Internal Auditing - ISO9001

Hi!

Reaching out to fellow Quality Assurance representatives / managers using smartsheet. I've been building a system to do drawing registers, NCRS, ECRS, complaints etc which is working well!

Next on the build plan is to come up with an internal audit system that works for smartsheet. The system I inherited is MS word checklists and MS word reports etc.

Probably containing the below ...

Annual Schedule with reminders. Showing whats to do, who is doing it and when its complete. Maybe a reset upon the year end.
Checklists, around 12 for different areas. Some are five questions, others are 15 questions so it gets a little clumsy. Probably a sheet for each area with forms. A check box to accept or not accept the check point with a comments field next to each check box, then use document creator to out put the report.
Live Results dashboard / list suggested improvements.

A slim chance to reach out but you never know, who is using smartsheet to internally audit different areas of the business? Be great to hear how you have set it up before I put the build time in.

PS - I have a couple of consultants in mind who I may sub some or all of this out to, the purpose of this question was to hopefully see some examples / ideas ...

Michael

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RebSchr

Hi there! I use Smartsheet for our ISO 13485 certification (Medical Devices). My entire QMS is built out in Smartsheet and utilizes reminders, generates documents, and provides document control. I even track my audits and CAPA's in Smartsheet. Always glad to help or provide some suggestions on building your system out!

Michael Batt

Hi, Thank you for getting back to me.

Have you utilized smartsheet in for internal auditing? As far as using a form to audit the area / department and then using the data / metrics to then report on a dashboard?

Its either I try and go that far with automation or just use smartsheet to plan and record the audit. Such as scan a paper checklist form following an audit and mark it as complete.

Love using smartsheet for the drawings request to a register and ECR using the approval functions, reminders working great for calibration activities etc.

jan aelbrecht

Hi,

Did you start from a template or build it from scratch ?

regards

Jan

Michael Batt

Hi Jan,

The system is from scratch at present, good use of forms to make entries in drawing registers, reminders for things like qualifications and gauges. Reports auto sent with the gauges needing to be calibrated.

ECR form begins an approval process within the work flow before alerting the engineering department to do the change.

Biggest impact has been reporting customer returned products with its live capability showing where issues are on a dashboard, such as made incorrectly or courier damage.

Internal auditing is next which is unlike the rest of the system, it needs a bit of flexibility.

Regards Mike

Tran

Hi Michael and RebSchr!

New to Smartsheet. I'm trying to build the exact same system as Michael. Since it's been a few months since this thread was opened, how is your system(s) working out? If you have any tips or suggestions, it would be mighty appreciated.

We've been doing audit on MS word Audit Reports (including Checklist, Observations, Recommendations), assigning # and tracking scheduled audits via MS Excel, then tracking observations via Smartsheet (Parent Audit No., children all the observations), route Audit Report via AdobeSign, and attach signed report onto Smartsheet. I'm working on building it all in Smartsheet instead, I have so far:

one sheet with multiple Audit Checklists Forms. I liked the auto-numbering but re-considering since there's so many columns for all the checklists (dropdown Acceptable, Not Acceptable, N/A). Automation Generate Document intended to be routed managers (considering the check and comments instead though)
one sheet with Observations+Recommendations Form - each to be routed, tracked and followed up on.
one report that groups Audit Areas, lists the Audit Checklists and associated Observations and Recommendations.

Things I'm trying to figure out:

I don't love separating Audit Checklists and Observations+Recommendations onto different Forms (and different Sheets, and different Generate Doc). Sometimes one checklist item has multiple observations, sometime one observation relate to multiple checklist items.
it's a lot of columns, but wondering if assigning numbers separately or pre-assigning in in the audit schedule different sheet may be better
Having trouble with the Annual Schedule and Dashboard.... for you, do auditors just manually check if its completed? or are you having a formula that automatically updates to complete based on your Checklists being complete?

Any help would be mighty appreciated,

Tran

Michael Batt

Hi Tran,

I haven't got that far to be honest. As I am modernizing a ring binder system my time has gone into building the rest of the registers and work flow for NCRS / ECRS etc and document control registers. Internal auditing 'new' system was always going to be developed last because of the need to audit the new quality systems, new manuals that I am creating.

You mention quite a few of the troubles I had been considering. Its not as simple as I thought compared to the rest of the system. For now a temporary measure, I have one schedule sheet used in gant view, structured as per ISO9001 clauses. The intention being an audit for each clause. The schedule is for the year, and it lets me put in the planned dates for the audit. When the audit checklist is completed I put the documents in that row for records. New schedule for each year containing the audit documents.

To automate it at some point with forms, reporting to dashboards etc I had planned / thought it be a sheet for each audit area, it reduces the columns and makes it more specific. The auto numbering would be specific for the audit area. OPP001, 0PP002 and SUP001, SUP002. Being Operation and Support. When an audit is done, ticking a box of completion would use document generator to make the report. Available for External auditors to review if needed.

Regards Michael

sharon fitzpatrick

Hello all,

I have been using smartsheet for several years to modernise internal audit management and processes in international NGO`s. It has been a fragmented process so far, moving key process such as audit recommendations from Word to smartsheet. Thus your discussion is of great interest.

In the last few months I have put more time into building a complete system, on both the internal audit management side, as well as performing the engagement. And I must say it is developing well and I appreciate the agility of the smartsheet tool.

Much more work to do however, and would welcome sharing of good practices.

Regards, Sharon

Michael Batt

Hi Sharon,

I'm with you in that it has been a fragmented process for myself moving a 20+ year old system into smartsheet. At the moment for internal audits I'm settling on using it just for the annual audit plan (Gantt View) and 'reminders'.

The audit is done via a google doc and then uploaded as an attachment into the audit plan row when complete.

I've pondered using forms, scoring, reporting to dashboard etc but had to park it as the company is only 22 persons so to invest that time into a system build is not appropriate.

Meanwhile smartsheet is performing well for the change request process, calibration management, issue reporting etc.

Regards Michael

Sharon.Fitzpatrick

Thanks Michael,

I am just starting to put internal audit working papers on smartsheet.

Here is a rough example:

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=4aae675bf8aa46cc9a4884c3e47c6322

Regards,

Sharon

Michael Batt

Thank you for this Sharon, it has opened my mind to another way of formatting our audits!

Its great to see other examples

Thanks again!

Michael

Angeliki Angeli

Hello,

I would like to ask if it's possible to use Smartsheet as an audit hotline. Would be possible to receive anonymously messages and interact with the user and for the user to remain anonymous?

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