Audit season with a spreadsheet and a shared inbox
Each year, your body audits the CPD of a sample of members. A staff member picks the sample from a database export, trying to be random while avoiding members audited last year. Each selected member gets an email asking for evidence of the CPD they declared: certificates, notes, reflections.
Evidence arrives over the next weeks as attachments, links, photos of certificates and long explanatory emails. Some members ask for more time. Some do not reply. Volunteer reviewers from the membership are sent bundles of documents by email and reply with their view. Outcomes are typed into the spreadsheet. By the time it is finished, the next CPD year is well under way.
Why the audit takes so long
The audit is a small project run from scratch every year with general-purpose tools.
- Sample selection is manual and hard to show was fair.
- Evidence requests are general, so members send everything or nothing.
- Responses are spread across an inbox.
- Volunteer reviewers work from emailed bundles with no consistent form.
- Outcomes and follow-ups are tracked in a spreadsheet.
- Nothing links the audit to the member's CPD record.
The deeper problem is that the audit is disconnected from the CPD record it is checking.
What a slow audit costs
Staff and volunteer time is the obvious cost. Less obvious is inconsistency: different reviewers apply standards differently when they have no common form, and members notice. An audit that cannot show how the sample was chosen, or how decisions were made, is harder to defend if a member challenges an outcome.
Members selected for audit find the process stressful when requests are vague. A clear, specific request makes the experience much better for them.
How we build the audit workflow
- The sample is selected by rules you set, such as a random proportion stratified by grade, with exclusions like members audited recently, and the selection is recorded.
- Each selected member receives a request listing the specific CPD entries to evidence, taken from their online record.
- Members upload evidence against each entry, with a clear deadline and a way to request an extension under your policy.
- Reminders and escalation follow your timetable, and non-responses are listed for staff.
- Reviewers, whether staff or volunteers, see one screen per member: the declared entries, the evidence and a structured review form based on your criteria.
- Outcomes are recorded with reasons, and follow-up actions such as further evidence or a development plan are tracked to completion.
- An audit summary shows sample size, responses, outcomes and common issues, for your committee.
| Stage | What the system does | Who is involved |
|---|---|---|
| Selection | Applies your sampling rules and logs them | Staff approve |
| Evidence request | Lists specific entries to evidence | Member |
| Review | One screen with a structured form | Reviewer |
| Outcome | Recorded with reasons and follow-up | Reviewer and staff |
Audit criteria and outcomes are decided by your body and reviewers. The system makes the process consistent and recorded.
Audit season afterwards
The sample is selected in minutes, with a record of how. Members receive a clear request listing exactly which activities to evidence, and upload against each one. Reviewers log in, work through their allocation on one screen each and submit a structured form. Staff watch progress on a dashboard rather than in an inbox.
The summary report for your committee is produced from the outcomes, without anyone compiling it. Next year, members audited this time are excluded automatically if your rules say so.
Recognise your CPD audit here?
- The audit sample is picked by hand from an export.
- Evidence arrives as attachments in a shared inbox.
- Reviewers work from emailed bundles.
- Outcomes are tracked in a spreadsheet.
- The audit runs into the next CPD year.