I am a new Director of Financial Aid at a newer school. I have been through one audit from and outside agency, and I will be experiencing my first DOE audit in another week. I feel that my greatest concern is not truly knowing the tolerance of each item/area reviewed, and how to effectively prepare for an audit. Any suggestions on how to review and prepare for an audit? Any suggestions for materials to read regarding a DOE audit? Thank you.
I would have to say that my greatest concern is not knowing the unknown. I have been blessed that over the past 10 + years my audits were always rated an A or higher; however there is really no way to prepare for one. All you can do is train your staff, inspect what you expect and you should be fine. Although this sounds so easy you can never review every student's file. Development of your staff is a must to be successful and have great audits.
Rita,
I find your comments to be very interesting. Rarely, does anyone mention the need to review previous audits to ensure the same issues are not occurring anymore. Your thoughts are right on point - everyone should work diligently to ensure that their student files are in order and accurate but reviewing prior audits to ensure compliance is an excellent idea.
Sincerely, Chyrl
Audits in financial aid can make any guru nervous. My greatest concern is not receiving a good audit because of a continuous oversight. I believe it would be beneficial to review previous audits to ensure that the same errors on not being made. It would also be great to know what the auditors will be looking for and how their process works.
Debbie,
You have a very good approach to the audit process. Organization, documentation and attitude is very important. It is important that you build some internal controls to ensure accuracy of the files, awarding, disbursing and exiting process for your students. I recommend periodically pulling a sample of files and testing the compliance. This is a good practice and will make sure that you are aware of areas for improvement.
Have a good day.
Sincerely, Chyrl
Our FA office is not fully operational. We are in the early stages. I would say with any audit you should begin by going over all that is requested and make sure it is complete. Being organized is priceless when any type of audit occurs. My second suggestion is to relax and stay callm. The one thing I learned from our accreditation agency is document, document. If you have all of your documentation in order you will be fine.
Sheneka, Auditors can seem a little intimidating at times so having a third party providing assistance can make the process less stressful for the financial aid office. Also, as long as you monitor your student files through the year and keep them in order it will make the auditor's job a lot easier and they will be very appreciative. Regards, David
Our school uses a third party system to assist us in this matter so it helps ease some of my concerns.
Michelle,
I think preventive measures are very important to the smooth running of a Financial Aid Office. These measures allow you to quickly identify issues and resolve. It is a great way to strengthen the overall student and administative experience.
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely, Chyrl
If periodic internal audits/reviews are conducted and accounting errors are addressed and corrected at that time, when outside auditors do their review and audit, you should feel much more at ease knowing you have already remedied any obvious issues.
Judith,
Your comments are very true - if you ensure consistency and accuracy your institution should not have an issue with the audit. Based on your response you and your auditors have a system and process to ensure success during the audit cycle.
Sincerely,
Chyrl
Consistency and accuracy. I believe those are the key elements to a successful audit. So far I have been involved in 2 audits and that seems to be the most important factors the auditor is looking for.
James,
I agree that audits and reviews can make one nervous; however, I always encourage FA staff to "inspect what they expect." When I was at a campus level I always had my team review each other's work to ensure that we were all processing in the same manner - collecting the same document, packaging our files according to a standard format and handling the financial aid requirements accurately. The more you standardize the process the more successful and confident you should feel about your process.
Your ability to continue to strive for imporoved processing will be beneficial.
Sincerely, Chyrl
I would say my biggest concern of an audit since i have not gone through one is the panic of nowing you have done everything correct but you know they will find something you missed. You can double check and thriple check but something just seems to get slip through the cracks. The wasy is just PRAY!!!!!!!!
Chuck, Good file management is the key, you are correct. Consistency in the file layout not only helps the FA office stay current with their student's funding it also provides the auditors with a clear, concise picture to review. They walk away with the feeling that this office knows what they are doing. It is also good to have some type of checklist at the beginning of the file and ensure each document in the file cooresponds to that checklist.
Regards, David
I've had pretty good experiences with the Audits since becoming director 3 years ago. Of course, it's always a concern whether your files will have everything needed in them, or that all is accurate, but good file management, and consistent file layout, and attention to them throughout the year, will usually ensure completeness and accuracy for the audit. We've managed zero findings for the past several years. This year we had a finding, a late refund that was missed during a personnel change last year. This gave me my first opportunity to do the explanation letter and such, so was a good learning experience itself, although one I would have rather learned on a maxknowledge course.
Virginia,
Your practice of ensuring the files contain all the documents and the files are in a preset order is one of the most efficient methods. Do you ever have other FA professionals review each other's work. This can be a good process for ensuring compliance.
Sincerely,
Chyrl
My biggest concern in dealing with audits or auditors is keeping records current to insure that auditors are provided with accurate data.
Having been through many audits over the course of one year, we use the same format to prepare documents together. Like many other institutes, we use checklist in each file to cover all the issues that the auditor may review. We also use standard filing formats for easier file access.
my best conncern when the audit is coming to go through my files to ensure and determing if anything is inaccruate or missing. I always makes listof things that need to be prepare and get everything ready in well organized for them.
It is a great idea to have the files in a standard format so auditors can quickly and easily review the students' information. Using a standard format also allows the financial aid team the ability to ensure all documents have been received and properly stored.
Good suggestions.
Sincerely, Chyrl
