Deep Dive: Findings

23rd November, 2026 | 13:30 - 17:00 CET
24th November, 2026 | 13:30 - 17:00 CET

Give your readers findings they never have to decode.

Stakeholders judge internal audit one finding at a time. A strong finding builds credibility and gets action – a weak one wastes the reader’s time, and audit pays for it in trust.

This workshop is squarely focused on writing audit findings: guidance, language, and exercises for each attribute in line with the IIA’s Global Internal Audit Standards – one red thread from the finding title to agreed actions that mitigate the identified risk and pave the way to achieving the organization’s objectives.

The bar is high and specific: findings the reader understands in one pass and answers with “got it – we’ll do it.” When findings hit that bar, the conversation with audit clients changes – less negotiating over words, more discussion of the risk and what it means to the business. And the benefit travels upward: the executive summary is distilled from the findings – stronger findings make a stronger summary.

This is a working workshop: concepts are explored through discussion and exercises, with writing practice and live critique from the group and the trainer in every round – ensuring participants leave writing stronger findings, starting with the very next finding they draft.

What changes:

–     Findings are complete and coherent – nothing missing, nothing padded, every element pulling in the same direction.

–     Risks resonate – readers feel them and see what they mean for the business.

–     Readers finish each finding knowing exactly what happens next – and why it’s worth doing.

–     Writing gets faster – writers know what goes where and why, so the circling stops.

–     Review rounds decrease – findings arrive closer to final, and the wording holds when audit clients push back.

Working material: The strongest results come from working on your own writing – participants are encouraged to bring anonymized findings from their own audits, and realistic practice material is provided as an alternative. For in-house deliveries, the team works on its own findings in its own confidential environment.

Trainer:
Tracie Marquardt is a 2024 and 2025 Beacon Award recipient and sought-after Audit Results Strategist. She helps Chief Audit Executives and their teams transform audit results through communication, leadership, and productivity.

As an audit reporting expert, Tracie addresses audit's core challenge: deriving and communicating results that add value to stakeholders. She guides teams in redesigning outdated audit report templates and builds their capability to deliver exceptional reporting at the intersection of human judgment and AI-driven communication.

Tracie has trained 13,000+ international internal auditors across industries. She is a keynote speaker at audit conferences worldwide.

She launched Inspiring Women in Audit in 2024, the industry podcast amplifying women's voices in internal audit around the globe. The podcast has a supporting LinkedIn community of over 600 internal audit professionals.