What is a process audit?

A process audit is an examination of results to determine whether the activities, resources and behaviors that cause them are being managed efficiently and effectively. A process audit is not simply following a trail through a department from input to output – this is a transaction audit. Processes generate results therefore for an audit to be a process audit it has to establish whether the results are being generated by an effectively managed process.

An effective process is one that achieves the results that are intended – i.e. the objectives. An effectively managed process is a process in which the activities, resources and behaviors are planned, organized and controlled in a way that the outputs achieve specified objectives as illustrated right:

How do process audits differ from procedure audits?