Most audit plans start in a spreadsheet.
But what happens when you don’t have one?
No Wi‑Fi. No shared folder. No past audit files to pull from. Just a mandate, a pen, and a place you’ve never been.
That’s where real planning starts. Not on a screen, but in your head and your notebook.
Too many auditors confuse planning with paperwork.
They think: I’ll fill out the template later. Or worse: I’ll figure it out onsite.
That’s not planning. That’s improvising.
And in a low-tech audit, improvising turns dangerous fast.
Why?
Because you’re already flying without a net: No dashboards. No automated controls. No version history to bail you out.
If you haven’t thought through the risks, the terrain, and the people, any outcome is compromised.
At low-tech sites, here’s what I do:
1. Clarify the Mission
"What are they actually asking me to look at?"
"And what would success look like when I’m done?"
If I can’t write that in one sentence, I don’t move forward.
Audit doesn’t begin with a checklist. It begins with purpose.
2. Preload Risk Thinking
You don’t need a heatmap.
You need a question like:
"If something were going wrong here, where would it hide?"
And then I sketch a 3x3 grid: Likelihood x Impact.
Fast. Dirty. Effective. That’s my risk compass.
3. Map the People, Not Just the Process
Here’s where most auditors fail:
"Who benefits if this goes wrong or right?"
Draw the relationships.
Not just org charts. Power maps. Emotional maps.
Ask: Who’s close to the money? Who’s hard to say no to?
4. Load Up Questions (Not Just Forms)
You might not get a second interview. Go in ready.
Here are three I always use:
“Can you walk me through what happens, start to finish?”
“Who else touches this process or benefits from it?”
“If something went wrong here, how would you know?”
Forget buzzwords. Ask like a human.
5. Check Yourself
"What am I assuming right now?"
Am I trusting someone too fast?
Am I discounting something because the paperwork is tidy?
Am I overlooking something because no one complained?
These are the blind spots that trip even seasoned auditors. Ask them early.
Not giving the whole toolkit away, but here’s what I actually use:
A field sketch grid: people, paper, power, problems
A page of open-ended planning questions
A hand-drawn risk matrix: 3x3 Likelihood vs. Impact
A bias self-check: “What am I assuming right now and why?”
More on those tools coming soon. These are pencil-ready and field-proof.
Want to know where bad planning bites?
Here are just a few real-world misses I’ve seen (or made):
Auditor skips stakeholder mapping → misses that two cash handlers are secretly dating.
Assumes payroll is low risk → never checks if ghost staff are quietly drawing salary.
Accepts “we double-check everything” → doesn’t ask who assigns the double-checkers.
Sees a tidy file room → doesn’t ask why it’s all in one person’s office.
Planning isn’t about being right. It’s about knowing what to ask before the lights go out.
Because audit thinking is not reactive.
It’s proactive.
Even if you’re alone.
Even if the office is chaos.
Even if the electricity cuts out in the middle of your walk-through.
Planning is what gives structure to chaos.
And when there’s no platform beneath your feet, that structure is your power.
This article is a companion to Chapter 2 of the book, Auditing Without Power: The Portable Pocketbook for Low-Tech, No-Tech Audits.
The full chapter includes printable planning tools and a field story about a scholarship audit I nearly failed, because I skipped the basics.
Use these for reflection or with your team:
Have you ever had to plan an audit with little or no digital access? What did you rely on most?
What’s your personal trick for spotting early risk, even before the audit starts?
What’s your plan when the clock is ticking and nobody knows how the system runs?
What’s one planning failure you learned the hard way from?
Share your thoughts in the comments. Your field lessons help make this space sharper for everyone.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.