Audit management solutions are designed to streamline the process of auditing, while reducing human time and resource. This is achieved, in a large part, through automation. Overall, this reduces the time that audits take, as well as managing costs and the necessity for human oversight. Audit management tools can also retain data from previous audits, making it easier to deploy repeat audits, and identify any changes. The solutions enable collaboration between teams, allowing admins to share information and findings through reports and with third parties.
The term ‘audit’ is often met with groans and eye rolls. Audits are rarely exciting and often demand a close attention to detail with significant consequences for the smallest lapse. Audits are, however, an important activity for all organizations. They are necessary to ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks, and for internal reasons such as finance and usage.
Audits have also become increasingly complex over the years – there are now more aspects to consider and account for. Audits will often take a large amount of time to run and can be complex to manage. This can be made more complex when there are multiple audits to manage, each with its own focus.
In this article, we’ll explore the top audit management solutions, focusing on the key features that set each solution apart from competitors. We will then suggest what type of organization will be best served through deploying each solution.
A leading vendor in the audit management space, AuditBoard is a cloud-based audit management platform that combines ESG, risk, and compliance management capabilities. The platform provides a full and comprehensive view of risk across your entire enterprise and helps to connect teams for easier and more informed collaboration. The solution is driven by a centralized data console that unifies company records, controls, policies, risk assessments, and other relevant information. The platform will automate workflows, meaning that audit, risk, and compliance activities can be streamlined.
Records are kept in a single repository for a holistic view and easy access to real-time reports on the entire network and all solutions. This single repository also makes it easy for teams to share information and with other, relevant stakeholders. A defining feature of this solution is the connected risk platform with a unified data core. This platform centralizes your company’s risks, policies, and controls, in one easy-to-access area. The centralized platform also incorporates enhanced automation capabilities, business intelligence, a workflow engine, and an integration layer. This platform is powerful and designed to work at scale. As such, we would recommend AuditBoard for medium to large sized enterprises.
Archer Audit Management is a flexible and streamlined audit management platform that unifies findings to enable greater control over audit lifecycles. It puts a strong focus on enabling and enhancing collaboration during this lifecycle, supporting audit teams in collaboration and sharing business, risk, and compliance information. The solution provides extensive visibility across your network and is supported through highlighting data and analytics of key risks and under-performing controls. External auditors can quickly access the information they need, with permission controls preventing them from accessing unnecessary, irrelevant data.
Archer Audit Management can be customized to suit individual business needs. Admins are able to use ready-made audit report and planning templates to begin effective auditing quickly. Offline audit engagement capabilities allow teams to continue to work on audits while they’re on the go or away from the office. An audit universe tracking feature allows admins to keep a close eye on the audit lifecycle. The solution reliably documents all information, with engagement and workpaper documentation capabilities. Admins can quickly review and approve workflows, thereby streamlining processes such as report generation. While this platform can be complex during onboarding and configuration, we would recommend it for mid to large market enterprises looking for a flexible solution.
EASE is a leading audit management platform that can track, validate, and analyze vulnerabilities. The solution operates as a mobile platform, with mobile auditing for iOS and Android, and is designed to streamline layered process audits and safety inspections. The platform is able to streamline processes through automation and scheduling and is able to send automated reminders to key stakeholders to alert them to upcoming audits. This platform is designed specifically for manufacturing companies.
Admins can customize audit types, dashboards, as well as generating unique reports to focus on relevant data. Through the intuitive dashboards, users can schedule audits and track open mitigations. Admins are able to clone documents, approve workflows, and perform version control and history tracking. The solution also includes document status control and an information library. Here, admins and auditors can add and remove questions from audits, adjust parameters, and automatically apply changes across all related audits. This is a highly customizable solution, designed for the manufacturing industry. We would recommend this solution for medium to large scale manufacturing enterprises, looking for a solution that they can incorporate effectively into their processes.
Diligent is a compliance and audit management focused organization. Diligent Audit Management is an enterprise-focused, software-based audit management platform that orchestrates audits through a centralized dashboard. This is a highly intuitive platform that uses automated workflows to reduce human time and input, whilst gathering valuable data. Diligent leverages audit command language (ACL) analytics that allows teams to connect with a varied range of data sources.
From the centralized dashboard, admins can track audit strategies and progress in real-time. Teams can use standardized templates and workflows to generate reports with a single click. The platform retains a centralized library of past audits and information, thereby ensuring your organization adheres to compliance requirements and allowing you to identify changes swiftly. Teams can perform fieldwork offline and on-site through the use of mobile apps and offline modes. Built-in data connectors can integrate any data source for full analysis of data, and admins have the ability to set up monitor KPIs in real-time. Built to operate at scale, we would recommend Diligent’s Audit Management for enterprises requiring a robust solution with a great deal of automation. It is worth noting that the audit management features are also available as a standalone product.
FastPath is an intuitive, cloud-based platform that combines compliance access control, identity management, and audit management into a single, consolidated solution. The solution effectively orchestrates auditing, ensuring that all audit activities are recorded and have proper documentation, as well as being streamlined. The platform uses data extraction, access control performance and management, and retention and management of access rules and policies. FastPath will easily integrate within your existing security stack and can be deployed straight out-of-the-box.
FastPath allows admins to instigate automated reporting and approval assignment workflows, ensuring internal reviews and audits are automatically completed and never missed. Other processes like onboarding and testing can also be automated. Admins can define changes they want to track with the change tracking feature or use out-of-the-box templates that focus on high-risk areas within your environment. This is further supported through detailed analytics which can track changes to transactions and master data, such as who made any changes to the data and before and after values. We would recommend FastPath for midmarket organizations looking to streamline and automate their auditing process.
Ideagen Pentana Audit is an internal audit software solution that is designed to enhance performance, implement an integrated risk approach, increase data accuracy, and demonstrate regulatory compliance. Auditors are granted a complete view of all internal audits, ensuring no details or areas are missed. The platform will also send real-time updates to stakeholders and other third parties when necessary. The solution focuses on saving time and money by automating key tasks, such as standardizing workflows and scheduling audits.
Auditors can manage risk through a wide number of factors including risk registers, heat maps, risk exposure, and coverage. The platform includes a risk library and an intuitive data dashboards that display risk scores, risk trends, and controls. Auditors can create real-time reports, using clear graphs and charts to convey relevant information succinctly. These reports can be saved for future use. This is a very accessible and manageable solution, with the ability to scale as your organization needs. We would recommend this solution for medium organizations, particularly those operating in the finance, government, and education sectors.
SAP Audit Management is an internal audit management software solution that can automate and streamline auditing procedures. The service can be deployed either as an on-prem or cloud solution. The platform has uses drag-and-drop tools (making management easier) and can integrate with SAP Risk Management and SAP Process Control. The platform puts a focus on communication, collaboration, and the monitoring of audit results. Teams are able to plan and deploy audits easily, tracking performance over time and through its lifecycle.
Centrally managed, with user-friendly interfaces, the solution is streamlined and easy to use. Users are able to capture and upload documents and evidence via their mobile devices, ensuring that the user experience is straightforward. Through effective monitoring and communicating of audit results, SAP Audit Management can reduce the number of repeat findings. The platform can build standardized reports through pre-established templates and automated issue tracking. Other notable features include scoping, risk management, and projection management of internal audits, time and expense management. This is an effective and collaborative solution that we would recommend for medium to large sized enterprises.
Thoropass is a streamlined software solution that serves as an audit and compliance automation platform. Implementation is straightforward thanks to easy onboarding and automated vendor discovery. Alongside a robust compliance and audit platform, Thoropass also connects users to expert services, auditors, and partner ecosystems to enhance the quality and scope of insights.
Thoropass improves your security posture through in-app penetration testing, automated evidence gathering, and enhanced security auditing. It can perform automated evidence gathering, streamlining the process and producing a full audit faster. The platform includes customizable policies and procedures, guided workflows, native integrations, and collaboration tools. Auditors are able to easily share information and send reports with internal members and external stakeholders. The automated evidence gathering feature reduces time spent on collating information; this evidence is also auditor pre-approved, assuring nothing unnecessary or irrelevant is included. Thoropass is intuitive to use and manage, and comes with a range of pricing plans, making it an attractive choice for SMBs.
TeamMate+ is an end-to-end audit management and workflow solution from Wolters Kluter. It uses a host of powerful integrations to allow teams to collaborate with stakeholders and collect data in real-time. The platform assists teams throughout the entire audit lifecycle, streamlining planning, execution, reporting, and additional follow-up procedures. TeamMate+ collects risk and control data from third party systems to enhance insights, as well as referencing historical insights and monitoring changes. These insights can be used to develop audit plans that are mapped onto your enterprise’s resource capacity.
TeamMate+ has a continuous risk assessment feature; this allows teams to configure attributes and ratings, and use scoring to track risk levels over time. It supports an open ecosystem through the use of APIs and has strong integration with critical systems and data. The platform can connect with business intelligence tools to enhance findings and insights. The solution is able to automate key processes, thereby reducing admins workload and ensuring consistency. TeamMate+ is easy to implement and highly configurable, whilst also being cost effective. As such, we would recommend TeamMate+ for medium to large sized enterprises.
Workiva is a comprehensive cloud-based platform for auditing, ESG, risk, and corporate reporting. The platform contains built-in audit analytics and performs continuous monitoring. It can automate repetitive tasks and workflows, optimize risk guidance, and apply audit analytics across the entire program. The platform is centrally managed through real-time dashboards which offer extensive visibility into audit status, outstanding tasks, and issue remediation.
The platform can integrate evidence collection from workpapers during control testing. Admins are also able to create new audits quickly and easily with over 3000 ready-made AuditNet templates. The platform uses APIs and connectors to easily link data from almost every source; this near-complete access can reduce the risk of manual errors and ensure the same data is used across all workstreams. Admins can set role-based permissions to ensure access is given depending on need. The platform also allows admins to receive feedback and share findings effectively. This is a powerful and collaborative solution that some smaller organizations may find complex. We would, therefore, recommend Workiva for large enterprises.
Audit management software and solutions are SaaS or cloud-based platforms that ensure organizations complete their audits successfully and to a consistent standard. The solutions will streamline, organize, and orchestrate audit protocols and processes, helping teams collect and share data and evidence. Once information has been gathered, the solutions are able to carry out specific analysis, create reports, and share it with relevant third parties.
Audit management solutions can prepare, manage, and automate parts of the audit lifecycle. Aside from acting as a precatory tool, audit management solutions can serve as audit checklists that help teams ensure that they stay within regulatory compliance requirements. Some will also have the capacity to automate processes to reduce time and ease workloads.
Whether we like it or not, audits are part and parcel of business life. Audits are particularly crucial for companies in regulated sectors such as manufacturing, finance, or healthcare. These audits are important as they check (and prove) that all business processes are above board and that all standards are being met. They can assure customers, investors, and regulators that operations are in line with regulations and compliance, and nothing untoward or illegal is taking place.
Financial audits are a necessity for business across sectors. The specific type of audit that you will carry out depends on your sector, size, and location.
Manufacturing companies, for example, will need to undergo system audits, safety audits, preventative maintenance audits, and Layered Process Audits (LPAs) – these ensure that standards are being met, and the product is of good enough quality. There may be more specific and more stringent audits for companies working in particular sectors. Organizations in the life sciences industry will have audits such as US FDA, MHRA, EMA, and ISO to contend with.
These audits need to be carried out consistently and reliably. Often at least annually. They take a lot of time to carry out and demand a good deal of resource to run effectively. An audit will leave behind a paper trail to evidence how it has been run and its findings.
There are usually three types of audits a company will have to perform throughout the year including:
Audit management solutions will reduce the human workload and resource needed to carry out audits effectively. This is achieved through streamlining and automating processes. These solutions can keep and track documents, schedule audits, automate workflows and processes, enable easy collaboration and sharing between teams, send alerts and reminders, and plan future audits.
While audit management solutions can vary from vendor to vendor, and from sector to sector, there are several main features that they should look for in a solution.
An experienced writer with a background in journalism and editorial, Lottie has written for a range of publications and companies covering everything from cybersecurity, real estate, and fashion to environmentalism and other social causes. She holds an M.Sc. in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam/Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.