Free Audit Template [Slides / PPT]

Managing agency audits can be overwhelming, especially when evaluating multiple aspects of your business. We’re here to help!

With our free, customizable audit template, you can turn complex evaluations into actionable insights. It will help you spot issues, improve workflows, and boost client satisfaction, regardless of whether you conduct your first audit or enhance existing processes. 

Let's get started and transform your agency's performance.

What is an Audit Report?

It is a report wherein an outside expert reviews a company's financial records and systems. Think of it as a detailed fact-check of a company's money matters. This review helps others (like investors) trust that the company's financial numbers are accurate and follow the rules.

Additional Key Areas for Creative Agency Audits

Creative Work Review

Look at how your team comes up with and develops ideas. You want to check:

• What creative methods does your team use (like brainstorming or special tools)?
• If these methods help solve problems.
• Whether these approaches led to useful discoveries.
• What problems came up when trying new methods?
• How you could make the creative process better.

Client Relationships

Check how well you're talking with clients by looking at:

• How do you stay in touch? (e.g. client portal, emails, reports)
• Whether you keep clients informed at the right times.
• If clients feel heard when they share concerns.
• Whether you explain complex things in ways clients understand.
• What you could do to communicate better.

Project Management Effectiveness

Review how you handle projects from start to finish by checking:

• Whether work gets done on time.
• If you have enough people and tools to do the work.
• Where projects get stuck or slow down.
• What unexpected problems came up and how you handled them.
• Ways to run projects more smoothly.

Templates for Audits: Why?

A template (basically a pre-made checklist) makes the audit process better in several ways:

• It gives you a clear roadmap to follow, such as checking how well your team handles projects from start to finish.
• Everyone can do audits comparably, preventing confusion.
• It speeds up the process by listing exactly what needs to be checked. For instance, when reviewing creative work, you can quickly check whether projects met deadlines and followed client requests.
• It creates a clear record of what was reviewed.
• It helps team members communicate better because everyone's looking at the same checklist. For example, everyone knows what makes a good client report.
• New team members can learn from it.
• It saves time and money. Example: Using a template can cut a quarterly review from two weeks down to three days.
• It makes sure you don't miss any required checks or legal requirements.

How to Get Your Team Involved in Audits

Getting your whole team involved in audits makes them more effective and helps everyone feel part of the process. Here's how to do it:

• Ensure everyone knows what you're trying to achieve and how their work helps reach these goals.
• Be clear about what everyone should do so there are no misunderstandings.
• Have regular meetings where people can freely share their thoughts and concerns. Listen to everyone's ideas and feedback.
• Stay connected with everyone. You can share documents in one place so everyone has access to them.
• Ask for input when you're planning the audit. People often spot important things others might miss.
• Ensure everyone has the training and tools to do their part well.
• Different backgrounds and experiences lead to better results. Encourage everyone to share their unique perspective.
• Thank people when they do good work. Point out specific contributions that helped the team.
• After the audit, discuss what worked and what didn't. Don't let these mistakes deter you from doing better in the future.
• Give team members their areas to manage. Let them use their expertise to handle specific parts of the audit.

When you use these approaches, your audits will likely be more thorough and your team more engaged. Plus, people do better work when they feel they're part of the process.

Problems When You Don't Use an Audit Template

Not using a template for audits can cause several issues:

• Each review will be different and hard to compare. Example: You can't see the overall health of the agency if one manager is focused on client satisfaction and another is focused on profits.
• People waste time figuring out what to check and how to organize their findings.
• It's easy to miss important things. An example of this is a creative director who only looks at the aesthetic value of the work while neglecting problems such as time management or brand consistency.
• Results are unclear because everyone measures success differently. 
• New team members have trouble learning how to do proper reviews.
• Problems get noticed but aren't properly recorded or fixed. Example: You might see that projects keep missing deadlines, but without good documentation, no one tracks if solutions are working.
• More mistakes happen in reports because there's no standard way to check work.
• It becomes too narrow to review. Example: A project manager might only care about deadlines while missing bigger issues like team burnout or client satisfaction that affect the company's success.

Creating your Audit Report

This report needs certain parts to be clear and meet professional standards. Here's what to include:

Key Components:

• Report Title. Start with a proper title that states this is an audit report. Include when you finished the audit and who it's for, like the board of directors. Make sure to mention what kind of audit you did.
• Introductory Paragraph. Name the company you reviewed and list what records you looked at. It's important to note that management is responsible for keeping accurate records, and you should state which accounting rules you followed.
• Scope Paragraph. Explain how you did the audit and mention any limits you faced. List which standards you used, like Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS). Follow this with a quick summary of your main findings and highlight important issues, keeping everything factual without opinions.

• Executive Summary. Summarize key findings and matters that are significant for management to know. This section should provide a high-level overview without opinions. Highlight specific areas of concern or noteworthy achievements identified during the audit. 
• Opinion Paragraph. Your opinion section should clearly say if the financial records are accurate and explain how you reached this conclusion. Be clear about whether this is a full approval or if you have concerns.
• Findings and Recommendations. When sharing details, list what you found and show your proof. Suggest how to fix any problems, and make it clear which fixes are most urgent. Don't forget to add your name or the firm's name, including the names of all auditors involved.
• Auditor’s Name and Signature. Clearly state the name of the auditor or auditing firm responsible for the audit. 
• Management Response (if applicable). If management responds to your findings, include what they say and their plans to fix problems. 
• Conclusion. Sum up what you found, mentioning both good points and problems. If needed, attach helpful charts or data that explain your findings better.
• Appendices (if applicable). Attach any additional information or supporting documents that may help stakeholders.  Use appendices for detailed data, charts, or graphs that provide deeper insights into specific areas discussed in the report. 

Required Information

• Financials reviewed (e.g. balance sheet, income statement).
• Period audited.
• Accounting standards used.
• Findings with supporting detail.
• Management’s response and corrective actions.
• Auditor’s credentials

Tips and Best Practices

Here are some tips to make your report better:

• Start writing as soon as you begin checking things. This helps you record what you see right away instead of trying to remember everything later.
• Keep it short by focusing on what matters most like how happy clients are, how long projects take, and how well you use your resources. Instead of listing every small delay, show the bigger patterns that affect your business.
• Use the Five Cs framework: Criteria, Conditions, Cause, Consequence, and Corrective Action. This will make your findings more solid and believable.
• Share both good and bad findings. When you point out what's working well and what needs to be fixed, people are more likely to listen and make changes.
• Organize your report. Include a cover page, list of contents, introduction, what you looked at, what you found, what you suggested, and a conclusion. This helps readers find what they need quickly.
• Use pictures like charts and graphs to show information. This makes complex data easier to understand.
• Talk to important people before you start checking things. Find out what they're worried about and what they want to know. Focus on their needs by doing this.
• Share your report quickly after you finish checking everything. If you wait too long, your suggestions might not be as useful anymore. 
• Double-check everything before you finish. Make sure it's accurate, clear, and makes sense throughout. 
• Use positive language. Instead of saying "You're doing this wrong," say "Here's how we can make this better." People are more likely to accept changes when you put it this way. 
• Let managers respond to what you found. Include their comments in the report. This shows everyone is working together to fix problems.
• Write in plain English. Avoid fancy business words that might confuse people. For example, instead of saying "project velocity," say "how quickly teams finish client work."

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Avoid mistakes that can make your report unclear or unhelpful. Watch out for these problems:

• Don't stick with old templates. Using outdated forms means you might miss new rules and requirements. The standards keep changing, so working from old documents puts your audit at risk.
• Avoid using different terms than your client. When they say "Statement of Profit and Loss" but write "Income Statement," you're creating unnecessary confusion for everyone involved.
• Never skip major sections like "Key Audit Matters." Leaving out important parts makes your audit look incomplete, even if you have nothing special to report in that section.
• Watch out for inconsistent language in your report. Switching between different terms for the same thing (like mixing up "consolidated" and "combined" statements) damages your credibility.
• Avoid vague or incomplete findings. Simply stating something is wrong without explaining the standards it violates, why it happened, its impact, and how to fix it leaves everyone guessing.
• Don't create text-heavy reports without visual aids. Failing to include charts or graphs makes it harder for people to grasp complex information quickly.
• Avoid cluttering your checklist with pointless questions. Having too many yes/no questions that don't provide real insights wastes everyone's time and leads to superficial reviews.
• Don't forget to leave room for management's response. Without this section, you will miss valuable feedback and make it harder to track if changes happen.
• Never skip the final review. Rushing to finish without thoroughly checking for mistakes, unclear writing, or inconsistencies can ruin an otherwise good audit report.

How to Use Our Free Audit Template

• Access our downloadable template.
• Open the template with Google Slides (recommended), PowerPoint, or Canva - just download it in the format you need from the File menu. We recommend Google Slides for easy online team access.
• Look through all sections carefully and think about what your agency needs
• Customize the look with your own branding.
• Save and share it where your team can access it.

How to Present Audit Results Effectively

When you share audit findings with clients or managers, ensure they understand and can use what you found. Here's how to do it well:

• Keep your communication simple by using clear everyday language, avoiding unnecessary technical terms, and getting straight to the point.
• Tailor your explanation to your audience by matching the level of detail– providing more depth for experts while keeping it basic for non-experts.
• Enhance understanding using visual aids like charts, graphs, and relevant pictures to illustrate complex ideas and make data more accessible.
• Prioritize key findings by presenting the most critical issues and identifying which problems require immediate attention and resolution.
• Demonstrate relevance by connecting findings to business impacts and helping stakeholders understand why the issues should matter to them.
• Maintain momentum by promptly sharing important findings and updates, giving people enough time to address problems as they're discovered.
• Nurture open dialogue by welcoming all questions, listening to concerns, and engaging in meaningful two-way conversations.
• Maintain objectivity by focusing on facts and improvement opportunities rather than assigning blame for identified problems.
• Begin with a comprehensive yet concise summary of the main points and key findings to give audiences a clear big-picture understanding.
• Ensure continued understanding by following up after presentations, addressing lingering questions, and helping clarify any remaining confusion.

Conclusion

Thanks for exploring our audit template guide. 

A thorough audit is your first step toward improving your creative agency's performance. As you implement changes based on your findings, consider streamlining your workflow with a project management platform like ManyRequests to handle everything from client communications to invoicing. Sign up now for your free 14-day trial.

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