Who is this article for?

Audit managers and senior users responsible for planning audit cycles.

Permissions to create and manage planning periods.

Planning periods enable you to conduct periodic audit planning with comprehensive risk assessment and scheduling features, including maintainable planning risk libraries, flexible assessment models, and candidate audit management.

Understanding planning risks

Planning risks are maintained separately per client in multi-client mode and offer flexible configuration options.

Key features include:

• Separate maintenance per client in multi-client mode
• Optional weightings for different planning risks
• Optional restrictions based on entity type and process type criteria

Working with planning periods

Planning periods allow you to conduct audit planning for specific timeframes, such as 2014 or Q4 2014. Each entity-process within the active audit universe must be assessed against each relevant planning risk.

Planning periods support:

• Variable period lengths
• Universe snapshots taken when the planning period is initialised
• Working across multiple planning periods simultaneously
• Completion and approval sign-offs for each planning cycle

A planning period has the following attributes:

• Name – The planning period name
• Order – Display order on the data grid
• Start Date – Beginning of the planning period
• End Date – End of the planning period
• Description – Planning period description
• Active State – Either draft (default), live, or closed

Understanding active states

A planning period can be in one of three active states.

Draft

• Default state when first created
• Planning period attributes can be modified
• Cannot be launched and contains no data

Live

• Set by a senior user when assessments should begin
• Populated with required assessments
• Can be launched and items can be assessed
• Candidate audits can be created and converted into real audits

Closed

• Set by a senior user when assessments should stop
• Can still be launched but everything is read-only
• Candidate audits can no longer be created or converted into real audits

Moving from draft to live

When you set a planning period to live from draft, the system performs several automated steps.

To activate a planning period:

1. Change the status to Live.

The system then:

• Creates an entity period and process period for each active entity and process
• Creates an entity-process period for each active entity/process
• Creates a planning risk assessment for each planning risk in each entity/process

The system takes a snapshot of the audit universe at this point. If you modify the audit universe after this point, it will not affect the current planning period(s).

Note: You can have more than one planning period live at the same time.

Important: Moving a planning period from live back to draft deletes all data stored within the planning period. This data cannot be recovered.

Assessing planning risks

The system provides flexible options for assessing planning risks.

Assessment features include:

• Simple out-of-the-box assessment model with automatic roll-ups across the universe
• Customer-specific assessment models available as a customisation service
• Optional restrictions for parts of the universe or risks by individual owners
• Optional copying of assessments from a previous planning period
• Multi-select and bulk assessment for faster data input
• Navigators and quick filters to interrogate assessments

Note: Each entity could have a different matrix configuration. A warning displays if the bulk operation is not valid.

Analysing planning risk exposure

The planning risk exposure screen provides graphical analysis of your risk assessments.

Analysis features include:

• Flexible, graphical display of scores and ratings by universe matrix
• Toggle between average and max rating modes
• Expand/collapse universe and drill into more detail
• Display and navigate into detailed work

Scheduling audits

The scheduling features provide flexible tools for planning your audit schedule.

Scheduling capabilities include:

• Flexible, graphical display by universe matrix
• Colours based on scheduling factors, planning risks, or specific risks
• Values based on count of candidates, coverage percentage, or none
• Auto-suggest the schedule based on any combination of scheduling factors

Scheduling factors include:

• Fixed frequencies
• Last audit rating
• Planning risk ratings
• Specific (entity) risk ratings

Managing candidate audits

Candidates are potential assignments that remain invisible to general users until confirmed.

Candidate audit features include:

• Individual or bulk creation based on scheduling factors
• Flexible entity/process scope, same as eventual audits
• Visual indicators of possible over and under planning across the universe
• Qualification and amendment before committing as real audits

Planning indicators:

• Over – Candidate exists where not needed according to scheduling factors
• Under – Needed per scheduling factors, but no candidate exists

Attributes of the candidate pass through into the audit properties when confirmed.

Completing and closing planning periods

A planning period cannot be closed until all entity-process periods within it have been approved. All data becomes read-only once the planning period is closed.

Planning period rules:

• Can be added at any time
• Can be opened at any time
• Cannot be un-opened once any entity-process periods have been completed
• Cannot be closed until all entity-process periods have been approved
• Can be un-closed at any time
• Cannot be deleted once any entity-process periods have been completed

Entity-process period rules:

• Cannot be completed until all planning risk assessments have a rating
• Cannot be un-completed once approved
• Cannot be approved until completed
• Cannot have execution edited once approved
• Cannot be un-approved once the parent planning period has been closed

Planning risk assessment rules:

• Cannot have execution edited once the parent entity/process has been approved

Launching a planning period

You can launch a live or closed planning period to access its detailed screens.

To launch a planning period:

1. Double-click the record within the data grid.

Alternatively, use the right-click menu or the Launch command from the ribbon.

A planning period has seven screens accessible through the spine:

• Planning Period Details – Planning period attributes
• Planning Risk Assessments – Entity-process planning risk assessments
• Planning Risk Exposure – Entity-process planning risk scores
• Audit Scheduling – Candidate audit creation
• Candidate Audits – List of potential audits
• Weightings – Details of planning risk weight
• Attachments