Guidelines for Organization of Working Papers on Operational Audits

A method to organize audit work papers in accordance with management and control theories.

Follow the audit trail as presented to the IIA 42nd International Conference by the author. Guidelines on working paper organization are demonstrated to show the auditor "how to" efficiently document support for operational and effectiveness audit findings. The documenting effort by audit staff expends the major portion of the budget on these complex audits. Significant audit staff hour savings can be realized by using this illustrative approach.

"It is interesting that if one does consider the arrangement of the papers and where a specific paper will fit, it will automatically make one consider just where in the audit we are. Kind of like making the papers drive the audit...." ~ Jack Birkholz, Audit Manager, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).