Free Assurance Impact Scorecard | For internal audit, risk & controls
Good findings. But what changes afterwards?
Good audit and assurance work can still end with a report, an agreement and very little change. Answer 12 questions about how you or your team work, from challenging evidence to judging whether actions have really worked. See where to focus next.
Get your impact score, a four-area profile and a practical next move to try on real work.
12 questions · Instant result · No sign-up to see it
Based on your own judgement. No reports or confidential risk data required.
A view of how your assurance works
First area to revisit: Evidence of change
A management action is closed. What evidence shows the control is working now?
Sample answers, not a real result. Your profile reflects your judgement, not a comparison with other organisations.
This might sound familiar
The report is clear. The decision isn’t.
The findings are accepted, but the decision they need to inform is still unresolved.
An action is closed. What improved?
The tracker is up to date. Evidence that the control now works is harder to find.
The plan is delivered. What changed?
Your team can show the work completed. Showing what is different for the business takes more digging.
Less control theatre. More decisions, ownership and outcomes.
What your result helps you do
See the pattern across your work
A score and four-area profile show the strengths and weaker points in your answers, where there is enough evidence to score them.
Find a useful place to dig
A suggested first focus and possible causes give you something specific to investigate. They are hypotheses to test, not a diagnosis.
Put it to work on a live issue
Try a practical exercise and use the four-question checklist to test whether your next review, report or action has better follow-through.
- 01Choose your view
- 02Answer 12 questions
- 03See your immediate result
Created by Tim Buckley, ACA, CIA
Nearly two decades working in and leading audit, risk and financial controls. Built around the judgement calls and follow-through problems assurance teams face in practice.
Your result is a starting point, not another report to file away.
Use the exercise and checklist in your own work first. If you want to take it further, Beyond the Lines offers practical tools and supported application. Where authority or resources are the constraint, training alone may not be the answer.
Working through one live issue?
Assurance to Action ToolkitIndividual Edition. Practical tools to apply yourself. £295 one-off.
Developing a stronger team?
Assurance Impact PartnershipA six-month programme to build team capability through sustained, supported application. By enquiry.
Need a focused session?
Speaking & TrainingWorkshops and keynotes around the assurance challenges your team faces. By enquiry.
Before you start
- Can I answer for my team?
- Yes. Choose your own work or your view of your team at the start. It is your view, not a combined team assessment.
- Do I need to give my email?
- No. Your result appears without signup or uploads. Where available, one voluntary choice lets you receive an email copy and join the regular Beyond the Lines newsletter together. Both are optional.
- Is it a formal assessment or benchmark?
- No. It reflects your own judgement, not measured organisational impact, an audit opinion, certification or IIA quality assessment. It does not compare you with other organisations.
- What if I can’t answer?
- Choose “Not enough evidence or not part of my role”. It counts as an answer, but not a low score. You must respond to all 12 questions and choose your own work or team. If too little can be scored, your result explains the evidence gaps rather than guessing a score.
Make your next piece of work count.
Start with an honest view of where the follow-through gets stuck.
12 questions · Instant result · No sign-up to see it