The Compliance Audit Checklist

What Is a Compliance Audit?  

A compliance audit is a well-organized analysis of a business’s adherence to a defined criterion set by a supervisory body. Compliance audits are conducted by an auditing team to support the organization’s systematized processes, identify gaps, and eliminate risks. 

The Value of a Compliance Audit  

Why are compliance audits so valuable to your business? Every business has certain government requirements/protocols they must follow to be operating legally. If you are not checking in and abiding by these regulations, your organization is not compliant. This can cause legal issues for your business and ruin your company’s reputation. 

How Can a Compliance Audit Checklist Help You?  

Here are some of the goals that a regular compliance audit helps companies achieve: 

1. Assures a safe work environment 
2. Helps prevent legal penalties  
3. Increases work productivity  
4. Supports a positive reputation for your business  

Compliance Audit Checklist  

Are you ready to get your organization up to date with the latest compliance regulations? Before you jump into your compliance audit, there are a few things you need to know. Here’s a compliance audit checklist to help you get started!  

Dealing with Previous Audits

Not your first rodeo? If you have run compliance audits in the past, looking at your old data before this year’s audit can be very helpful. Let’s say, that year after year, you keep reporting the same issues on your audits. If you realize this going into your audit, you can focus your energy on finding the source of the problem to streamline the audit process from here on out.  

Outlining the Scope of the Audit

Cut out the clutter. Don’t let the technical terms confuse you when you are going through your compliance scope. You must know what is being done and how it will impact the users on your network. If this means sitting down with an IT professional to better understand the audit, that’s something we’d suggest.  

Outlining the process from start to finish is a simple way you can stay organized and informed during the process. Keep tracking of things such as your key systems, IP addresses, and data flow will give you a good place to start.  

Audit Results & Management

Okay, so your audit has been run, and the compliance issues have been reported. Now what? You need to have an action plan in place to resolve the issues found during your audit and the bandwidth/knowledge to complete those audit revisions. Getting this lined up ahead of time will save you a lot of stress and time in the long run. 

Your Audit & Bottom Line  

Does your compliance audit have a major strain on your staff’s resources or cost you more than it’s valued at? Asking these questions can help you define the effectiveness of your current compliance process including the time spent, costs incurred, risks reduced, etc. With the right strategy, an audit can be more than a way to discover what you’re doing wrong; following audit procedures can influence your overall business development.  

EMPIST Compliance Audit  

With the digital age of online computing and cloud storage, following compliance is a must for your business. However, just like filing your taxes, it can be a headache if you try to work through the process yourself. To ensure your organization is meeting regulatory compliance, EMPIST is here to provide you with full compliance services to keep your business data relevant and your time well spent. Visit us online to learn more!  

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