Audit standards are tools utilized by auditors and safety inspectors to review the safety practices of organizations to assure they are abiding by all safety legislation and regulations. They are specific by industry, and documentation outlining the audit protocol is typically provided by regulatory bodies such as Energy Safety Canada.
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Workhub provides an Audit Preparation component that allows you to complete a trial audit before facing an actual audit from an auditor. Our Audit standards include an itemized checklist with criteria, tips, and points as you would find them in an official audit.

The tool also allows you to upload any needed documentation, link to related items in Workhub, and to create Action Items to ensure your tasks get completed.
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This component allows an organization to:

It is important to note that completing Audit Preparation through Workhub is not equivalent to undergoing an audit by an approved auditor. The Audit standards within Workhub are intended for preparation for an audit rather than replacing an audit.
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To begin using Audit Preparation, click the Audit Preparation tile on your Admin dash.

If you're using Audit Preparation for the first time, your screen will appear with an illustration in the centre and no data to review. You can click through the prompts to get started using the component.

If audits have already been chosen and added to your list, you will see them listed with a grey header bar listing the Authority the audit standard is from, then each audit will be listed below their respective authority.

To add a new audit to your list, click the Add Audit Preparation button in the top right corner of the screen.
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Clicking that button will open a pop-up prompting you to Select an Audit Standard to use. The list will generate with all the Authorities and Standards we have available, but you can use the Search field to specify an authority or specific standard you would like to use.

Use the radio button on the right to select the specific standard you would like to use, and click the Continue button to progress to naming your audit. In the Name Audit screen, you'll be able to specify a name for the audit you're conducting.

Workhub will generate a name for each audit with the name of the standard and the date and time you've created it, but you can change that field to whatever will work best for you. If you need to create an audit for each Location in your account or for specific timeframes, you can incorporate that into the name.

When you're happy with the name, click Add.

After creating your audit, you'll be popped back to the main list in Audit Preparation. You'll see a grey header for the authority and title of your audit, and beneath it you'll see the specific audit file you created.

To begin working on your audit, click into your desired audit listing.

In your chosen audit on the Criteria page, you'll see a wealth of information! The Audit Name box at top left will contain the name you've provided your audit, and the pencil icon will allow you to edit that name if needed. The Attach File button lets you upload a document to go with the audit as a whole. This could be a digital copy of the audit from the authority or any information for the auditor. You can upload documents, spreadsheets, and images in this space!

The box beside Audit Name is for Auditor information. You can record the details of the auditor due to complete your audit, including their Name, Phone number, Email address, and your Audit Date. Including this information won't allow your auditor access to Workhub, but helps to house all your information in one place.
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The Action Items box will highlight how many Action Items have been created from the criteria in your audit, and the status of those Action Items will be highlighted in the Completed and Signed off bubbles.
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The Score box on the right will provide the total score of all the possible points within the audit. Clicking the Trophy button in the top right corner of the box enables you to set a target score for your audit. You can select whether you'd like to set a percentage score or a point number score.

Saving your goal will change the circle graph in that box! When you set a goal, the circle will gain a break and a colour. They indicate what you've set your goal to, and as you increase your score, that circle will fill according to how close you are to reaching your goal.

You will also see a bar graph populate the space filled with the "Weekly score data will be shown here" message as you add data to your audit.

Clicking the pencil icon will allow you to edit a goal you've set, including removing it altogether.

Beneath those information boxes are your Audit Criteria. The criteria will be organized by the sections of the audit, seen in the grey bar at the top. The total score for that section will be displayed in the bar on the right end. Each criterion will list its number in the audit, its question or evaluation criteria, and the score it currently holds. You can click into any criterion to fill in the necessary information.

In each criterion screen you will see several possible actions. Beneath the question/evaluation criteria, you will see three buttons:

Under those boxes you'll see a line for Comments. You can add any comments you would like in this space.

On the right side, you'll see a Score box that defaults to 0 points out of the assigned possible total. You can click that box to provide your criterion a score out of that total. If the criterion is scored as a pass/fail, a bubble will appear to indicate that is the case. Your score choices will be limited to 0 or the full point value of the criterion.

Beneath the Score box, you'll see a box called Guidances. The information within this box includes any Validation Techniques associated with that particular criterion and any guidance tips that are supplied in the audit standard for evaluating this item. You may see multiple Validation Techniques listed

Under the Score box, you'll see an Activity Feed box. Each change you make to each criterion will be logged in that Activity Feed, including changes to scores, added, removed, or edited Action items, etc.
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Every action you take within a criterion will save automatically, so when you're happy with the status of your criterion information, you can click the X in the top left corner to return to your Criteria list.

As you populate your criteria with information, the list will show the changes you have made.

Any created Action Items, Attached Files, and Related Items you include will appear as icons at the right end of each criterion, and the score bubble at the end will show the score you've listed. The section header will show the summary of the scores for that section.

The second tab along the top of the screen is called Action Items. This tab won't populate until you have added Action Items to any of your criteria for completion. Once you have Action Items created, you will see them listed in this tab.

You can use the filters at the top of the tab to filter your items by their Status.

You can click into any of the Action Items in the tab to make any needed changes to them, including adding any files that would be beneficial for the Workers assigned the corrective actions.

The Activity Log tab houses all the actions undertaken in your audit. This includes adding score, changing goals, relating items and files, creating Action Items - you name it, this log will have a listing for it! It also keeps a log of who made those changes and what particular criterion in the audit those changes were made within.
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The intended purpose of this tab is to inform anyone reviewing the audit of the actions taken. Having a history of who changed what helps to maintain a consistent, traceable line of communication and accountability!

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Once you have you have information populating your audit, the Download button in the top right corner of the Criteria list will give you the option to extract your information from Workhub. You can choose to download a PDF or CSV report from this button.

Those reports will house the sections, criteria, and their scores for your audit. You can download those reports as summaries of your audit progress.

After you've gotten audits started, you'll have options to manage them.
In your main Audit list, you can click the + button any of the listings for an Audit Standard to add another audit checklist of that type.

You can also mouse over any particular audit you have in your list and click the three dots to manage that audit. The options available in that menu include Archive and Delete.

The Archive function will move that audit from your main audit list to the Archived tab along the top of the screen. You may choose to archive an audit for a variety of reasons: you've completed the audit for that period and don't need it listed in your main audit list any longer, the results aren't immediately pertinent but could be of future use, etc.

Any item you add to the Archive tab can still be edited, and you can always choose to move your Archived audits back to the main audit list using the same menu, but selecting Unarchive.

If you had previously used our Audit Standards component, the audits created using that iteration of the tool have been migrated to the Legacy tab.

If you were in the middle of conducting your audit in the former iteration of Audit Standards, you will still be able to make changes to your audit in this tab until the end of December 2024. After that time, all the audits within this tab will become reference only. Changes will not be saved for them, nor will you be able to begin new audits using them.
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Any audits you had conducted prior to this will be housed in the Legacy tab in perpetuity. You will be able to view them but no changes can be made to them.

As with any element of Workhub, if you have any questions we are happy to help you out. You can contact our Support team by emailing [email protected] or by clicking the orange question mark in the bottom left corner of any Workhub page.