The benefits of audit software:
Improved performance: Audit software helps auditors delve into the finer details of the business/organization they’re auditing, facilitating the identification and rectification of inefficient procedures. The software improves data quality, reduces audit completion time, and enhances the overall audit process.
Detailed information capturing: Manual note-taking, recordkeeping, and organization during the auditing process is a daunting task that can lead to costly errors. Audit software improves this process through detailed data capturing, including images, voice notes, video clips, and digital notes. From there, customizable reports can provide a comprehensive visual overview of operations and facilitate better decision-making.
Automated workflows: With an automated audit cycle, calculations can be completed without hassle and reduced scope for human error, increasing auditors’ execution and monitoring capacities.
Typical features of audit software:
Audit planning: Create targeted plans, schedule resources, and determine long-term goals for audits.
Compliance management: Track and manage non-adherence to policies in a service, product, process, or supplier behavior.
Dashboard: Monitor all audit-related statistics, metrics, timeline, budget, and performance in a central location.
Form management: Create, organize, store, and distribute custom forms and checklists.
Risk assessment: Collect and analyze key information pertaining to enterprise risk.
Task management: Assign tasks and track their progress.
The cost of audit software
Most audit software products are priced on a “per user, per month” basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.
Price ranges*:
*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites on June 3, 2019. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.
The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or professional product that is priced higher may include additional features such as advanced reporting, on-demand analytics, and advanced user management.
Considerations when purchasing audit software
Customization for various audit types: Depending on client needs, auditors may need their audit software to handle multiple types of audits (e.g., process audits, safety audits, internal audits, manufacturing audits, etc.). As every type has its own set of compliance needs and parameters within which the audit process must be carried out, be sure to consider the customization functionality of any audit software you evaluate.
Relevant audit software trends
Data analytics will be a game-changer: Data analytics can be used for tasks such as risk profiling, data testing via simulation, and statistical sampling. Citing a Gartner finding, AuditBoard predicts that by 2020 at least 60% of audit software will include data analysis functionality that will enhance the quality of reporting and overall decision-making.
Smartphones are changing the landscape of auditing: Smartphones help auditors capture real-time data in the form of pictures, voice notes, GPS coordinates, and more. Software vendors are increasingly developing mobile applications for their audit software offerings to leverage these capabilities and make audits more efficient.
Sources
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra’s Audit Software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in Capterra’s directory that offer them.
The following sources were used for this document:
Top 5 Tech Trends for Small Business, Capterra (Date accessed: June 3, 2019)
Audit Software Trends (Date accessed: June 3, 2019)