The main purpose for conducting an audit is to have a concrete idea about the health or level of performance of a business. This is due to the fact that an audit examines the various aspects of the running of the business in order to find out if the course of the business is going according to a previously established plan or aim. With this in mind, the best tips for conducting audit steps include preparations before the audit takes place, those related to the audit proper and those that will occur at the conclusion of the audit.
One of the first audit steps is to have a clear idea of who will be conducting the audit. Assuming the audit is an internal one instigated by the organization, the people to conduct it must be composed of those who are as neutral as possible under the circumstance. While this might sound like a situation where a conflict of interest is likely to occur, this need not be the case since members of the audit team can be chosen from a department in another subsidiary or another branch of the organization. The organization must draw up a plan outlining the course of the whole audit process, including the exact branches, subsidiaries or department that will be audited, when the audit will take place, and the number of auditors who will be involved in the process. Part of establishing a plan also includes defining the purpose of the audit, which may be for performance evaluation purposes or to discover areas of financial and resource hemorrhaging in the organizing.
Another progression in the audit steps is have an idea of the proper etiquette during the audit process. This includes an instruction for the other departments to fully comply with the audit team during the audit process. Such a cooperation might include the access to documents, files and other information the auditors might need to carry out a conclusive audit. Also, the other employees must be given clear instructions to honestly answer any questions asked by the auditors as part of their audit steps so as not to serve as stumbling blocks to the process.
The final part of the audit steps is for the management of the organization to study the results of the audit in order to take whatever actions may be necessary to address any discovered imbalances within the organization. This process might include holding a meeting with various managers and other involved parties to discuss the outcome of the audit steps and to formulate a plan to move forward. If the result of the audit reveals areas of financial leakages, the organization would have to take steps to seal the sources of leakages.