What does the scorecard measure?

What you can currently point to as evidence across seven stages, from Insight through to Outcome. Each stage has three practical statements. The result shows which stage is most likely limiting the impact of your assurance work, and which stage is currently strongest.

It is a self-reported diagnostic, not an audit opinion, an assurance certification or an IIA quality assessment. Scores reflect your own judgement on the day you complete it, so they are useful for prioritising a conversation or a first improvement, not for external reporting or benchmarking.

What if I am not sure about a statement?

Choose "Not sure". Those answers are excluded from the averages rather than scored as low, so an honest gap in evidence does not distort your result. Select it five or more times and the result flags limited evidence as a finding in its own right.

Can I use it for my team rather than my own work?

Yes. You choose at the start, and the statements and the suggested next steps follow that choice: individual practice tools for your own work, team support for a team assessment.

Nothing beyond your own knowledge of how the work runs. You do not upload reports, findings or any confidential information. Part-way through you are asked for a first name, work email and role so your result can be saved and emailed to you.

Take the free Scorecard

Free Assurance Impact Scorecard

Find where your assurance is losing impact.

A free self-assessment for internal audit, risk and controls professionals.

Assess 21 practical statements across the path from Insight to Outcome. In under seven minutes, you will see the stage most limiting impact and receive three actions to improve it.

21 practical statements
Under seven minutes
Immediate results
No reports or confidential information required

Get my Assurance Impact Score

FreeUnder seven minutesImmediate resultNo confidential documents required

Assess what happens in practice, not what is intended.

Assurance to Action

Assurance creates impact through seven stages

Insight → Message → Decision → Ownership → Action → Movement → Outcome. Your results show which stages are working well and where improvement is most needed.

Assurance impact: The real effect assurance work has: better decisions, clear ownership, action that happens and measurable improvement in risk or performance.
The assurance impact gap: The gap between good assurance work and the decisions, ownership, action and measurable improvement that should follow it.
Assurance to Action System™: The Beyond the Lines approach that follows assurance through seven stages, from Insight to Outcome, so impact can be traced and improved stage by stage.

Insight

Are we focusing assurance on the issues that matter and reaching the right conclusions?

Message

Are we communicating the issue clearly enough for the right people to understand why it matters?

Decision

Does our work lead to clear decisions, commitments or escalation?

Ownership

Is it clear who is accountable for achieving the required outcome?

Action

Do agreed actions address the real issue and have a realistic chance of working?

Movement

Do we check whether the underlying risk, control, behaviour or performance has actually changed?

Outcome

Can we demonstrate what changed because of the assurance work?

Method

How this self-assessment works

This is a self-reported diagnostic. It is not an audit opinion, an assurance certification or an IIA quality assessment, and it does not benchmark you against other organisations. It reflects your own judgement of what is evident in practice.

Step 01
Choose your perspective
You decide whether you are assessing your own work or your team. The statements are worded for the perspective you pick, so you score what you can actually see.
Step 02
Score 21 practical statements
Seven stages, three statements each, scored from rarely evident to consistently evident. "Not sure" is a valid answer and is excluded from the averages rather than scored as low.
Step 03
See your stage scores
Each stage is scored on the statements you answered, and the overall score is the average of the stages you scored. A stage you could not assess at all is left out rather than guessed.
Step 04
Take three next actions
The result names the stage most likely limiting impact, the stage that is currently strongest, and three actions you can apply to a live piece of work.

Who wrote it

The scorecard was written by Tim Buckley, Founder, Beyond the Lines. The seven stages come from the Assurance to Action System, the approach Beyond the Lines uses to trace assurance from Insight through to Outcome.

Illustrative example

What a result looks like

The following is an illustration written to show the shape of a result. It is not a real participant, a validated benchmark or a typical outcome.

In this illustration, Ownership is the stage most limiting impact: findings are accepted, but no single person is clearly accountable for the change. The three next actions offered would be:

Name a single accountable owner for each agreed action before the report is issued, rather than a function or a committee.
Record what the owner has committed to change, in their words, and the date they expect it to be visible.
Return to one closed action and check whether the underlying position actually improved, not just whether the action was marked complete.

Questions

Before you start

What does the scorecard measure?: What you can currently point to as evidence across seven stages, from Insight through to Outcome. Each stage has three practical statements. The result shows which stage is most likely limiting the impact of your assurance work, and which stage is currently strongest.
What are its limits?: It is a self-reported diagnostic, not an audit opinion, an assurance certification or an IIA quality assessment. Scores reflect your own judgement on the day you complete it, so they are useful for prioritising a conversation or a first improvement, not for external reporting or benchmarking.
What if I am not sure about a statement?: Choose "Not sure". Those answers are excluded from the averages rather than scored as low, so an honest gap in evidence does not distort your result. Select it five or more times and the result flags limited evidence as a finding in its own right.
Can I use it for my team rather than my own work?: Yes. You choose at the start, and the statements and the suggested next steps follow that choice: individual practice tools for your own work, team support for a team assessment.
What data do I need?: Nothing beyond your own knowledge of how the work runs. You do not upload reports, findings or any confidential information. Part-way through you are asked for a first name, work email and role so your result can be saved and emailed to you.

Your result

You will leave knowing:

Your overall impact score out of 100, plus your result band
A score for each of the seven stages, Insight to Outcome

Where assurance is losing the most impact
Which stage is currently strongest
The consequence of the weakest stage
Three actions you can take next
Whether individual tools or team support are the better next step

Audience

Who this is for

Chief Audit Executives and Heads of Internal Audit

Audit Directors and Senior Audit Managers

Audit Managers and aspiring audit leaders

Risk, controls and compliance leads who produce assurance

Second line functions reporting to committees

Anyone responsible for assurance work leading to real improvement

The assurance impact gap

Why this matters now

Teams can produce strong analysis and sound findings, and still struggle to influence the right decision, secure clear ownership or confirm that risk or performance improved.

We call that the assurance impact gap. Delivering the plan is no longer the measure. Boards and executives want to know what changed.

Closing the gap starts with knowing where it opens up in your own work.

Find the stage limiting your assurance impact.