What Is Documentation Audit/Desk Audit?
Documents and all the information in your company are part of the most relevant elements you not only need to take care of and save in the right place. You also need to review them once in a while in order to know all the details about your business and the results of the previous processes you have conducted. Therefore, don’t throw anything! This is something you will get used to over time and you will thank us for it from now on.
Now, what does this have to do with Documentation Audit and what it is all about? Documentation or Desk Audit consists of a process where the documents and records the auditors saved from old or previous audits are reviewed again to determine if the conclusion and conducted audits were done in the right way.
Most of the time, companies that want to conduct this type of audit is because they have found some issues or nonconformities related to the audit that was conducted months or even years ago. Until you conduct one, you might not be able to understand some aspects or elements of it or even the main reason behind its implementation.
However, it doesn’t mean you can’t understand and decide if you need it or not by reading and researching about it. And when it comes to the need to performing or conducting it, your company or the auditor that conducted it can be in a position where going back in time is one of the best ideas.
In what situations do companies or people conduct Documentation Audit?
Most of the time, you will need to plan and manage the audit program of this process to determine if the audit that was conducted long ago came to the right conclusion according to the evidence. This is because you probably have a problem with the current audits conducted in your company or some issues related to the previous audit—as mentioned before. However, another reason behind this need is related to the need of proving some facts with the evidence that can be found in the documentation.
Since we already went through this reason and situation, let’s move onto the rest:
– Auditors that are accused of negligence or false conclusion and evidence can defend themselves by conducting an audit in the documentation they obtained from the audit itself. This will save them a lot of time and a bad situation if they are sure they are right or not.
Or at least, they won’t be put in a bad situation without the evidence that proves they have made a mistake.
– Reviewing the documents and records to find some details that can be helpful in the present is easier than going through a simulation of the audit. Overall, documents are ten times easier to review when it comes to finding evidence, proofs, or specific information. It may take time to read over all the documentation and records, but it is much more possible than just recreating or going through the entire process again.
– Documentation Audits can be conducted right after the main audit has finished and before the auditor of it provides and delivers the final results and conclusion. In this way, your company or the person in need of the audit will have better control over the level of quality of the audit. Which means that it can trust the final results and conclusion without hesitating.
Or at least, they won’t be put in a bad situation without the evidence that proves they have made a mistake.
– Reviewing the documents and records to find some details that can be helpful in the present is easier than going through a simulation of the audit. Overall, documents are ten times easier to review when it comes to finding evidence, proofs, or specific information. It may take time to read over all the documentation and records, but it is much more possible than just recreating or going through the entire process again.
– Documentation Audits can be conducted right after the main audit has finished and before the auditor of it provides and delivers the final results and conclusion. In this way, your company or the person in need of the audit will have better control over the level of quality of the audit. Which means that it can trust the final results and conclusion without hesitating.
Will your company gain something from training people to conduct them?
Absolutely. The best option when it comes to Documentation Audits is to have one of your team dealing with the task.
However, always make sure that this person or auditor isn’t part of the area or department that has been conducted or was conducted several years ago. In this way, you will have a reliable source reviewing every detail without preferences and being completely independent. Now, this is going to take you a lot of time and training, as well as resources to ensure your auditors are qualified to conduct such an audit.
But it is completely worth it due to all the benefits you can obtain from such a simple but crucial process. For this, ISO Pros can help you to ensure the proper training of your auditors and guarantee you follow all the guidelines to conduct the Desk Audit correctly. Just make sure to contact us and we will have one or several of our experts dropping by and assisting you in everything you need.
You will need to invest time and effort in all this, and the money won’t be a super small amount of it. But you won’t worry about it once you start noticing all the advances you are able to obtain from these audits. That being said, you can also provide the service for other companies or businesses.
If you are trying to train your auditors to save yourself time and resources in hiring someone else, you can also consider the idea of being that “someone else”. Many companies are unable to invest money and resources in training and acquiring all the materials for conducting Documentation Audit themselves. This is when you can take the opportunity and assist them.
We will help you with all this process and ensure that your company and auditors can conduct them perfectly from now on after keeping in check all the ISO standards as well.