A business process audit may seem complicated and intimidating, but a modern business must consider this as an ally in the search for more efficiency and effectiveness in the organization’s value chain processes.
When carrying out a business process audit, many benefits can be achieved.
Business process audit benefits
- Risk analysis and contingency procedures.
- It promotes more transparency and corporate governance.
- Verification of controls used and their suitability to the business.
- To verify how often the defined procedures and practices are adequate.
- Provide information for decision making on improvements and changes in processes.
A business process audit should be seen as an aid element that supports managers, bringing benefits such as always having current and reliable information on how the processes are running and performing.
That is why there is a recommendation that a business process audit is continuously performed, or at least have some periods established for them to be done. But none the less, the audit process can not be overlooked.
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Business process audit definition
A business process audit is a formal and technical way to derive and assess whether the company is managing its business processes, taking into account:
- The strategic objectives of the organization.
- The specific goals.
- Suitable procedures.
Also, one must make sure that:
- The performance of processes is within the desired standards.
- Controls are suitable for the correct measurement of processes.
- The procedures are suitable to achieve the desired levels of efficiency and effectiveness.
As it turns out, a business process audit is a warning that the administration should take action if necessary and at the same time, a guarantee that the work is being done right, when the auditors verify it.
The audit process has become a necessary element for most large corporations to remain competitive with the competition, ensuring the delivery of expected value to customers and business sustainability.
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Business process audit objectives
The objectives are many and varied, but we can highlight some of them:
- The elimination of anomalies.
- To be following the goals and objectives set by senior management.
- The encouraging continuous improvement.
- Risk Control.
- The definition of contingency plans.
- Suggestions for improvements.
- Solidifying the “process culture” in the company.
- Best management practices.
- More data for decision-making by leaders.
- Enables the proper training of employees.
- IT resources assessment being used.
- Safer and more reliable information.
- Increased productivity.
- Adequacy of physical and structural resources for the tasks.
- More transparency.
To achieve these and other objectives, the business process auditor (or your team) can make use of various practices. Initially, it is customary to perform an alignment meeting with management and other important stakeholders involved, followed by interviews with key employees.
After that, check-lists and questionnaires are designed so that you can gather the required data, sometimes, even more, interviews, and direct observation of processes and evidence collection.
With all this information available and organized into data, you need to make reports of the business process audit to be presented to company managers, along with an action plan for regularization of any necessary changes and improvements.
Subsequently, work should be done to track how the improvement actions (as a result of the business process audit) are being implemented
Again, it is clear that this is a procedure that aims only to keep regularly updated BPM practices according to the organization’s goals.
In this context, the use of a current, versatile and intuitive BPM tool, able to not only model and analyze processes, but also to generate reports, alerts, and dashboards is critical.
View more: The benefits of using BPM in your company