Introduction

This chapter relates to the areas we described towards the end of Chapter 7 concluding the audit. Chapter 8 personal relationships focused on the critically important aspects of the lead auditor s and the auditors abilities to connect on an emotional and psychological level with the auditee and auditee staff. This chapter focuses on the equally important ability, particularly of the lead auditor, to be able to put the same information in an attractive written form.

As you ll have read, good no, excellent interpersonal relationships between the audit team throughout the entire audit process, in particular those with the lead auditor leader and those with the auditee, are very important. This is especially true at this point of the process, where we will seek to turn all of the time and effort put into the audit (i.e. the set-up, review and verification, and concluding) into a written report that is generally accepted and agreed for its content, easy to read, and welcomed by the receiver as being a useful contribution to their business.

One of our main premises for writing this book was our passionate belief that auditing is really all about facilitating business improvement. Such improvements, as we foresee them, are only possible if our messages carefully worded, factually correct, and (if possible) agreed upon with our auditee through our no surprises process while we are on site are clearly replicated and enhanced through the written report.

A-Factor 60: The written report is...