The auditor attends the count: preparing for the visit

"Our auditor will be present at the stock count." For the local warehouse management, this sentence from head office can quickly sound like a check on their own work. In fact it is about something else: the auditor judges whether the count procedure is reliable, not whether individual employees make mistakes. Not every auditor attends the count, some rely on the documentation, and sometimes head office sends the internal audit department instead. Anyone who is prepared experiences the visit as a calm appointment and not as an examination.

What an auditor typically wants to know

Which points the auditor considers in a given case is for the auditor to decide. These questions often come up:

• Are there written count instructions, and do the teams know them?
• Are the people counting not those who manage the stock themselves?
• Is the area recorded completely, or was an aisle forgotten?
• How is the cut-off time observed, for example by a document cut-off for goods receipts and goods issues?
• How are blocked stock, third-party goods and goods in transit handled?
• How are differences documented and cleared?

One week before: documents and organisation

Put together a folder that the auditor receives at the start: count instructions, zone plan, team list with functions, issue log of the count sheets and, if already available, the stock extract at the cut-off time. Also arrange:

• a companion who guides the auditor through the warehouse and takes questions,
• visitor access, safety briefing and protective equipment such as safety shoes and a high-visibility vest,
• a workplace with access to the documents,
• if necessary an interpreter, where auditor and count teams have no common language.

On count day

Some auditors draw test samples of their own, in both directions. From the shelf to the sheet: are the goods I see there recorded on the count sheet? That tests completeness. From the sheet to the shelf: is the quantity entered there actually present? That tests existence.

A fictional example: the auditor selects 25 positions, 15 from the shelf to the sheet and 10 from the sheet to the shelf (15 + 10 = 25). In 24 cases shelf and sheet agree, in one they do not: the sheet says 40 pieces, but the shelf holds 40 cartons of 6 pieces each, so the unit was mixed up. The team records the position as a difference at once, the clearing is documented, and the count leader checks whether the same mix-up occurs in the neighbouring zone. For the process as a whole such a single finding is no drama, as long as it is visibly dealt with.

For the behaviour of the teams: keep working calmly, do not "smooth over" afterwards what the auditor is looking at, and pass questions on to the companion. The count team answers questions about its own sheet; the companion takes care of everything else.

Common stumbling blocks

• The team only learns of the visit on count day and seems unsettled. Inform them in advance and say clearly that the procedure is being looked at, not the individual.
• The documents lie scattered in offices and mailboxes. One folder per auditor saves searching and waiting.
• Sheets are corrected "quickly" during the visit. Corrections always follow the set rule: strike through, rewrite, initial.

After the visit

Have the auditor's findings given to you on the same day if possible and record them in writing. Open points get an owner and a date. Evidence requested by the auditor belongs in the count documents just like the auditor's remarks. Add a note to the record that the auditor was present and write down which areas were visited.

In short

An auditor's visit is an opportunity to make the procedure visible. AuditMaster builds the documents so that your auditor can trace every figure back to the count sheet, and a project manager is available for queries.