There are four intertwined dates that are used by AuditAlert during, in your case, each quarterly senior management meeting:

“For Status Report” (or meeting) date – This is the date when the senior management committee will meet to review the status of audit and examination points. This is usually based on a pre-established frequency throughout the calendar year. These dates are established in AuditAlert along with the “notify auditee date,” which is the date that AuditAlert will provide advance email notice to the auditee (if the auditee has an outstanding Audit Point) that they are to update the management summary section of the audit point in AuditAlert Web before the conclusion of the “finalize by” date.

“Finalize By” (by Auditees) date – This is the last day that a management summary for an outstanding audit point can be updated for inclusion in this period’s Audit Point Status Report.

Report Distribution Date - This is the date that the Audit Point Status Report is automatically distributed via email to the senior management committee. This is normally distributed a few days before the meeting date.

The person responsible for creating the Audit Point Status Report would do a “search” (see the top screenshot on the right) on the status of audit points marked as “in process” and click on the Create Report button (see the middle screenshot on the right). A professional report (to the right is an example of a page from the “Status of Audit and Examination Points”) would be generated in Microsoft Word format. This report could be printed or distributed by email from within Word. The audit point, recommendation if any, critical dates, priority, and the formal response are culled from the database. (see the bottom screenshot on the right).
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4. I spend hours formatting quarterly reports that will be reviewed by senior management. I collect email messages and Word documents from various managers then copy and paste into one document. How will AuditAlert facilitate this process?

Select the Examination and Findings Report button on the main menu and then click on the New Audit Point Status Report button. Select the appropriate filters (indicated at the top of the first screenshot below) then select the Search button for the audit points that you would like to generate a report based on. Click the Create Report button, which will bring up the Audit Point Status Report form (the middle screenshot below). You will then be asked to make further choices such as name the report, select the staff members you would like to circulate the report to, and add a comment that will be picked up in the email message generated by AuditAlert or just run the report for yourself. Click on the Build Report button (the last screenshot below).

AuditAlert will list all your drafts as well as the final report. You can delete drafted versions to keep you library of reports clean.
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5. Can the auditee delegate or bring in experts within the organization to collaborate on responses without having numerous meetings?

Once the primary responder (the auditee) is assigned by the audit staff to an audit point, that person can delegate to his/her staff and / or bring in-house expertise to help remediate the action plan via AuditAlert Web by selecting the Add New Response / Comment button on the applicable audit point. This displays an electronic bulletin board (or chat room) for the staff to collaborate on the status of the action plan. This provides the auditee with up-to-date information to formulate a timely management update to the action plan for the next senior management committee meeting.

The delegated staff and/or in-house experts are notified by email that containes an embedded link to AuditAlert Web whenever they are assigned or requested to provide a response or an update as secondary responders for an audit point. The auditee is informed via email whenever a response is added to an audit point by the secondary responders (delegated staff and in-house experts) and can view the internal conversation amongst his/her staff at any point in time.

To the right is an excerpt of dialog amongst several delegated staff members.
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7. How can I use AuditAlert to manage the regulator’s “first day letter?”

AuditAlert segments the “first day letter” functionality from the internal audit functionality so that staff outside the internal audit department, such as the compliance staff, can manage this process.

The examination is identified and created within AuditAlert. Questionnaires are created via the “templates” section and are used to mirror image the first day letter questionnaires received from the regulators by simply breaking out the individual sections of the first day letter into multiple Questionnaires and assigning to the appropriate managers (see the top screenshot to the right for an example of an examination and the applicable Questionnaire in AuditAlert). You request the first day letter from the regulators in Word or WordPerfect format then simply copy and paste into the Questionnaire.

Each member of management is notified by email that includes an embedded link to AuditAlert Web for assigned questions within each Questionnaire requiring a response (see the bottom screenshot to the right for an example of a section of a Questionnaire assigned to an individual in AuditAlert Web). In addition to the written response, documentation can be affixed to the response that may include files or URLs contained on the organization’s Intranet.

As an additional benefit AuditAlert allows you to utilize Questionnaires from year-to-year by selecting the appropriate Questionnaire and simply clicking Save as a New Questionnaire and making the appropriate changes.
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8. I currently copy and paste sections and questions within a section of the first day letter into numerous email messages and assign to senior management for their responses. Can this be eliminated with AuditAlert?

The Questionnaires can be used to manage the first day letter received from the regulators by simply breaking out the individual sections of the first day letter into multiple Questionnaires and assigning the appropriate managers via a drop-down list. Request the first day letter in Word or WordPerfect format then simply copy and paste each question into the Questionnaire. Each section of the first day letter should be a separate Questionnaire. A “release” date is established when creating the Questionnaires, which is then used by the control program running on the server. The control program will generate an email message that is sent to the individual senior managers.

The screenshot indicates three components:

1. The first day letter Questionnaire received from the regulators (in this example it is a self-assessment questionnaire that we downloaded from an OTS website and simply copied a particular question to show the ease of use).

2. The Questionnaire template that is being created (in the example question # 5 from the self-assessment questionnaire is copied and pasted into an AuditAlert Questionnaire that already has seven questions, which were previously copied and pasted).

3. The question copied into the AuditAlert Question form, the number being assigned (#8), the permitted responses (this obviates the auditee from selecting as easier choice as “Yes” is not listed), and the one or more auditees or senior manager assigned to respond.
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9. I manually track responses to the first day letter and send reminder notices to non-responders. Can AuditAlert help me eliminate this administration nightmare?

AuditAlert will monitor the responses and non-responses in the database and automatically generate email reminder notices to the individuals indicated as non-responders on the selected “reminder” date (see the example to the right of an email message sent with an embedded link to the corresponding list of questions to be completed in AuditAlert Web).

Also, unlike your email approach, you will not have to locate the question in a Word document and paste the contents from the email message. This is all done via AuditAlert Web by each individual manager as they will be accessing and responding to their associated questions and attaching documents or URLs, if required (see the example to the right of a question selected from the list of questions assigned in AuditAlert Web).
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10. My responsibility is to assimilate all responses to the first day letter and create a document that is delivered to the regulators?

The responses and any supporting documents and URLs will be managed by AuditAlert. After all responses are received, you have two options, i.e., either print the Questionnaires and the documents supplementing the responses or provide the regulators with access to AuditAlert with “read-rights.” The latter is the recommended approach. The regulators can then print whatever they would like.

The screenshots indicate two views of responses; (1) the overview of all responses and (2) the user-friendly display of an individual question and the list of supporting documents and URLs. You can open the supporting documents and URLs from either screen.
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11. I put together binders of responses including printout of documents which support each response to questions in the first day letter. Is there document management within AuditAlert?

Absolutely! The responders that have been assigned questions in the first day letter can attach any document (spreadsheets, Word, WordPerfect, images, etc.) an/or URL to support their response. (The screenshot to the right is an example of an opened PDF file and an opened URL attached to support the response.)

The regulators should be given read-only permissions to AuditAlert OR

b4nAfter has an export function that allows the audit staff or compliance staff to create a CD or DVD, which they may distribute to the examination team which includes the responses and documents supporting each response.
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• objective,
• scope,
• laws, regulations, guideline, best practices, etc.,
• conclusion (opinion),
• audit findings,
• recommendations and
• action plans.

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