When you are in charge of any business, you need to make sure that you are going to be able to be audited at any time. There are a number of audits that a business might have to succumb to, and they are generally going to happen without any warning whatsoever, meaning that you are going to have to be on top of things at all times. The state of being ready for an audit is often referred to auditability, and it is something you are going to need to focus on. In this article, we will look at how you can promote better auditability in your business from the start.
Keeping Records
One of the main things that will always be checked is that you are properly keeping records in the way you are supposed to. What records you need to keep, and for how long, depends on what type of business you run, what industry you are operating within, and where exactly you are geographically, with what kind of governing body hanging over you. It is your job to find out what is expected of you here and then make sure that you are following along. At the same time, you should be doing whatever you can to make those records easy to access for the auditors, but secure at the same time. Read more from SmartRoom on how you might be able to achieve that.
Being Safety-Conscious
Usually, audits will centre around some kind of safety or security issue, and these are often the ones that can come up when you are least expecting them to. You have to make sure that you are ready for them by being safety-conscious at all times in your business. That means that you have to be aware of all the rules that you must play by, and that you have a cemented way of ensuring that they are being adhered to by your staff. This is something that can take a while to make it a part of the culture, but if you start off on the right foot, it is much more likely to succeed. The more you think about safety as a team, the more likely it is that you are going to be doing the right thing here.
Self-Auditing
One of the best ways to know that you are truly ready for an audit is to carry out a self-audit. In fact, you should be doing this as regularly as necessary to ensure that you are likely to pass any genuine external audits that might come your way. It also is in itself a good way of demonstrating how seriously you take it, so that is something that you are going to find useful too. Self-auditing will ensure that you are doing everything you need to do, and that you are moving in the right direction on the whole, and it is an important act for any business to try and make good use of.
