6 Prominent Benefits of Compliance Audit Automation

Compliance auditing can be an onerous process. It requires a lot of planning and timely completion of tasks such as audit schedules, generating and sharing reports, raising and following up on issues during the audit, etc. Flipping backward and forwards whilst trying to complete manual paper-based checklists on clipboards can make it all the more challenging.

Imagine having compliance audit software to assist you in completing an automating all of the strenuous auditing tasks! Automation and AI are taking over every sphere of business processes. Automating business processes is not new for organizations. Now, with advances in technology and program, compliance auditing can also be automated.

Let us take a closer look at the 6 most prominent advantages of compliance audit automation.

Efficient and Effective Compliance Management Process

The compliance management auditing process consists of many tasks from the planning through the end of the audit and reporting of the findings and follow-up of issues. An audit management system will help you manage all these tasks with effectiveness and efficiency. Using compliance management software lets auditors focus more on other crucial tasks of auditing and collecting objective evidence rather than spending time filling in checklists, or taking copious notes that require transcribing into a report at a later time.

Well-crafted compliance audit management systems can pull and aggregate data from multiple sources to enhance save you time collecting, compiling, and summarizing large amounts of information.

Reduce Complexity, Errors and Bias

User interface options such as checkboxes or radio buttons can be used to collect information that does not require long written answers, and drop-down boxes can be used where the auditor needs to select from multiple answers. Non-conformance issues can be copied straight from the audit checklist to the report and the non-conformance report without the need to duplicate the information. This simplicity helps to achieve consistency in reporting and reduces the likelihood of bias.

Automation saves you time, ensuring details such as company name, site location, contact details, etc. are filled in once and do not need to be completed over and again on different audit forms. Automation such as this can save you time cutting and pasting information over and over, avoids missing information, and avoids transcription errors.

Enhanced Audit Trails and Traceability

Preparing for compliance audits can be a complex task, and being organised about what to audit and when the key is. Automation can help keep track of audits that are planned, underway, or completed. You shouldn’t need to be chasing up audit reports any longer.

Compliance management software maintains an audit trail that clearly shows which audit activities were completed, when issues were raised, and when approvals have been completed.

Streamlined Collection of Audit Evidence 

Accurate collection of sufficient evidence supporting audit findings is crucial to an effective audit. Audit evidence supports the audit findings and tracks the status of issues during and after the audit.

Rather than taking copious notes and documenting audit evidence manually, automation allows you to upload pictures or documents directly into the audit checklists to support your findings. Better still, checklists can be completed on a desktop or laptop, or in the field or factory using Android or iOS devices.

Improved Data Access and Security

Compliance audit software lets organisations keep their audit data secure, yet still accessible when they need it. Instead of storing crucial information on paper, network folders, or distributed via email that could be lost or damaged, compliance audit software data is encrypted and stored on secure servers. Audit data can only be accessed by authorized users.

Security access levels can be set to protect any sensitive audit findings. For example, a site manager can only access the information about their site and not all the other sites within their organisation unless authorized to do so.

Data-Driven Compliance Insights

Traditional audit reports completed on Word or Excel documents and saved as PDF documents do not allow for comparisons from one audit to the next. Compliance audit software helps identify the patterns within the compliance data allowing you to plot improvement opportunities, repetitive issues, and compare different audit sites and suppliers.

For example, managers can identify the important or repetitive issues that require attention, and allow resources to be directed before further problems arise.

Final thoughts:

Compliance audit automation doesn’t just help you to conduct seamless and efficient audits and inspections; it goes beyond compliance and helps your business identify opportunities to grow and improve. Use robust audit management software that allows auditors and quality managers to conduct consistent and efficient audits and inspections.