Internal Audit Checklist Template - How Can it Help Me?

How Can An Internal Audit Checklist Template Help Me?

Whether you are starting from scratch in creating your checklist or looking for ways to improve the one you already have, a template is an amazing value tool. An internal audit checklist template can propel you to a successful internal audit much faster than doing the job all by yourself.

Contents

Internal audits are carried out using an Internal Audit Checklist. The checklist goes hand-in-hand with your Internal Audit Procedure.

Internal audits are an essential piece of the ISO 9001 quality management system puzzle - helping your business to operate effectively and successfully.

Eight Reasons To Use An Internal Audit Checklist Template

  1. Save time and money
  2. Have a head start in the creation process
  3. Have all of the necessary requirements on hand
  4. Ensure it is tried and tested by a professional ISO Quality Consultant
  5. Make the internal auditing process user-friendly
  6. Have useful instructions for using your checklist to collect data
  7. Have access to the best approach to collecting data at your internal audit
  8. Know what changes need to be made to your existing checklist

These advantages make it easy to see why people are choosing to use pre-made templates to prepare their Internal Audit Checklists.

- View a sample Internal Audit Checklist Template

benefits of Internal Audit Checklist

Benefits of an Internal Audit Checklist

This is an extremely useful tool for checking your business processes and quality management system.

Requirements - First and foremost, a good checklist will ensure that your quality management system meets all of the requirements it needs to meet. Nothing is left out so you don't have to worry about missing anything in the audit process.

Consistency - Having a well-made checklist means that all of your internal audits will be performed in a consistent manner. You don't have to worry about the approach to an audit changing because of different auditors.

Evidence - An internal audit checklist provides clear evidence that the audit was performed. It will also provide objective evidence for the successful performance of your quality management system. All of this can be used in the review process.

Benefits of Using An Internal Audit Checklist Template

An internal audit checklist template is a good tool to consider when everything is being done in-house and without the help of a professional consultant. Using a template presents some attractive benefits to anyone who has a lot on their plate already.

They Are Cost-Effective

Getting all of the documentation ready for a quality management system can take a lot of time. Even something like a checklist can take a good chunk of your time and energy. You have to research all of the requirements your company has to meet in order to form a complete checklist. A template already has all of those requirements included, saving you time and money.

Get a Head Start

When you have a template ready to go, you will have a jump on the entire process of an internal audit. You won't have to wonder how to get started because it will be started for you. All you have to do is customize it to suit your needs.

Address Every Requirement

When you are creating a checklist, you want to make sure that everything you need to look into is included. A well-made template will already have all of the requirements written into it, taking the guesswork out of whether or not you missed anything.

Ease of Use

Quality Management Systems can be intimidating to implement and keep up with, especially when it comes to documentation. When it comes to having a checklist for your internal audits, templates will ensure that the audit system from start to finish is incredibly user-friendly. Anyone that may need access to such a checklist will have everything they need at hand.

Instructions Included

Any well-made template will have clear and easy to follow guidance on how to use the template to collect data included with it. These instructions will make sure that your internal audits run smoothly and that anyone trained to perform an internal audit will be able to use the checklist without issue.

It's the Best Approach

Chances are the template you end up using is made with care and has evolved from previous incarnations. Mistakes that were made in the past help template creators to make their template even better and more valuable to you as a business.

Make Improvements

If you already have an internal audit checklist that you aren't entirely happy with, using a template is a good way to restructure it. Even just using the template to compare to your own checklist may help you pick out needed changes to make your checklist even better.

Foreman checklist document

What to Look for in a Template

Given the overwhelming amount of templates available, it might be difficult for you to choose which template you should choose for your internal audit checklist.

We obviously recommend our own Internal Audit Checklist Template, however, checking that the template meets a few simple requirements can aid in narrowing down your search so that you can find the perfect template for your needs.

Clear Instructions for Making Changes

Customizing a template to suit your business may take some time, but the right template will make the task that much easier. Whichever template you choose should include instructions on how to customize it and where exactly to make those changes.

Easy to Implement

Any quality template will be designed with the user in mind. The customization process to fit the template to your business should be made simple. It should be a huge difference to simply looking at checklist samples.

Good for Business

The template you choose should be designed to be extremely business-friendly. There should be no extra fluff involved. A good template will make the process of internal auditing efficient for anyone using it.

Customer Support

Whenever you pick a template you should check to make sure there is some way to contact the creator or someone involved in the creation. That way if you get hung up with customizing it you can get advice that is exactly what you need to get going again.

internal audit blackboard planning

Other Aspects of an Internal Audit

Outside of your checklist, there are some other things you should be mindful of while performing an internal audit to get the most out of it.

Never Stop Planning - You should use the results of previous audits to improve upon your checklist as well as decide how things need to be reworked. Changes in your quality management system may bring about new risks you need to check for. Reviews and planning keep you on top of everything that should go into your internal audits.

Communicate Expectations - It's important that everyone involved in an internal audit knows what to expect before doing into it. Let your team in on what will happen and why you are doing what you are doing. This will help align everyone's expectations.

Ensure Mutual Understanding - While performing an internal audit an auditor should make sure that their understanding of their data input matches that of whoever is being audited in real time. This kind of transparency prevents gaps in communication and misunderstandings.

To view our Audit Checklists, please see below.

Internal Auditing & Gap Analysis

Updated: 23rd March 2023
Author: Richard Keen

Richard Keen

Richard Keen

Richard is our Compliance Director, responsible for content & product development.
But most importantly he is ISO's biggest fanboy and a true evangelist of the standards.
Learn more about Richard

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Instead of trying to create everything you need to follow this process from scratch, use ours. We have procedures, templates, checklists, process maps, forms and gap analysis tools to help you control your documented information without missing a single input or output.

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QMS Internal Audit Checklist v2 - view sample

Use this audit checklist to determine the extent to which your quality management system conforms to ISO 9001 requirements by determining whether those requirements have been effectively implemented and maintained. This template will help you to assess the state of your existing management system and identify process weakness to allow a targeted approach to prioritizing corrective action.

Master Internal Audit Checklist - view sample

This audit checklist comprises tables of the certifiable (‘shall’) requirements, from Section 4.0 to Section 10.0 of ISO 9001:2015, each required is phrased as a question.

  • 305 Audit Questions
  • MS Excel
  • Context of the Organization
  • Leadership
  • Planning
  • Support
  • Operation
  • Performance Evaluation
  • Improvement

The answers will automatically populate and update the Audit Results Summary and charts.

Audit Results Summary

  • Automated Charts - view sample
  • Compliance Summary
  • Top 10 Root-causes
  • Nonconformity Breakdown by Clause
  • Recommendations
  • OFIs by Section

Process Audit Template

Requires the auditor review the inputs, risks, controls, activities, equipment, materials, personnel, and methods of measurement for each process.

Question Guidance

Detailed guidance for each audit question.

ISO 9001:2015

$79 USD add to cart

EMS Internal Audit Checklist - view sample

Use this audit checklist to determine the extent to which your quality management system conforms to ISO 14001 requirements by determining whether those requirements have been effectively implemented and maintained. This template will help you to assess the state of your existing management system and identify process weakness to allow a targeted approach to prioritizing corrective action.

Master Internal Audit Checklist - view sample

This audit checklist comprises tables of the certifiable (‘shall’) requirements, from Section 4.0 to Section 10.0 of ISO 14001:2015, each required is phrased as a question.

  • 186 Audit Questions
  • MS Excel
  • Context of the Organization
  • Leadership
  • Planning
  • Support
  • Operation
  • Performance Evaluation
  • Improvement

The answers will automatically populate and update the Audit Results Summary and charts.

Audit Results Summary

  • Automated Charts - view sample
  • Compliance Summary
  • Top 10 Root-causes
  • Nonconformity Breakdown by Clause
  • Recommendations
  • OFIs by Section

Process Audit Template

Requires the auditor review the inputs, risks, controls, activities, equipment, materials, personnel, and methods of measurement for each process.

ISO 14001:2015

$79 USD add to cart

OH&S Internal Audit Checklist - view sample

Use this audit checklist to determine the extent to which your quality management system conforms to ISO 45001 requirements by determining whether those requirements have been effectively implemented and maintained. This template will help you to assess the state of your existing management system and identify process weakness to allow a targeted approach to prioritizing corrective action.

Master Internal Audit Checklist - view sample

This audit checklist comprises tables of the certifiable (‘shall’) requirements, from Section 4.0 to Section 10.0 of ISO 45001:2018, each required is phrased as a question.

  • 264 Audit Questions
  • MS Excel
  • Context of the Organization
  • Leadership
  • Planning
  • Support
  • Operation
  • Performance Evaluation
  • Improvement

The answers will automatically populate and update the Audit Results Summary and charts.

Audit Results Summary

  • Automated Charts - view sample
  • Compliance Summary
  • Top 10 Root-causes
  • Nonconformity Breakdown by Clause
  • Recommendations
  • OFIs by Section

Process Audit Template

Requires the auditor review the inputs, risks, controls, activities, equipment, materials, personnel, and methods of measurement for each process.

ISO 45001:2018 $79 USD add to cart
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