Practice – sharing findings
• Points of Practice – reporting channels
• Points of Practice – reporting time-frames

Report writing: observations

• The 5 “Cs” approach
• The condition
• The criterion or criteria
• Points of Practice – omission of criteria
• The cause
• Points of Practice – causality and control
• Writing up causes
• The consequence (effect)
• Points of Practice – finding or not?
• Writing up consequences
• The conclusion (recommendation)
• Points of Practice – best value
• Points of Practice – co-operative conclusions
• Points of Practice – Quality Check on Observations
• Points of Practice - audit rating scales
• Points of Practice – layout of observations in reports
• Paragraph structure / Table structure / Action Strip Structure

Report writing: tone

• Unbiased language
• Use of Standard English
• Connotation

Report writing: conciseness and readability

• Conciseness
• Points of Practice - simplifying phrasing and improving readability
• Phrasing
• Readability
• Jargon

Report writing: clarity

• Writing coherently
• Active and passive voice
• Person and voice
• Points of Practice – the right voice

Report writing: selling audit recommendations

• Better reporting
• Readability guidelines
• Thinking about the message
• Points of Practice - when a report is not a report