Anatomy of the Action Update

One of the most talked about subjects between our Support team and customers is the Action Update. Do you use the Action Update functionality? Do you know what an Action Update is in Pentana Audit?

What is an Action Update?

Throughout Audit Fieldwork, an auditor will generally find something awry.  By default, we call this a “Finding.”  In order to “fix” the Finding, Internal Audit will either decide themselves or work with business management to determine an appropriate “Action” to be taken.  The Action includes a Description of what needs to happen, as well as a Current Due Date, a Business Owner, and whether the Action is “Tracked.”  The Current Due Date may be before or after the Audit work is completed.  It can be difficult to manage the Current Due Dates for multiple Actions in multiple Audits and know what is upcoming, currently due, or overdue without some level of automation and help from our software.

Therefore, we have created an automated process to help you.  There are four automated background “robot” jobs that can be activated for your Pentana Audit database.  The first robot job runs on the first day of every month, a few minutes past midnight, and creates an Action Update for Actions that meet certain criteria.  These criteria are:

• Action is due within 45 days, and
• Action has a Business Owner, and
• Action is Tracked, and
• Action does not already have an Action Update that is pending

The second job runs a few minutes later, and sends an email to the Business Owner as a notification that an Action Update has been created for an Action, and that a response is needed for that Action Update.  Only one email is sent to the Business Owner, even if more than one Action Update needs to be provided at any given time.

Interaction with the Web Module

The email sent to the Business Owner contains a link to the Pentana Audit Web Module, where the Business Owner will see a list of all the Action Updates they need to respond to.  The Business Owner’s response may be a revised Due Date if more time is needed, it may be an indication that the Action has been completed (including attachments if necessary), or it may be a reassignment to someone else.

Once the relevant information is provided in the Web Module, the Business Owner hits Submit and the Action Update information is sent to Pentana Audit, where the auditor can either “Accept” or “Reject” the Action Update provided.

If Accepted, the details of the Action Update will be updated to the Action itself.  If Rejected, then a third job will occur, which sends an email to the Business Owner informing them that their Action Update was Rejected.

What about the 4^th job?

When the Action Update is created in the first robot job and emailed to the Business Owner in the second robot job, the Business Owner has 10 days to respond via the Web Module.  After 10 days, then the fourth and final robot job sends an email to the Business Owner as a reminder, and the Business Owner has 5 days to respond to the reminder.  If still no response after 5 days, then another reminder email is sent and another 5 days, and so on.

Other things to consider…

A few things to keep in mind if you would like to take advantage of this functionality… first, the Web Module needs to be installed and the background robot jobs need to be activated.  Your Account Manager can help you organize this.  Second, some of the criteria can be modified to meet your needs, such as the wording of the emails, the timing, the frequency of reminders, etc.

And lastly, consider letting Pentana Audit do the work for you!  This functionality is tried and true, and many of our customers successfully have this in play to save them time, resources, and energy!