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Choosing what appears in the published report

The five toggles that control the report's contents, and the confirmation before publishing.

Written by Caim Hermoso

Who this is for: The assigned auditor.

On the Review & Publish step, Report Inclusions controls what the published report carries.

Toggle

When on

Include Root Cause Analysis

The root cause appears against each finding, in a purple ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS block

Include Corrective Actions

Corrective action detail appears against each finding, in a grey-blue CORRECTIVE ACTION card

Include COI Declaration

Each auditor’s conflict of interest answer, and any conflict they declared

Include Issues

Issues raised during the audit, with who resolved them and how

Include Auditor Competency

The standard and certificate each auditor was verified competent for when the audit started

Include Previous Findings Review

A section listing each previous finding you reviewed, its outcome, whether it was carried into scope, and your note. On by default when previous findings were loaded — see Previous findings in the published report [LINK]

Root cause and corrective actions default to whatever the template set in ⑦ Review & Publish Options, and you can change either before publishing.

Sign-off sheet: when the audit has a sign-off list, the report always includes a sign-off sheet with each person's name, role, signature and date signed — see Chasing, cancelling and tracking sign-offs [LINK].

Always included when recorded: the Auditees are listed under Audit Details, and if an opening meeting was recorded on the Audit Details step the report has an Opening Meeting section with the date held, attendees and notes. If no meeting was recorded, the section is left out.

Set by the template, not here: when the template includes them and they have been filled in, the report also carries Objectives, Boundaries and Exclusions in Audit Details, an Audit Plan card with the sampling, logistics and expected-outputs notes and the link to your plan, and Limitations and Auditee Response after the audit summary. There are no Report Inclusions toggles for these — see Recording objectives, boundaries and exclusions for an audit, Adding an audit plan and sampling approach to an audit and Recording limitations and the auditee's response.

One thing to expect in the report. The CORRECTIVE ACTION card is not always on the same page as the finding it belongs to — on a long report it can fall onto the next page. That is a layout effect, not a missing link; the card still names its finding.

Publishing asks you to confirm. When you publish, a prompt states what it means: "Publish this audit? Publishing completes the audit and locks it — findings and responses can no longer be edited." That is your last chance to go back.

How to decide what to include. For an internal report, or one going to a certification body, include root cause and corrective actions — the analysis is the evidence that you take findings seriously. For a report going to a customer or a supplier you audited, consider leaving root cause off; it can contain internal detail that is not theirs to see.

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