• Gain the expertise and confidence to develop well structured reports with clear messages
• Deliver the key messages that focus on risk and get results
• Understand the different needs and expectations of audit report readers 
• Practice each step of the report writing process, from thinking about your audience to organizing your ideas to meet their needs, to choosing the appropriate format and tone, to crafting and streamlining your writing

Course focus and features:
Writing an effective audit report is a challenging activity as the report has to satisfy the differing needs of the different readers. Report writing is a key skill for auditors and a skill that doesn’t often come naturally to them. Auditors collect and analyse detailed information and are generally more comfortable with reporting at a detailed level as opposed to delivering the key messages to senior managers that focus on risk. Audit reports often provide senior managers with a detailed list of what hasn’t been done well rather than highlighting the most significant issues and concentrating on what needs to be completed to remediate any discrepancies.

This 2 day course will guide delegates through the basic elements of the report writing process from thinking about the needs of their readers, to selecting the most appropriate style and tone and writing with clarity to get results. Delegates will have the opportunity to bring extracts of their own reports with them to work on and review in the context of the ideas presented. Exercises will be provided in each session as appropriate.

Course Director: Lin Bartlett

Lin is a former Integrated Audit Manager at Shell. During her time there she gained board approval for a risk-based integrated audit planning and management process, establishing integrated audit plans for all key business areas. She is a trained auditor in financial, IT, health, safety, environment and quality management and planned and managed major audits in many different parts of Shell's business.