July 20, 2025
When an audit's looming, every minute
counts. But most audit pain starts long before the auditor shows up—it starts
with assumptions, gaps, and that nagging sense that something got missed.
A few proactive habits can make the
difference between audit season and audit panic.
A recent study by ISO.org found that over
68% of audit delays in mid-sized manufacturers stem from poor documentation or
system silos—not actual noncompliance. In other words, the mess—not the
mistake—is what gets you.
Here's the kicker: most of what auditors
ask for is knowable in advance. Most of what they flag could've been caught
internally if anyone had looked at the big picture a month earlier.
Here's a smarter audit-prep checklist
for CFOs and Controllers:
- Are compliance roles clearly assigned and documented by system, not just the department?
- Can we produce user access logs, privilege change history, and evidence of quarterly reviews?
- Have both IT and finance signed off on retention policies and backup verification this quarter?
- Are endpoint protection reports and patch logs filed and accessible?
- Do we have an up-to-date copy of our incident response policy, with roles and responsibilities documented?
- Are staff trained on what to retrieve, print, and explain during an audit walk-through?
- Have we conducted a mock audit or tabletop exercise in the past 6 months?
- Are audit-related communications, findings, and follow-ups centralized in one location?
One Ohio firm cut audit prep time in half
by having IT sit in on quarterly finance reviews—flagging gaps before they
snowballed. When the ISO team walked in, everything they needed was ready. Not
flashy—just reliable.
"You
don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." — James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
Another shop delayed a key upgrade to
their ERP logging module, assuming "we'll fix that after audit." They got
flagged for incomplete access records and had to spend $18K on remediation and
re-review.
"Hope
is not an audit strategy." — Theresa Grafenstine, former Inspector General, DoD
Audit prep doesn't need to be a crisis.
It just needs to be owned. Manufacturing CFOs and Controllers don't need to
manage it all—but they do need to know what questions to ask and where the gaps
might be hiding.
Want peace of mind before the audit
clock starts ticking?
