Internal Audit Reports Post Sarbanes-Oxley: A Guide to Process-Driven Reporting

SECTION THREE

REPORT WRITING 101, ER, MAKE THAT 404

Writing about business is not much different from covering a plane crash or a hockey game—you have to find out what happened, then explain it clearly.

The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual

In the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley, executives must formally attest to the accuracy and completeness of their financial reports. Therefore, they need to completely read those reports and quickly grasp the full import of the findings and recommendations. Therefore, it's time for a crash course in cranking up the readability of internal audit reports.

Even when automated reporting software, covered in Chapters 3 and 4, is available, an observant, nonautomated entity needs to “write” the information into a coherent, complete report. Computers are not always adept at noticing what was left out, and if the input data is garbage, then the output will be garbage, too.

Anyone with a keen eye for details and discrepancies—and that certainly includes internal auditors—can write. The classic volume On Writing Well (an especially useful book for nonnative English speakers) includes a chapter titled “Nonfiction as the New American Literature.” In it, author William Zinsser acknowledges the legitimacy of all the authors who routinely write about real-world subjects, including business. But putting report writing in the category of literature doesn't mean that internal auditors need to get drunk and come up with creative ways of stating conclusions. ...