Background to Audits

An audit is a check to make sure that a specific area of your business is working as expected.

Audits help you find gaps and weaknesses in your organisation, and to identify areas for improvement.

The Coruson Audit Module lets you manage the entire audit process.

 Within Coruson you can create a new Audit, setting the parameters and scope.  You can also log the findings and manage acceptance and approval. 

• Create a new Audit
• View and manage existing Audits
• Schedule Dates
• Assign auditors and auditees
• Manage status
• Set and manage scope
• Log detailed findings
• Produce Audit Reports

Different types of audit: -

Internal Audits – conducted by your organisation on itself, often in advance of an external audit.

External Audits – performed by external organisations, e.g. customers or regulators.

Supplier Audits – performed by your organisation on your suppliers to ensure quality products / services are delivered.

 There are many different areas that your organisation can audit, including: -

There are three main types of Audit Users: -

Administrators - can access all areas of Coruson and are responsible for setting u the system, including audit types.

Auditors – responsible for scheduling and managing audits.

Auditees – (the people being audited) may need to find and view audits, as well as complete tasks assigned to them.

 The Audit process in Coruson

There is some preparation work to be completed by the Coruson Administrator before you can start using the Audit Module: -

Create the Forms that will be the basis of Reports used in the Audits, there a knowledge base article on how to do this here: - https://coruson.help.ideagen.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360005740520-Creating-a-Reporting-Form

Produce the Workflow that will guide the route including the people and order of the work involved in each Audit. A knowledge base guide to create a workflow can be found here: - https://coruson.help.ideagen.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360005738820-An-Introduction-to-Workflows

Define the Audit Types to be used in your audits, Audit Types let you categorise your audits, e.g. ‘internal’ or ‘supplier’ audits.  Each audit type can have a unique numbering system.  You can also assign a workflow, checklist, default responses and choose which reports can be user to raise audit findings. Knowledge base shows you how to start this here: - https://coruson.help.ideagen.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360005810519-Creating-Audit-Types

Populate the lists that Users can select from when adding scope items, such as processes and areas of standard.

During the course of an audit the auditor will ask auditees a series of questions.  The Question Bank can be used to ask questions of auditees, supply guidance and define areas of standard.  You can assign the questions by importing checklists.

To add all the required Checklists or questions to be included in the audit, Knowledge base explains how this is done here: - https://coruson.help.ideagen.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360005732700-How-to-Import-Checklists

Scheduling the Audit
Once an administrator has set up the Audit Administration areas of Coruson, you are ready to start scheduling audits.  From the Coruson homepage select Audits on the side menu (highlighted in green): -

Then Select Audits, to be presented with the Audits Register: -

To schedule an audit, click-on the  button and choose to schedule the audit, either as a ‘one-off’ audit or as part of a schedule: -

Complete the following details in the Schedule Audit pop-out, please note that those fields marked with a * are mandatory.

Type * - Select the type of audit you wish to schedule (from a pre prepared list, this list can be searched or scrolled through to find the correct one, e.g. Support Audit)	Primary Scope * - The Auditor must decide the area to be covered during the audit.  This can include documents, areas of standards, suppliers, processes etc.	Title * - Choose a title for the Audit that is recognisable and useful as a brief description.
Audit Number * - this filed can be manually selected, but a number is automatically generated, dependant on the audit Type. Please avoid adding blank spaces in this audit number to avoid issues when exporting the Audits Summary. e.g. Support Audit = SAPA01	Location – choose from a pre-prepared list of locations, such as Sites, buildings or departments	Purpose - Type a brief description of the Audits objective
Lead Auditor * - Start typing the name of the lead Auditor (previously defined as a Coruson User).	Start Date * - Select the date from the pop-up calendar tool, date and time can be selected.	End Date * - Select the date from the pop-up calendar tool, date and time can be selected.

Lastly click-on the  button to book the audit.

There is a separate Knowledge Base article on Audit Check lists: -

 The Audit can now be seen in the Audits Register: -

Re-Occurring or a Series of Audits

The above describes how to schedule a one-off Audit, to schedule a re-occurring audit select the  option after pressing the  key and complete the details in the same manner as above then select the frequency you wish to perform the Audit: -  

The example below, schedules an Audit on a Weekly basis, every 4 weeks on Tuesdays, that will occur 3 times. This will be represented in the Audits register as such: -

Understanding Audits

To view the contents of an Audit, open its Details view, by clicking on its title, this provides information about what is being audited, the audit team, check lists, findings and the work that is being performed on the audit.

Different views in the Audits register, can be selected using the View list, the remainder of the Register row contains quick filters to allow a selected view of all complying audits, there is also a quick search function that will search for the title or number of each audit (highlighted): -

Table	This view shows a list of all the Audits added into Coruson; the Register row allows filtering to customise list to show those audits the User is interested in.
Calendar	Displays either a Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Agenda view of added audits
Planner	Giver a long-term overview of planned audits, over the next year.

The icons in the Calendar and Planner view, display a visual guide to the progress of the audit, hovering over these give a more detailed view, e.g.: -

		Accepted
		Performed
		In Progress
		Scheduled
		The number of segments filled give a guide to how complete the audit is.  In this case 1 part.

Allocating Stages and Tasks

Once the Audit has been scheduled access the Workflow for the Audit where auditors can assign stages and tasks to users, to ensure that all audit related work is performed by its target date. The WORKFLOW can be found on the tab bar (highlighted in green).

Press the  button, circled, to add a task	Complete the pop-up, to define the Task Owner, start typing the name of a User and you will be presented with a choice.
	Next select the number of days you wish this task to be completed by. Lastly the instructions you wish the Task Owner to carry out.

Complete Checklists and Raise Findings

The REPORT tab, displays information about the audit, such as Location, Scope, Attendees, but also allow the addition of Checklists, Findings, Attachments and an Audit Summary.

After scheduling the audit the lead auditor should add any additional information prior to starting the audit workflow.

Once all reports have been completed, the auditor can produce the final audit report, which is usually a summary of all the audit activities.

The lower section of this tab allows the addition of Findings, Attachments and a written Audit Summary.

	Press the + button to add an existing finding or create new	Adding Report AR-179
	Add an attachment such as a Picture or PDF file	Select the file to attach
	Press the  button to add summary text.  Press the  button when complete.

There is a separate Knowledge Base article on Audit Check lists: -

AUDIT NOTES Tab

This tab lets us view or answer the questions assigned to the audit, allowing additional notes and details provided by the auditors.

 Checklists help auditors ensure all relevant areas are covered during the audit.

 Findings can be raised to report problems and non-conformances.

There is a separate Knowledge Base article on Audit Check lists: -

HISTORY Tab

This displays all the actions performed since the audit was first scheduled, including the Date, Details and the User who performed the action.

Closing the Audit

Once all the Stages and Tasks have been completed, the audit can be closed.

Coruson will provide a Close option when all the Tasks and stages have been completed (circled).	Or the Audit can be manually closed by choosing the close option from the   button.