Audits can be helpful
Audits can be helpful and rewarding to a degree. They signal weaknesses and strengths as well. As a whole, our organization welcomes audits, they help us evaluate what we are doing. We try to be as organized and prepared as well. We also implemented a checks and balance so there is a peer review.
Lauren, Audits can be helpful and rewarding. They give you an overall picture each year of how you manage your office, how much you stay on top of ever-changing regulations, and what improvements you can make to better serve your students. Good luck in your online education.
Regards,
David McGuffee
Audits can be helpful because it can give you an statemant of each year and evaluate how we managing the school, how much you stay on top of ever-changing regulations, and what improvements you can make to better serve your students.
Robertina,
I agree audits should be looked at your school's report card on the requirements under packaging, awarding, disbursing, and reporting of financial aid programs. Maintaining organized and complete files on your students are key to the overall performance during the audit. It is critical that all departments (academics, registrar, business office and financial aid) maintained organized files to insure a successful audit.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I agree that audits can be very helpful. Even though they can be stressful I personally like audits because I like the checks and balances.
Melissa,
Your way of looking at audits reflects a good attitude about the benefits to be received from an audit. Annual audits are a great way to see how you and your staff are doing at meeting the needs of your students. One should look for ways to learn from an audit and strengthen your internal procedures and policies. A great attitude makes the overall experience of the student better.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I agree an audit can let you know where you need to retrain your staff and give you an over all picture of where you are as an institution.
Marjie,
The usage of the audit results are key to being successful moving forward. If the audit determines deficiencies it is critical that these deficiencies are addressed in your corective action plan and addressed so these do not re-appear.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I agree, I have always looked at audits as a time for constructive review of processes that may need to be tweaked to stay on top of ever changing regulations and policies and to develop implementations to improve timely and accurate management of those changes.
JoAnne,
Great way to view the importance of an audit. We have discussed a lot about the importance of audits and using the results to improve any deficiencies; however, it is important to realize that auditors are not always correct and we need to be prepared to support our policies and procedures with the regulations and guidance from ED.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I experienced my first audit this past Spring and do realize the best outlook of an audit is to view it as a way to take a look at the overall procedures we have in place and possibly implement some new to make continual improvements on our practices.
Appreciate the comment that the auditors are not always correct.
Linda,
Great attitude. I hope your first audit was a pleasant experience and any issues were resolved by strengthening or developing standard operating procedures.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
We have an independent agency that conducts "unannounce audits" throughout the fiscal year. Middle management (Directorship level) takes audits very seriously. Our daily performance is evaluated at random, so besides the external audits we have internal audits. Sometimes the internal audits are evaluated more than the external ones. Our bi-annual evaluations are tied into our audits findings.
Gilda,
Based on your response it appears that your institution is working diligently to ensure accurate processing by internal reviews. It is always good to do internal reviews since once a year is not always sufficient to ensure compliance in all areas of financial aid. I always recommend additional steps to guarantee accurate processing of student financial aid.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
I think that audits can be helpful because most importantly we learn, how we can do better as Financial Aid officers.
Maria,
Great attitude. I completely agree that audits are a tool for improvements; however, auditors make mistakes so you should always question anything you do not agree with in a report. It is important to be in agreement with your corrective action plans to guarantee success moving forward.
Sincerely,
Chyrl Ayers
Audits are a very rewarding helps the office on what they need to focus on. Or also give us new ideas on how to view our check and balances.
Veronica, Audits can be a helpful tool in improving your financial aid office. They can be considered a "checklist" for how things should be done on a daily basis. As long as you stay on top of the rules and regulations governing Title IV Aid you should not have any problems passing the "test" of an audit.
Regards,
David McGuffee
I agree audits can be helpful. We are a little stressed when the auditors are coming but at the end of the day if the right people are in place and everyone is onboard about how important compliance is then there should be no major issues. We strive for continuous improvement-audits help achieve that goal.
