Actualité

11 September 2024

The 6 benefits of digitalizing audit management

In an environment where regulatory compliance is essential, digitalization improves the efficiency and security of audits and enhances transparency and data traceability.

audit management, compliance, compliance software, digitization, traceability

One of today’s major challenges is the digital transformation of organizations, which involves connecting data, interfaces, people, and experiences. Investing in new technologies to simplify data collection, exploitation, and analysis can radically transform traditional models. This evolution helps companies better understand their activities, processes, and needs.

Using software to manage audits offers numerous advantages compared to traditional methods based on Excel® and paper documents. Let’s discover the six main benefits of digitalized audit management.

What is audit management?

An audit is a systematic and structured process designed to assess the compliance, efficiency, and performance of operations, processes, or systems within an organization, a client, or a supplier. Audit management involves planning, conducting, tracking, and documenting audits, which can be internal (conducted by the organization’s employees) or external (conducted by independent auditors).

The main goal of audit management is to identify deviations from established standards, ensure compliance with regulations and internal policies, and continuously improve organizational performance.

Audit Management via Excel® Files and Paper Document

Many organizations use Excel® files to manage audits and document and track audit results. Excel® allows structured spreadsheets where data can be entered, organized, and analyzed. Auditors can use formulas and functions to calculate results, generate graphs, and create summary tables, facilitating the presentation of audit findings.

Some companies still use paper documents, which often prove inefficient and impractical. Paper is prone to being lost, damaged, or misfiled, complicating audit management and traceability. While Excel® is effective for data analysis, it’s not suitable for managing complex and collaborative audit processes, nor does it ensure data integrity and traceability. The risks associated with using Excel® files include data entry errors, loss, and difficulties tracking changes to audit documents.

The Benefits of Digitalizing Audit Management

The transition to digitalized audit management marks a crucial step in the evolution of audit processes. This approach enhances audit efficiency and security and improves data transparency and traceability.

In a critical regulatory compliance environment, digitalization offers solutions tailored to current needs, facilitating proactive and efficient audit process management.

1. Improved efficiency

Time Saving

Digitalizing audits significantly reduces the time needed for preparation, execution, and follow-up. Automated processes and predefined workflows speed up each audit step, freeing up time for teams to focus on higher-value tasks.

Fewer human errors

Digitalization minimizes the human errors often seen in manual processes. Automated controls and real-time data validation ensure information integrity. Auditors can easily access the necessary data, instantly update information, and generate detailed audit reports with just a few clicks. This automation not only reduces administrative workload but also improves the accuracy and reliability of audits.

2. Compliance and traceability

Digitalizing audits ensures complete and accurate traceability of audit-related data, unlike traditional methods where traceability may be lacking.

Choosing the right application – such as GxpAudits – is crucial for ensuring compliance with current regulations in audit processes by integrating audit frameworks and advanced features that ensure data integrity. The correct choice guarantees that all audit process steps comply with established standards, enhancing the transparency and reliability of audit processes, which are vital for compliance audits and certifications.

3. Advanced analytics and reporting

Digital tools allow users to create detailed audit reports and graphs to visualize trends, recurrences, and risks. These features simplify data analysis, enabling companies to make informed decisions based on precise and complete information. Moreover, with an application like GxpAudits, data can be exported to Excel® for further analysis.

This ability to extract and analyze data in detail strengthens companies’ capacity to optimize their audit processes, helping auditors to be proactive and effectively respond to operational and regulatory challenges.

4. Customization and flexibility

With a digital solution like GxpAudits, it is possible to easily create and customize questionnaires to structure audits and analyze results. Questionnaires can be adapted to specific frameworks such as ISO, GMP, etc., and customized audit templates can be quickly designed to meet the particular needs of each company or sector.

This flexibility allows audits to be precisely tailored to specific requirements, enabling auditors to perform an in-depth and context-appropriate assessment.

5. Enhanced collaboration: real-time data and consolidation

A unified platform, such as GxpManager, simplifies collaboration between internal and external teams.

By managing access precisely, permissions can be defined for each participant in the audit process.
Workflows can be configured with multiple steps, including optional electronic signatures to certify step validation.
Through data consolidation and real-time access to information, all stakeholders have the most up-to-date and relevant data. This approach strengthens communication and coordination between all parties, facilitating smooth and efficient audit management.
Real-time data availability allows quicker decision-making and immediate response to non-compliance or identified issues.

6. CAPA tracking and management

Corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) can be tracked more effectively. CAPA management is integrated into the audit process, making monitoring non-compliance and corrective actions easy. Automated workflows ensure that all steps are followed, and deadlines are met.

Integrating audit management into a Quality Management System (QMS) allows for optimized non-compliance management with the implementation of action plans. This integration consolidates all relevant data and tracks information in real-time, ensuring complete traceability and effective compliance.

Conclusion

Digitalizing audit management simplifies data handling for auditors and organizations, ensuring compliance and data integrity. For companies, this digitalization offers numerous advantages through centralized data on a single platform, improving efficiency, compliance, analysis, and collaboration. Transitioning from manual processes saves time and improves audit quality while remaining competitive.

GxpManager addresses the challenges of audit tracking and auditor support, enabling monitoring of annual audits, workload, training, and auditor onboarding processes. By consolidating all these aspects, GxpManager’s Audit Management (GxpAudits) provides a comprehensive solution to optimize regulatory compliance, whether internally, at client sites, or suppliers.

For more information or to request a personalized demonstration, feel free to contact us.

GxpManager Audit Management - GxpAudits

The GxpManager Audit Management application offers a comprehensive and innovative solution to digitalize internal, client, and supplier audit processes.

It centralizes the list of all audits, tracks and analyzes questionnaires, and generates key performance indicators (KPIs) for in-depth analysis.
By integrating corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) directly into the audit process, GxpManager streamlines the tracking of non-conformities and corrective measures.
With automated workflows and precise access management, the application enhances collaboration between internal and external teams, ensures complete real-time data traceability, and guarantees compliance with current regulations.
It optimizes auditors’ workloads, training, and onboarding while improving the quality of interactions with suppliers.

GxpManager Audit Management provides a comprehensive solution to optimize audit processes, improve compliance, and strengthen the quality of supplier relationships.