Pre-Planning
Pre-planning provides a preliminary understanding of the risks, responsibilities and key processes of the operation being audited. Pre-planning is generally completed during the annual audit plan development process or prior to "Audit Kick-off".

Planning
Planning involves developing a detailed understanding of the operation's processes. Planning generally involves face-to-face interviews, sample data extraction and development of a testing plan for fieldwork.

Fieldwork
During fieldwork, transactional or analytical analyses will be performed to determine the adequacy of controls - are things working the way they are intended?

Reporting
Documentation of any identified findings will be summarized in a report to management. The report will identify those issues requiring resolution.

Follow-Up
A monitoring process has been established to ensure that identified issues are resolved in a timely manner.