Audit trails help us to analyze events and situations as well as methods and procedures. However, in terms of field reporting, it is not uncommon to face a variety of challenges when managing mobile team audit processes. Data loss, inaccuracies, and a lack of real-time insights all contribute to ineffective audit trails, leading to working without appropriate necessary information.

Field reporting using solutions like the 1st Reporting app changes the game of audit trail analysis and documentation, easily overcoming many of the challenges traditional audit trail documentation presents.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the basics and drop some sweet tips along the way to help you ensure your teams operate in full transparency, documenting and creating their audit trails as they go. But before we dive into all the juicy tips, strategies, and solutions, we’d better lay down the framework by defining a few key variables first. Let’s dive in.

What is an Audit Trail?

Audit Trail Core Concept: A systematic record of all activities, changes, and events relevant to a specific process, system, or piece of data. It creates a clear, step-by-step history that you can trace back.

Purpose:

• Compliance: Demonstrate adherence to industry regulations, legal standards, and internal policies.
• Troubleshooting: Identify root causes of errors, anomalies, or breaches.
• Security: Detect unauthorized access or suspicious activity.
• Reconstruction: Recreate the chronology of events in case of disputes, investigations, or disaster recovery.
• Performance Analysis: Understand patterns, identify inefficiencies, and optimize processes.

Audit Trail Types

There are four primary types of audit trails:

1. Financial
2. System/IT
3. Application
4. Operational

For this article, we will primarily focus on the fourth audit trail type: operational.

Audit Trail Key Components

Most audit trails are customized for their particular purpose. However, Operational audit trails usually include the following points of interest:

• Identifiers and stakeholder names
• Timestamps noting individual stages
• Location of audit trail stage
• Nature of changes, events, observations, or other critical stages completed
• Original and modified values

I like to use the acronym ITLNO, or ‘It’ll Know.’ to remember what fundamental components are required. However, these are just general components, and each situation and industry will have particular inclusions for particular operational audit flow. For example, let’s look at inclusions in a typical construction safety audit trail:

1. Hazard Identification
2. Control Measures Assessment
3. Risk Level Calculation
4. Corrective Action Recommendation
5. Supervisor Sign-Off

As you can see, we have a number of custom items that are not unlike other industries, but customizing audit trail reports is obviously a necessity. Let’s look at how the right mobile solution can help you, no matter the industry or event that requires audit trail documentation.

The Inherent Benefits of Mobile Field Reporting for Audits

Aside from the apparent benefits of instant report and form access in the field found in comprehensive mobile reporting solutions like 1st Reporting, there are also a number of other benefits to using a mobile solution for your mobile field crew documentation needs:

• Streamlined Data Collection: Consistent forms, automatic timestamps, and GPS locations enhance data quality.
• Centralized and Secure Storage: Cloud-based access creates a single source of truth, reducing disputes and making historical retrieval easy.
• Audit Trail Integrity: Timestamps, user data, and version control improve accountability and build a strong foundation for your audit trail analysis.
• Time Savings and Operational Efficiency: Eliminate manual data entry, reduce communication delays, and disseminate custom or new forms instantly to your appointed team groups.

How Mobile Field Reporting Simplifies The Audit Process

• Preparation: You can create dynamic report templates that align with your audit criteria for seamless compliance. Arming your team with appropriate forms that include the fields you need completed is a decisive step to combating insufficiencies with data collection during the audit process.
• During The Audit: Mobile reports provide timely, verifiable evidence directly to auditors, potentially streamlining audit trail Q&A. Furthermore, with the custom-triggered automated notification system built into the 1st app, you can ensure that the suitable supervisor gets a notification in real-time for the right reason, such as if a particular field on an audit is edited or any number of other customizable triggers.
• Post-Audit Action: With collaborative solutions like the 1st Reporting app, you can review findings easily and use collected data to adjust reporting or processes for continuous improvement. Moreover, you can also generate powerful KPI reports to reveal trends in your audits and other operational documentation like inspection reports, incident reports, or other reports and documents your team completes in the field.

User Studies Offer Key Insights for Simplifying Audits

A study offers valuable insights into how practical mobile field reporting applications can address common audit challenges. Participants used smart devices and were provided with a mobile reporting app and surveyed about using it. Participants noted:

• Ease of use directly relates to timely, accurate field documentation, a prime component in smooth audit proceedings.
• Incident relevance indicates suitability for recording situations with implications for compliance audits (for example, safety or workplace standards).
• Enhanced communication between field teams and managers/auditors, facilitated by notification features, keeps those preparing for audits up-to-date. ⁽¹⁾

Digital Tools in Mobile Reporting that Strengthen Your Audit Position

There’s no doubt about how mobile reporting tools can simplify and streamline the audit process, from inspection to data analysis. However, to get the big picture, you need to understand the other ways that a robust field audit reporting application like 1st Reporting can accelerate your team and strengthen your audit processes.

Digital Signatures

Digital signatures ensure document validity and traceability with tools like 1st Reporting that log the user’s ID when they create or complete a form in the field. This accountability strengthens the likelihood that your team members will complete reports comprehensively, therefore providing you with factual necessary information.

Photo and Video Evidence

Capture of audio and video provides indisputable documentation of conditions or actions taken through a mobile device’s built-in photo, video, and audio recording capabilities.

GPS Mapping and Time Tracking

Visual verification of work performed at correct locations, supporting work logs, and report authorship accountability.

Custom Notifications

Track completion milestones and ensure corrective actions are taken promptly, demonstrating due diligence. Furthermore, the customizable notification system built into the 1st Reporting app provides you with the means to automate specific communication functions, allowing for much-improved response times.

Custom Workflows

Using custom workflows, you can automate the entire audit trail process by attaching reports, generating reports at specified stages of the audit trail, and even automating notifying key stakeholders at defined stages.

Additional Benefits Beyond Simplifying Audits

According to a thesis study on usability-based data reporting with smartphones for efficient and sustainable resource planning, one of the major conclusions was that the use of smartphone-based apps can significantly increase field personnel’s ability to recall stages of an audit trail. The reason for this is that, as the study pointed out, a significant challenge with audit trail analysis is a lack of documentation of the stages of the audit. In essence, the study pointed out that documentation practices that relied on memory would suffer in terms of data precision and completeness. Opposingly, when a mobile device with appropriate software is put to use, users find it more efficient and less stressful. ⁽²⁾ 

• Enhanced Decision Making: Real-time field data helps managers like you to proactively address potential risks before they impact audits or other operations.
• Improved Customer Service: Timely incident response and faster service documentation translate to improved customer service.
• Team member Empowerment: Frontline workers’ involvement in quality reporting builds greater engagement and responsibility. Furthermore, by including accountability via steps like signing off on a report’s validity, you also encourage better and more comprehensive data capture in the field.

The Bottom Line

Mobile reporting software reduces audit anxiety through greater transparency and verifiable accountability. Mobile reporting software like the 1st Reporting app enables organizations to digitally document every stage of an audit lifecycle, making it a reliable tool for audit trail documentation. However, a dedicated digital trail isn’t just for audits but drives overall operational excellence.

The final point is that in order to excel and gain all of the benefits associated with robust audit trail reporting, all you need to do is try 1st Reporting and automate and simplify your auditing processes.

Article Sources

1. Cédric Bach, Regina Bernhaupt, Caio Stein d’Agostini, Marco Winckler. “Mobile Applications for Incident Reporting Systems in Urban Contexts: lessons learned from an empirical study.” 31st European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE2013), ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human  Interaction, Aug 2013, Toulouse, France. Pp.29-38, 10.1145/2501907.2501960. Hal-04083414. https://hal.science/hal-04083414v1/file/bach_12631.pdf.
2. Kristoffersson, Johan. 2023. “Usability-Based Data Reporting with Smartphones for Efficient and Sustainable Resource Planning.” https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1768143/FULLTEXT01.pdf.