Compliance and regulations are an increasingly important factor in business processes and operations. In addition to introducing good quality control, these standards demand proven, documented, historic evidence and verification of how requirements are being met throughout the organization.
A vital part of this process is auditing: an objective, independent assessment of how a business is meeting its regulatory goals through a deep analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.
There are two main types of auditing:
Auditing should not be seen as an unnecessary administrative overhead. Start by putting policies, processes, and procedures in place, and ensure they meet audit requirements for quality and business outcomes.
This will reduce waste, let you take advantage of opportunities, and streamline operations. While auditing needs can be rigorous, a business that meets these requirements can gain a competitive advantage and enhanced bottom line.
For all of the good that auditing and quality management can bring to your organization, traditional auditioning has several inherent problems:
Fortunately, there’s an effective way of reducing these problems, through implementing an audit management system (AMS).
An audit management system is a collection of a collection of software, tools, integrations, and processes that make auditing much easier and more reliable. It will help you to manage the workflows, interactions, data gathering, reporting, and more of all activities involved with auditing and data validation. Audit management systems are designed to:
This results in much less administrative overhead, and makes audit management easier. Just the manpower savings alone can be significant if you implement an effective audit management system.
An AMS can enhance other parts of your business in a number of ways. It can:
If you’ve found that auditing creates stress and overhead in your business, it’s time to move to an audit management tool. It will make the whole process easier, produce more accurate outputs, and ensure that you have the quality data you need for both internal and external auditors.
Tim Lozier is director of product strategy at EtQ.
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