• Challenges of audit reporting
• Who are the reports really for?
• How do you know a good report when you see one?
• What Management expect – recent survey of chief executives
• IIA Professional standards 
• The need for reports with impact 

Exercise 1 : What are the factors that distinguish an excellent report from the rest? 

The problems with audit reports

Exercise 2 : Answer these 25 questions about Internal Audit reports issued during the last 12 months as truthfully and objectively as you can.

• Were the reports less than 8 pages?
• Did your reports refer to the organisation’s objectives and how the audit recommendations would specifically assist in their achievement?
• Have more than 95% of audit recommendations been fully and successfully implemented?
• Did the reports include graphics and colour?
• Were they jargon free?
• Were they issued electronically?
• Did you only report on the major issues found during the audit with the minor issues being dealt with separately?
• Did the findings, conclusions and recommendations really represent the key issues?
• Did the reports focus on the future rather than the past?
• Did the management comments indicate real commitment rather than simply a way for them to close the audit process and get on to something else? 
• Was the audit opinion a true reflection of the overall conclusions? Did the key recipient accept this audit opinion as valid?
• Were all findings or recommendations different from the last time an audit of the area was carried out?
• Were all the audits conducted fully recognised by the organisation as helpful and relating to key business risks or opportunities?
• Were all the recommendations 100% practicable?
• Did the final report incorporate agreed actions rather than recommendations?
• Were there named owners for each action?
• Were firm implementation dates agreed?
• Were all reports totally factually correct? 
• Have you changed the report format within the past two years?
• Were the reports a true reflection of the expertise, knowledge and professionalism that went into the audits?
• Did each reports have an action plan?
• Have you asked management what they think of the reports?
• Did all the reports take less than 2 weeks to finalise?
• If you were the recipient would they have spurred you into action?
• Do you believe that your reports are as good as they could be?
  
• The 25 questions –how did you score?
• What are the factors preventing the achievement of these best practice measures 
• Tips, techniques and ideas to help you score 25 out of 25 
• Discussion of the implications
• How to assess the needs of the audit customers
• Advice and guidance to help you achieve best practice
• Explanation of a proven method to evaluate your own reports 

Exercise 3 : Analysis of a real report (posted on the Internet)

• Feedback and discussion

Assessment and evaluation of your own reports

• Self evaluation against the model provided (delegates are asked to bring along 2 or 3 recent reports) Reports are then swapped with another delegate who will evaluate using the same model
• Discussion of findings/ comparison with own evaluation/ identification of opportunities for improvement
• Key challenges and their implications

Best practice internal audit reports – the way forward 

• Key requirements of the audit report of the future
• How to draft a report with impact – discussion of banner headlines and their relative impact
• Highlighting the issues that matter
• The psychological problem with reports
• Why audit reports are taken as a criticism of management
• How to get recipients to react positively
• How to write balanced reports 
• How to get 95% of your recommendations actioned
• Title pages and indexes
• The Executive Summary –the benefits of writing the Executive summary before the main report.
• Influence and Persuasion

Exercise 4 : Role play a meeting with senior management to discuss the report

• Discussion of the implications – how to reflect the key issues in the Executive Summary
• Messages rather than content
• Outcomes rather than output
• Solutions not problems 

Exercise 5 Re-writing the Executive summary of one of your own reports

The main report 

• Audit Objectives
• Scope
• Forming and expressing the audit opinion
• Benefits and deliverables
• Conclusions
• The power of Senior management comments
• Words and phrases to avoid
• Best practice format
• Reducing the number of words 
• The power of pictures and graphics
• The need to relate the issues to objectives and risk
• How to deal with sensitive issues in the report.
• Recommendations and actions
• Management Comments
• Action plans
• A Best practice report template will be shared

Exercise 6 : Redrafting the objectives, scope, opinion and conclusions in the main body of the report

• Summary and action plans

Copyright Business Risk Management Ltd 2005