At the conclusion of an audit, findings and proposed recommendations are discussed with management and subsequently management action plans are developed to explain how the agreed recommendations will be implemented.
Competing priorities, budget limitations and other factors may prevent managers from implementing agreed actions in the agreed timeline or as previously designed to mitigate the risk. The purpose of follow up is to ensure that management has implemented the action, and that it has addressed the issue. In practice, this is often easier said than done!
Download this template for tracking audit findings.