Preparing for a certification or verification audit

Before an audit you plan an assessment cycle, export an audit pack organised by standard and indicator, and give your auditor time-limited, read-only access. This tutorial walks through all three.

Before you begin

• The Assess standards permission for assessment cycles, the audit pack export permission (compliance.audit_packs.export), and Manage auditor access (compliance.auditor_access.manage) to invite an auditor.
• Your self-assessment is up to date. See Mapping your evidence to the NDIS Practice Standards.

Plan and start an assessment cycle

A cycle groups the ratings for one audit. One cycle can be active per entity; completing it keeps the ratings as they were.

1. Go to Quality → Practice Standards and scroll to the Audits and evidence card. Open Assessment cycles.
2. Enter a New cycle name, for example 2027 recertification (at least 3 characters).
3. Choose the Audit: Certification audit, Verification audit, Mid-term audit or Internal audit.
4. Set Starts, optionally Ends, and the Certification body, then select Plan cycle. The cycle shows as Planned.
5. When work begins, select Start. When the audit is over, select Complete.

Export the audit pack

1. Select Export audit pack in the page header.
2. Choose the Audit type.
3. Under Modules, tick the modules being audited. All are ticked to start with.
4. Under Include, choose what goes in: Open corrective and improvement actions, Outstanding gaps with owners and dates, Policy library with versions and staff acknowledgement, Incident and complaint registers (de-identified summary) and Worker screening and training matrix.
5. Select Prepare pack. You see Audit pack requested. It is being built. When it is ready, a message gives the number of indicators and evidence records and the pack opens in a new tab.

The pack is organised by standard and indicator, with an evidence index your auditor can follow. Its export is recorded in the audit log.

Invite your auditor

1. In the Audits and evidence card, open Auditor access and select Invite an auditor.
2. Enter the Auditor’s name, Email and Certification body.
3. Set Access until. It starts 14 days from today.
4. Under Audit packs they can download, tick the ready packs to share. If none are listed, export one first.
5. Turn on Include restricted data (abuse, restrictive practices) only if the auditor needs it. This may need a second approver.
6. Select Send invitation. The auditor gets an emailed sign-in link to their own read-only workspace.

Manage access during the audit

1. Check the badge on each auditor: Active, Pending approval (waiting for a second approver) or the ended status.
2. Select Activity to see what the auditor opened and when.
3. Select Extend, choose a new Access until date and select Extend to give more time.
4. Select Revoke to end access at once. Their sign-in ends.

Tips

• Run the Gaps and partial view on the hub a few weeks before the audit and raise improvement actions for anything still open, so the pack shows a plan for each gap.
• The auditor’s workspace shows the access period, the packs you shared and a read-only view of the self-assessment. Every read is logged to their activity.

If something goes wrong

The pack fails with Regulatory data not verified

The audit pack quotes the Practice Standards text, which must be verified before it can be used in production. Contact CompanionAxis support.

The audit pack could not be built.

Try again with fewer modules or options. If it fails again, contact support with the time you tried.

Send invitation stays greyed out

Enter the auditor’s name and a valid email address (it must contain @).