What is an internal audit?
Last updated
An internal audit is a planned, independent check, carried out by or for the organisation itself, of whether its processes, controls and records work as intended and meet the rules that apply. The auditor gathers evidence, records findings and agrees corrective actions with the people responsible, then follows them up.
In more detail
Internal audits differ from external audits in who asks for them and who reads the results: they serve the organisation’s own management, though they also prepare it for certification and regulatory audits. ISO management system standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 require internal audits at planned intervals.
An audit usually follows the same steps: plan the scope and criteria, gather evidence by interview, observation and record checks, record findings against the criteria, agree actions and dates, and check later that the actions worked. Auditors should not audit their own work.
Example
A quality manager audits the goods-in process against the company’s ISO 9001 procedures. She samples twenty deliveries, finds three without a signed inspection record, raises a nonconformance and agrees a corrective action with the warehouse supervisor, due within a month.
Internal audits in CheckFlow
In CheckFlow an audit programme can run on a schedule, with each audit a checklist: the criteria as tasks, findings and evidence recorded in fields and File Upload, and a finding that needs action can start a follow-up checklist through a Linked Checklist field. The Reports Grid shows every audit in progress.
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