Audit Tracking Software

Ever been challenged with improving a business process and don't know where to begin? Try using the internal audit approach. To help you, you can use our form at the bottom of this article. 

Often we consider audits to be tools that only 'auditors' use when completing a Health and Safety review or an internal audit as part of a recognized quality management system. Anyone can use audits to improve their business.

A Good Process

A good business process is a stable one. Its bugs have been ironed out, people understand the reason for the process and how to complete it. The staff fully adopted the business process. One of the simplest of ways to get started with a business process improvement activity, you should audit the adherence to a process.

To get an audit started you need to know what 'good' looks like. You need to know the correct sequence of activities, you need to know about the speed of activities and any related quality checks that are part of the process. The first part of creating an quality audit checklist, you need to really understand the gold standard for that process and define some questions to help you determine if your business makes the grade.

Audit Tracking Software

Audit tracking software allows you to capture your audit questions and then print out a quality audit checklist to capture the results. Armed with the questions you can then visit the process and find evidence to determine if your process is being complied with (or not).

If you are new to auditing bear this next point in mind. Don't accept the information you receive on face value - dig a little and make sure there you see substance behind the statement. For example, if you are checking that a plan is available for the delivery of a project and you get a 'yes' response to the question, ask to see the plan. No plan equals no evidence equals a non-compliance with the process. You don't have to be mean, but you do need to be thorough.

Audit tracking software functionality includes an internal audit report format that  allows you to capture your audit findings (for future review and as a record). It also converts any of the issues you find into improvement actions. You do this directly through the audit report and allows for the quick capturing of improvement opportunities.