After the audit: turning findings into action points

Every audit ends with findings. Some need nothing more than a note on the file. Others need the client to change how it works: post credit notes promptly, send debtors to the right account, catch up with HMRC. A few need the financier to act: reduce the prepayment, add a reserve, or ask for a further visit.

The common failure is not missing the finding. It is losing it. The report is read, discussed and filed, and six months later the next audit finds the same problem, now larger. Turning findings into tracked actions is what stops that.

From finding to action

A finding describes what was found. An action point says what will be done about it, by whom and by when. Compare:

• Finding: Credit notes for September were raised in the first week of October, after the month-end funding calculation.
• Action point: The client to post credit notes in the month they relate to, from the November month end. Owner: the client manager. Check: the November and December credit note lists, and again at the next audit.

The second can be followed up. The first can only be agreed with.

A good action point has four parts:

1. What will be done, in one sentence, specific enough to check.
2. Who owns it. Usually the client manager at the financier, who agrees the action with the client and follows it up. Naming nobody is better than naming the wrong person, but an action with no owner tends to be forgotten.
3. When it is due. A date, not “promptly” or “going forward”.
4. How it will be checked. The document or figure that will show it was done.

Which findings become actions

Not every finding needs one. A sensible rule:

• Issues found (pre-invoicing, contras, arrears, misdirected receipts, concentration over the limit) always get an action point.
• Weaknesses in the client’s systems (late posting, poor dispute records) get one where they affect what you can collect.
• Observations (a new major customer, a change of director) go on file and become questions for the next audit.

Some actions belong to the financier rather than the client: changing a limit, adding a reserve, scheduling a verification. These need an owner and a date just as much.

Following up

Action points are only worth raising if someone looks at them again. Three habits help:

• Review open actions monthly for each client, alongside the month-end figures. An action due last month with no evidence of progress needs a call.
• Close actions on evidence, not on assurance. “The client says it has fixed this” is not the same as two months of credit note lists that show it.
• Carry open actions into the next audit. The auditor should start the next visit with the previous audit’s open action points, test each one, and report whether it was done.

That last step closes the loop. An audit that reports “the action points from the last audit were completed, except one, which is now larger” tells you more about a client than any single finding.

When actions are not completed

An action left undone is itself a finding. If the client has not posted credit notes on time after being asked twice, the question is no longer about credit notes. It is about whether the client will do what the facility requires. Repeated missed actions are a reason to audit sooner, tighten the facility, or reconsider it.

Keeping it in one place

Action points kept in email threads and spreadsheets tend to drift: different versions, no clear owner, nothing linking them to the audit that raised them. Holding them in one system, attached to the client and the audit, makes them easy to review and hard to lose.

In Audits Hub, the recommendations in an audit’s summary become action points when the report is released, owned by your organisation and assigned to the client’s managers. They stay open until someone marks them done, and the client’s next audit shows the open ones so the auditor can follow them up. Releasing the report again does not duplicate them.

Agreeing actions with the client

Action points work best when the client has agreed them, not just been told. Before the report is released, share the draft actions with the client, agree what is realistic and by when, and record any disagreement. A client that has agreed a date is far more likely to meet it, and if it does not, the conversation that follows is about a commitment it made, not about a list it never saw.

The test of a good audit

A good audit finds things. A good audit process makes sure that what it found is dealt with. Measured over a year, the second matters more: a client whose action points are closed on time is a client whose risks are being managed, not just recorded.