Audit Findings during Internal and External Examinations

One of AuditAlert’s many features is being a repository for an organization’s audit findings, whether they are generated by the internal audit staff via an internal audit documented in AuditAlert (or the compliance staff during a self-assessment review) or copied and pasted from a regulator’s (or any external audit) examination report. AuditAlert allows the organization to manage the remediation process surrounding audit and examination points. Within the application an audit finding includes:

• general information surrounding the audit point such as its priority, impact classification, exception type, critical dates, etc.,
• the description of the audit finding,
• the internal audit or compliance staff’s recommendation, if applicable,
• the auditee’s action plan, which is input via AuditAlert Web,
• the auditee’s management update to the original action plan for audit committee presentation also input via AuditAlert Web and
• the associated follow-up work on each completed audit point, which is performed by the audit or compliance staff.

Using AuditAlert’s Audit Point form provides a management tool for the auditor, ensuring that the remediation process is performed in a timely manner. The Audit Point form has various sections (tabs at the top of the form) as described below. Each bullet point below represents an individual form within the Audit Point functionality in AuditAlert:

• General   An audit finding is documented by the auditor in AuditAlert by creating the Audit Point during the audit, automatically forming a link between the two. An external audit finding would simply be linked to a regulator's examination setup in AuditAlert. Initially an abbreviated regulatory examination would be created in AuditAlert for tracking purposes and then the audit finding is copied from the examination report (received from the regulators upon conclusion of their examination) and pasted into a new Audit Point form. Other than how the Audit Point is created in AuditAlert, the remaining process for an internal and an external audit finding is exactly the same.
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• Audit Point   The auditor documents the audit finding in the Audit Point form at any time during or after the audit. The Audit Point form as well as all other text fields in AuditAlert include edit tools, a spellchecker and a dictionary. For an external examination the audit finding is copied from the examination report and pasted in this form. The date, time, and the auditor’s name are displayed in the form when the audit point is originally created and subsequently updated, if applicable.
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• Recommendation   The recommendation by the auditor is included in this form. The date, time, and the auditor’s name are displayed in the form when the recommendation is originally created and subsequently updated, if applicable.
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• Assignment   The processes within the Audit Point function are assigned to various audit staff members as to who can update the text forms in the Audit Point, as to who can update the status of the Audit Point and who is responsible for follow-up work after the auditee indicates in AuditAlert Web that the resolution of the audit finding has been completed. The auditor also assigns the management member of the organization primary responsibility for the remediation of the Audit Point.
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• File & URL References   An Audit Point can reference a file (PowerPoint presentation, Adobe PDF, Word document, scanned documents, etc.) or URL (an external website’s address on the Internet or the organization’s Intranet) to support and further explain the audit finding. This section may also be updated by the auditee via AuditAlert Web to substantiate their work during the remediation process and subsequently by the auditor to document their follow-up work.
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• Action Plan   The Action Plan describes the remedy that has been prepared by the auditee to correct and prevent the circumstance documented in the Audit Point going forward. The Action Plan is pulled into the Examination Report, if requested, and into the Audit Point Status Report, if requested. The auditee enters the Action Plan via AuditAlert Web. Future updates to the Action Plan are documented in AuditAlert as management summary (see below) updates, which are described later in this document.
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• Responses   Via AuditAlert Web, the auditee can delegate and bring in-house experts into the remediation process. The conversation thread between these individuals substantiating the remediation process is documented in this form. Once a comment is added and saved, an email message is released to the staff listed. This function acts as a project-task manager for the auditee.
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• Management Summary   After culling through the internal dialog amongst the staff in the Responses form, the auditee, via AuditAlert Web, can create a more informed update to the original Action Plan in the management summary form.
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Browser-based Access by Auditee: AuditAlert Web	Response screen to an audit program question
Audit Findings during Internal and External Examinations	Risk Assessment, Audit Planning & Time Management
Introductory User Guides (PDFs)	Frequently Asked Questions