Audit fieldwork activities

Use the Fieldwork tab to gain a real-time, end‑to‑end view of your audit execution, combining high‑level summary statistics with a card view of the board that displays each control test by state. This makes it easy for audit leads to see which testing activities are progressing as planned and where workloads may need to be rebalanced across the team to keep the engagement on track.

The Fieldwork tab and card view of the board becomes the operational hub for control testing:

  • Assign and reassign individual control tests to specific team members.

  • Update test statuses across the full lifecycle, for example, Ready for testing or In progress.

  • Open the underlying control tests to perform procedures, capture evidence, and record results without leaving the Audit app. Pending approvals and key outcomes, such as control assessment sign‑offs and related audit findings, are surfaced in one view, giving approvers a clear action list and providing the audit team with a single source of truth for tracking progress, collaboration, and overall engagement health.

Note

Control assessments are used to evaluate the effectiveness of a control over time. Control assessments can have multiple test types but Audit only uses Design tests and Operational tests.

Prerequisites

Before you can start work on testing the controls using the Controls library, you must complete the following actions:

  • Have controls defined in the Control library and related to processes or organizational units.

  • Have created assessment methods linked to controls.

  • Have an Audit plan and control tests added to the audit.

  • Have moved Audit into the In progress state.

Workflow

To get an understanding of the workflow of a control test, see the workflow diagram and table below.

Note

You can link a control test to an audit. You can only link a control assessment to a control test which in turn can be linked to an audit.

Status Description
Draft The control assessment has been added. The related control is chosen during the add flow and cannot be changed later; the assessment method can still be changed. Results cannot be populated yet.
Ready for testing The assessment is ready to be tested. When linked to an audit, it can only be put In progress once the audit itself is In progress. Assessment method can still be changed; results cannot be populated.
In progress Testing is underway. The assessment method can no longer be changed; results must be populated according to the validation rules defined in the assessment method.
To be approved Results have been submitted and the assessment is waiting for the approver.
Closed The assessment has been approved. Read-only; it can be reopened.

Managing control tests

View the current status of control tests through summary statistics and manage the progress of the tests within the card view of the board. This board includes all control tests included in the scope of the audit.

Note

Only an Audit Manager or above can start the audit by moving it into the In progress status. Control test management rights can vary by state. For more information about audit role permissions and rights, go to Audit app permissions.

  1. Access the Diligent One Platform and select Audit & Analytics > Audit.

  2. From the navigation menu, select Go to Audit fieldwork.

  3. From the Audits table, select the name of an audit that is the In progress state.

  4. Select the Fieldwork tab.

  5. Optional: Select List view or Card view to view the control tests in table or board view respectively.

  6. In the Search by ID or name field, enter the name of the control test that you want to find.

  7. Select Filter to open the side panel and assign team members:

    1. From the Assignee dropdown menu, select the checkboxes beside the team member that you want to filter the card view of the board by and select Apply.

    2. Select Assign in a control test tile and select a team member to assign a control test to them. In the Search people field, you can search for the team member that you want to assign or reassign a test to.

  8. To update the status of a control test, select the test, and drag and drop it to the next status column.

    Note

    You can only move a control test to the next status in the workflow. You cannot move a control test to a previous status. This option is not available when viewing the table in List view.

  9. From the Card view of the board, select a control test to open it. If you are in the List view table, select the name of the control test to open it.

  10. In the List view of the table, select Export to export the control tests table as a CSV file.

Editing multiple control tests

Managers can assign or update the statuses of multiple control tests simultaneously. The Export option is hidden when editing multiple control tests.

  1. On the Fieldwork tab, select List view.

  2. Select the checkboxes beside the control tests that you want to edit, and select Edit selected.

    The Edit selected side panel opens.

  3. From the Assignee dropdown menu, select who the tests are assigned to.

  4. From the Approver dropdown menu, select who approves the tests.

  5. In the Start date and End date fields, select or enter updated dates for the tests.

  6. Select Apply.

Working with control tests

The control test opens in the Control assessments page where you can manage the control test and its associated assessment methods.

To manage the control test for its use in the Audit app, complete the following tasks depending on the control test status:

All statuses

Draft

Ready for testing

  • Perform control test For more information about updating the status, go to Updating control assessment status.

    Note

    You can only perform the control test when the audit is in the In progress state.

  • Add audit findings For more information about entering audit findings, go to Adding an issue.

In progress

To be approved

  • Approve or decline the test Approve the overall audit finding and ensure that each individual finding is approved. For more information about updating the status, go to Updating control assessment status.