Audit - What to Expect & Our Approach

What to Expect

If you are being audited, this is how the process usually works. Typically, you are informed in advance that an audit has been scheduled. After coordinating the audit, we will conduct an entrance conference to meet with your team and discuss why we are reviewing your department and what we plan to review. At the entrance conference, your team and your College's president should share concerns or areas you would like to be addressed during the review.

Since TSTC and the separate operations supporting the Colleges are unique in their size, business culture, staffing, procedures and challenges, each audit is unique. The audit procedures depend on the type of review and are designed to focus on the specific operation or control being reviewed.

During a typical audit, we will

• Review background information, applicable policies, procedures and outside regulations;
• Conduct interviews; and
• Test samples of transactions to understand operations or controls being reviewed.

Throughout the audit process, we will strive to keep your team advised of our observations and work to resolve any issues that arise during the audits. At the completion of fieldwork, we will conduct an exit conference to discuss our preliminary observations and answer questions prior to leaving your site.

Next, we will continue to document our audit work at our office in Waco, resolve remaining issues and compile a draft report summarizing our review. The draft report is submitted to your College president with the request that the College respond (if necessary) within two weeks. The final report is sent to the College president and copies are submitted to the Board of Regents, the Chancellor and the Executive Vice Chancellor for their review. Each report is further discussed at the audit committee of the Board of Regents during each quarterly meeting. Copies of the reports are submitted to the website following Board review.

In addition, prior to each meeting of the Board of Regents, we follow up with Colleges related to their audit response action plans. The status of the College's plan is communicated to the audit committee at each meeting of the Board of Regents.

Our Approach

We believe each audit is an opportunity for us to assist departments in achieving TSTC's mission. We strive to display a sympathetic attitude, to avoid criticism, and to seek departments' participation.