Published 31 Jan 2023
What is a Management Audit?
A management audit is a systematic approach that aims to analyze the effectiveness of management systems of an organization. It assesses how management teams operate the business and evaluate the results of implemented policies, protocols, and procedures in carrying out corporate objectives and safety standards.
Management Audit Checklist
A management audit checklist is used by audit management to ensure management systems and processes are effectively addressing the objectives and goals of the business or company. This template can be used by compliance teams or audit managers to record and report any act of non-conformances or misconduct. The template has been built to guide the inspector to perform the following:
- Talk to managers and evaluate the effectiveness of the administrative controls in place
- Take note of any defects or irregularities in the processes being done
- Assign actions to responsible teams concerning urgent issues that may arise during the audit
- Complete the inspection with a digital signature and timestamp to validate audit
The completed sample report provides an example of the type of management audit that can be generated and shared electronically using the SafetyCulture (iAuditor) mobile app.
In this article
- Importance
- 4 Steps on How to Conduct a Management Audit
- FAQs About Management Audit
- SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) Management Audit Checklist Templates
- Featured Management Audit Checklist Templates
Importance
A well-implemented management system can empower a management team to work and communicate effectively, minimize risk, lower employee dissatisfaction, and reduce wastage. Key benefits of performing a management audit are the following:
- Identify strong and weak points of the management system;
- Improve communication protocols;
- Minimize cost of production by eliminating wastage;
- Utilize manpower efficiently;
- Improve safety and compliance standards;
- Identify defects and irregularities from the administration; and
- Determine better solutions to achieve the desired goals.
4 Steps on How to Conduct a Management Audit
The following are the four major steps to auditing top management:
Step 1: Choose questions to ask
The first step in conducting a management audit is to determine what questions to ask in interviews. Though this may seem simple, asking people the right questions will surely make a difference. Once questions are finalized, proceed with interviewing the organization’s employees. If using only one set of questions for employees and another one for management, note the differences in answers across different departments and job types.
Step 2: Validate information
The second step in conducting a management audit is to validate information gained from interviews by observing. Whether the observation is only for the day or a longer period of time, use a checklist of items to look out for such as problem areas or flagged issues. Ideally, this should be a digital checklist so that it’s easy to access and edit on-the-go.
Step 3: Check existing documents
The third step in conducting a management audit is to examine documents such as financial statements and other records of the organization’s processes. In addition to the evidence obtained in the previous steps, these documents can back up the auditor when presenting their findings to the organization’s management team.
Step 4: Analyze the data
The fourth step in conducting a management audit is to analyze all of the data collected. While this step can be a headache if using paper for conducting the audit, it can be much easier with audit management software. Though it can be difficult for old-school auditors to transition to using software as opposed to paper, doing so will not only help them, but also the organizations they audit in understanding audit results.
FAQs About Management Audit
Management auditing involves the capturing of significant notes, interviews, and photo evidence in order to check if protocols are meeting company objectives. More time is often spent on data entry and paperwork as opposed to identifying observations and actioning recommendations.
Management audit is developed by a former manager of Leyland Motors and a management lecturer at Cambridge University, T. G. Rose, in 1932. Queens University School of Business professor William P. Leonard followed soon after. These endeavors both aim to establissh a comprehensive review of the management effectiveness of their respective entities.
This management audit example reviews the top management of the Universal Life company—starting from the administration, finance, insurance, policy, personnel management, contracts, hazard identification and control, event management, and legislation and industry standards. View this management audit PDF to see more.
SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) Management Audit Checklist Templates
SafetyCulture is an efficient, low-cost, and user-friendly audit management software. Conduct a management audit on your mobile or tablet while on-site, use voice dictation to take notes, camera to take photo evidence and customize your forms to suit your audit. Audits can be edited online and management audit reports are generated instantly.
To help you get started, we have created 4 management audit checklist templates that you can download and start using for free. All checklist templates are fully customizable and you can create your own – no programming skills required.
Featured Management Audit Checklist Templates
Annual Management Audit Checklist
This annual management audit checklist can be used when auditing the compliance of an organization’s safety, reliability, maintenance and technical management plan. Conduct walkthroughs and interviews with key persons to assess whether the controls and processes meet certain requirements.
Manager Self-evaluation Checklist
A manager self-evaluation is one of the best methods to assess the leadership performance and management style of managers in handling people and teams. Share this checklist to the management team and let them answer whether they agree to the following statements or not. Ensure to complete the audit by affixing digital signatures.
Employee Engagement Survey
One good indicator of an effective management system is a high employee satisfaction rating. Use this survey questionnaire to record employees’ personal evaluation towards their job, their work environment and the support that they get from the management. Share this template across the entire company and track the results via online dashboards.