How to Write an Effective Audit Report

You’ve probably had this experience before. You spend weeks preparing an audit report, detailing every finding and polishing every word. You hit “Send,” feeling accomplished. But then, crickets. Months go by. The next time you hear from the client, they’re ready for the next year’s engagement. So you spin up the project, host walkthroughs, review evidence and find… the exact same findings as last year. And you ask yourself why you’re even putting in the time for a client that doesn’t care.

Audit reports might look one-size-fits-all, but every report you write serves a distinct purpose. No matter the purpose, they matter to your client. In some cases, your report is a milestone on the path to unlocking new revenue or reducing risk. Below, we’ve compiled some tips for making your reports efficient, actionable, and visible across the business.

Understand the Purpose of the Report

Report templates are great. They’ll save you time and mental bandwidth when you’re trying to get a deliverable out the door. But your client isn’t buying a report for the sake of the report. They’re trying to drive some action, and your report is a key to doing that. Throughout your engagement, keep your client’s goal in mind and tailor all of your discussions and your deliverables to it. Here are some common goals (not all being mutually exclusive), starting with the most obvious:

• Pure Compliance: Sometimes our clients just need a report so they can get a stamp of approval, and that’s okay. Compliance with laws and regulations is part of doing business, and it would be disingenuous to deny that this is often a large driver of compliance initiatives.
• Validating the Need for Increased Security Spend: Your client’s security leadership may have been sounding the alarm for months that their security is lackluster. But for whatever reason - perhaps internal politics, a lack of persuasion, or just the difficulty of “being a prophet in your own hometown” - executive leadership has been resistant. In this case, heavy-handed language may be in order. Work with your key contacts to toe the line between organizational politics and highlighting deficiencies, both in the security org and outside of it.
• Giving the Security Team a Boost: If your key contacts are on thin ice, it may be necessary to present your report as less of an indictment of any party and more of a positive, collaborative way forward. This is not to say that you downplay findings or withhold information. Instead, it comes down to how you present the information. You can accurately describe a finding, and even identify the party at fault, while not driving a wedge between different departments. This is a perfect opportunity to present the security team as the hero of the situation. Describe a future where the current security team is doing the important work of making the organization more secure.
• Genuine Risk Management: Often seen in more mature clients, reports focused on risk management will be very detailed and written in business-first language. The content of the report is of course a natural byproduct of the work performed, but it’s worth reiterating that if your client’s objective is to mature to a high level, then facts and figures will be your friends here. Always lead with a clear, executive-level summary followed by in-depth information your client can readily use.

Again, it’s worth noting that your client’s political landscape, any financial interactions with your client, and other peripheral concerns should never affect your audit opinion. These tips exist to help you orient your mindset as you sit down to write up your findings and recommendations.

Gather the Right Information

Getting the information required for compliance is table stakes for your audit report. To take your report to the next level, you need to go deeper with your client and also be proactive with gathering information. Depending on the type of report, this may not be possible, but you can still consider some of these items for an internal-only report such as an opportunities for improvement report.

• Log action plans, owners, and due dates. This will help add accountability, ensuring that your findings don’t get filed away for you to discover them again in a year. Speak with control owners before you publish your report to understand their take on the findings and what they plan to do about them. Get their buy-in on the action plans. The client’s leadership will appreciate you helping drive action in the organization.
• Highlight key strengths. If you’re looking to gain rapport with your client (always a good thing to do), don’t just focus on the negative. Take some time during your analysis of the client’s environment to document what they’re doing well. Translate this into 2-4 key themes and present this at the front of your report. This will position you as on the side of the client and generally makes tough conversations about findings easier.

Present it Right

You should always present your report to all relevant parties on a call or in person. This way, everyone can reach a consensus on the information and leave on the same page. Here are a few tips for making that happen.

• Get the right people in the room. The right people will vary depending on the type of project. At a minimum you want to have your champion, who can vouch for your work, and the economic buyer who approved your project. Also consider inviting the operators of key controls if your client is on the smaller side or relevant department heads for larger organizations.
• Don’t surprise anyone. Nobody likes being surprised, especially not in a room full of their peers and bosses. The ‘no surprises’ rule should apply all the way down from highlighting control deficiencies during walkthroughs up to making sure everyone has gotten access to your report before you present it.
• Make it actionable. The report presentation meeting is your best chance to get everyone in the room in agreement on the findings and next steps. If you can take the action plans you gathered and get everyone nodding along with them, you’re well on your way to creating a lasting impact with your client.

Conclusion

Your client may be engaging you for a wide array of goals, ranging from pure compliance all the way to kickstarting drastic organizational change. As an independent contractor, you are in a unique position to guide your client in the best way for them while leveraging your outside experience. Understand why your client bought from you and what they hope to get out of the exercise. This way, you’ll be able to give your client a roadmap, not just a report. And when you come back next year, you’ll find an organization that has taken your words to heart and put in the work to mature their program.

Want to see our audit report templates? Drop a note here and we’ll send them over. Plus, we can jump on a call to tailor the templates to your specific needs.