Tips On Making An Internal Audit Checklist

Talking about audits will be identical to questions and talking about questions will be identical to checklists.

When discussing internal audit issues, usually there are always those who ask: "Sir, do you have an example of a checklist for internal audit? We auditors are often confused about how to make it". In addition, there are some other frequently asked questions related to checklists and from the frequently asked questions, there are some basic questions that we need to make as lessons.

Does the checklist have to be present in the internal audit?

Speaking of something related to the management system, of course, we need to have an proposition that states it. So far there is no statement stating that internal audits should use a checklist. However, equipped with the principle of Risk Based Thinking, we need to identify the risks that have the potential to arise in the implementation of internal audits when auditors do not use a checklist. Running out of questions is one of the risks that often arises in the implementation of internal audits, especially if the auditor does not have enough experiences. For this reason, an internal auditor staff is recommended to have a checklist.

Then, how to make a checklist?

Actually, making a checklist is easy, it done by changing news sentences into question sentences or positive sentences into interrogatives. The statements or requirements in our audit criteria are changed in such a way that they become questions that we will ask to the auditee.

For example: in the standard says: ... all persons working under the control of the organization must be competent .... When we are going to use it in a checklist then we change the sentence to a question sentence: Is everyone who works under the control of the organization competent? ... Easy isn't it?

Should a checklist be made in the form of general or detailed questions?

In certain circumstances, we can make a checklist that contains general questions but in other circumstances we need a detailed and specific one. Is it possible

Of course it is, but we need to consider the level of competence of our internal auditor's staff especially in terms of experience. For auditors who are new at all or with far from enough experience, then a detailed list of questions will be a great help. On the other hand, for auditors who are experienced with quite a lot of experience, the existence of a very detailed checklist can be felt as a convoluted and less beneficial guide.

Which is better, checklist that we create based on the process that we are auditing or based on clauses?

In some circumstances, we need a detailed list of questions based on the audit criteria we use. Sometimes we just need a list of questions around the process we are auditing. Both are legal, it's up to us as auditors which one we prefer. Of that two, there are advantages and disadvantages of each of them. I used to refer to them as:

• Process Based Checklist

• Clause Based Checklist

If we compare that two, here are the advantages and disadvantages:

Process Based Checklist is ready to use because the questions have been adjusted to the process to be audited. We must make many checklists according to the audited process.

Clause Based Checklist is enough to create one checklist that will be used for all processes being audited. The auditor must select and sort again when using it because the question may not be relevant to the process to be audited.

Based on the above, approximately which one will we implement in our organization?