So, you know how whenever you try to play pool, you have to discuss procedures for who breaks, or ball placement after a scratch, and so on? Or playing Monopoly, some people make the game a bit more punishing or forgiving to enhance play? Or how some dog owners feed their dogs scraps, but others won’t let their pups near the table?

House rules can change a lot about the way people do things. Even if some activities already have an official ruleset, there’s often room for preference and interpretation.

Often, those house rules extend to audits and auditors. Sometimes different auditors have different expectations.

What Kinds of Different Expectations will Different Auditors Have?

There will always be constant in your credit union’s audits. NCUA regulations aren’t going to change just because you have a different auditor. Laws, regulations, and other governance is relatively immutable.

So yes, all auditors will look for the same basic things in their audits. Ditto exams.

But they might look for them differently. And they’ll ask for different methods of delivery, or perhaps different ways of structuring the information. They might want questions answered a particular way, or maybe they have different expectations for communication.

They’ve got their preferences for how to handle audit materials. They expect your credit union to follow their instructions about how to treat and deliver them.

Essentially, each auditor may bring their own set of expectations to the table. Your credit union must be prepared meet those expectations.

How Differing Auditor Expectations Shaped Redboard

When we were first building Redboard, we worked with only a few credit unions. Our goal was to identify key examiner and auditor expectations. We needed Redboard to meet those expectations, and we tailored it to fit the needs of a small handful of credit unions and their external compliance professionals.

So, we built our toolset around the needs of a few auditors. Then, as we worked with more credit unions, that’s when we found out:

They had wildly different needs.

Same materials, same regulations, different procedures.

Fortunately, we caught on quickly. Once we saw that different auditors have different expectations, we were able to change Redboard to suit.

Now, our focus is on broader, more general tools that work with every examiner and auditor. Ultimately, it pushed Redboad to become a more flexible audit management tool.

FREE: Audit Checklist for Credit Unions

4 key principles and 9 questions to jumpstart your audit planning. From leading credit unions.

Further Reading

If you’re dealing with a new credit union examiner or auditor, we get it. It can be stressful adjusting to new ways of doing something you’ve already done a dozen times.

Just remember that your auditors actually make fantastic audit resources.

However, if you feel confident that you can adjust your methods to match their requests, then that’s great! You’re ready to gear up with our credit union audit checklist to make sure you’re prepared for your audit or examination!

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ONE SLICK WAY TO STREAMLINE YOUR REGULATORY EXAM PROCESS

WHAT YOUR CREDIT UNION SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AUTOMATED AUDIT WORKING PAPERS