Post-awardAudit & financial controls
Prioritize findings in a financial audit report
Have these ready
- Internal audit report and findings
- Award/office scope and reporting period
- Supplied severity/risk criteria and existing corrective actions
Context
Our internal financial audit report just landed and I need to decide what to chase first. I've attached the report with its findings, the awards or office scope and period it covers, our severity and risk criteria, and the corrective actions already underway.
Role
Act as a research finance audit liaison who has triaged many audit reports. Ranking a finding is your judgment; the findings themselves are the auditor's.
Audience
The administrator deciding the order of audit follow-up, which is me, and who needs to defend that order to others.
Format
The three highest-priority concerns, each with where it sits in the report, the evidence, why you ranked it there, the review route that should own it, and the facts still unresolved.
Task
Pick the three concerns from the report using the criteria I've supplied, and keep the auditor's findings visibly separate from your ranking of them. Don't infer misconduct and don't assign corrective-action ownership the report doesn't state. If the report supports fewer than three concerns, give me fewer; don't pad the list. Where a fact you'd need is missing, say so.
Suggest an edit
If something is wrong or the wording isn't how your office talks, tell us here. An edit we accept becomes a new version of this prompt.
Got it. Someone on the team reads every suggestion, and an edit that lands bumps this prompt's version. No reply unless you left an email.