Improving Audit Reports – for Senior Practitioners and Heads of Internal Audit
The most difficult audit challenge is to produce an audit report that is business-like, relevant, compelling and value-adding. This one-day seminar explores the possibilities of improving report communications by harvesting ideas used by successful audit teams.
Suitability and duration
Suitability: Audit Seniors and Principals
Duration: 1 day
Who should attend
This seminar is designed for senior auditors and above that are able to influence written communications within the organisation. The heart of the course lies in the examination of ideas gleaned from audit teams around the world.
Benefits
Skills
After attending this seminar you will be able to:
Evaluate options for improving reporting within your organisation
Deploy a reporting structure that engages and communicates greater value to the reader
Apply strategies to improve the readability of finalised reports
Support Materials
This course is accompanied by briefing notes and examples of strategies and layouts used in audit report writing.
Programme
Audience and image
Style expectations of your target audience
House-styling communications – do you really need branding?
The message you want your image to promote
Preferred delivery formats: paper, electronic, or both
Look and feel of completed reports
Audience and empathy
Trends and changes in the style of audit reporting
Audit rating scales and opinions – translating these for the reader
Inclusion of synopsis data and high level visual devices such as temperature maps, visual risk indicators or scoring tables
Body framework layouts: Paragraph structure / Table structure / Action Strip Structure
Inclusion of process maps, images, charts and visual aids – careful use of meaningful graphics
Generation of alternative formats: Reports in Word; Reports in Excel; Reports in PowerPoint
Using software to assist quality assurance
Audience and readability
Brevity and communication
Phrasing, language construction and jargon, avoiding dullness
Constructing a house style: preferred rules of expression, sentence structure and grammar; the use of words
Design and layout – page layout, the use of white space, typographic options, paragraph styling
Course designed, developed and presented by MindGrove.
