Best Practice for Auditing Physical Processes

When auditing processes that involve physical activities—such as production, inspection, or stores management—it's best to use a three-stage approach that starts and ends with document review.


Stage 1: Initial Document Review

Begin by reviewing all relevant documents. This helps you understand the overall requirements and expectations of the process


Stage 2: Site Visit and Interviews

After the initial document review, conduct interviews with staff and perform a site visit. This allows you to verify whether actual practices align with documented procedures.


Stage 3: Final Document Review

End with another document review to cross-check your findings.


Why This Approach Works:

This three-stage method gives internal auditors two valuable verification opportunities:

1. After the first document review, you can verify on-site whether documented procedures are being followed

2. After the site visit, you can verify in the final document review whether what you observed matches the documented requirements


This cycle ensures thorough verification from both directions—documents to practice, and practice to documents.

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