Remote Auditing

The latest version of ISO 19011:2018, guidelines for auditing management systems, introduced the concept of e-auditing, by setting certain principles to carry out a successful remote audit that is up to the expectations of the International Standard makers (ISO). IAF (International Accreditation Forum) has also issued a document to all certifying bodies (CB) which include principles and direction for external auditors to follow when assessing compliance to ISO standards remotely. Remote audits are the best possible way to monitor the operations of work while assuring the quality of the product and service being produced.

Definition

According to IAF, a Remote assessment or audit is a conformity audit that is facilitated by a certification body without physically visiting the client site (IAF, 2015). By using various electronic means, external auditors can obtain the audit evidence and evaluate it objectively, this will aid the auditors determine to which extent the organization is complying with the set auditing criteria ex. ISO 9001:2015. The auditor may use a range of technological tools to aid in identifying compliance depending on the audit requirements: For file sharing, auditors may request receiving the documents via email, Google Drive, and dropbox. For interviews video conference tools such as Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Microsoft Lync, Zoom, and phone calls are highly recommended. For construction site audits, external auditors-connected with a video conference application- may request auditees to attend a selected working site and walk them through the actual execution of works. Drones may be also incorporated for this purpose as well to facilitate a remote assessment. Surprisingly, reviewing documents and records virtually can be even more effective than doing so onsite.

Benefits of Remote Auditing

Remote auditing can be beneficial in many ways. Here you can find the most relevant ones:

1. Saving Time and Money: With the use of audits technology and proper facilitation of audit needs to the level that eliminates the necessity of bringing auditors on-site, auditees fully control the time invested and consumed on an audit. Thus, audits can no longer cause any disruption to our daily operations. In addition, with doing remote audits, the cost may significantly be reduced depending on the type of audit. With remote auditing, organizations are relieved from logistics that costs money related to booking flights, proper accommodation, and other allowances associated with business trips.
2. Increasing the efficiency of the Audit team: The audit team will feel more comfortable and productive while working from their home offices, thus their productivity and efficiency are significantly increased especially with the usage of all the necessary tools, such as high-speed internet, monitors, printers, etc. Moreover, the audit team can avoid office-related distractions and become more focused on completing the work instantly. This way, the productivity will be substantially increased in an e-audit in comparison with an on-site audit, needing fewer hours to complete a certain task.
3. Avoiding traveling to remote sites: Some locations may be hard to reach or access for many reasons such as being in an isolated area or requires strict permits to get in. With remote audits, the auditees can avoid these problems easily.

Barriers of Conducting Remote Audits

When it comes to the barriers of conducting a remote assessment or audit, we can find the following:

1. Certification Bodies (CB) Requirements: From the CB perspective, remote audits have certain conditions to be met in order to conduct this type of assessment. It depends on the audit criteria, size of the organization being audited, related industry, and IAF’s requirements for Remote assessments.
2. Technological Issues: One of the main challenges of remote audits is the reliability of the technology being used such as the availability of network connection, internet speed, and technological infrastructure of the audited organization. Interviews and meetings can be interrupted, taking some time to reconnect and solve all the network problems during audits.
3. Security, Privacy, and Confidentiality Issues: Remote audits put auditees as well auditors under serious risk when it comes to the level of security been given by communication platform, the privacy of the transmitted information, and the confidentiality of shared documents. According to IAF, this issue must be tackled in the service agreement and approved by the client.

Remote Audits are the Future of Auditing

Remote audits have come to stay and will stay for some time in the future. Even though the concept is not new, the urge to deploy this method is extremely important for quality auditors and professionals in order to be able to do their job fairly and professionally in the current circumstances. Despite the unquestionable benefits of traditional audits, remote assessments are gaining solid popularity, and are becoming a necessity. Organizations are increasingly finding these e-audits very attractive, cost-effective, and efficient not only from the perspective of the audited company but also from the certification bodies’ perspective.