Internal vs External Audits: What Every Business Owner Should Know

The Strategic Importance of Audits for Business Owners

Audits are more than compliance checks; they are strategic tools that provide insights into performance, risk, and improvement opportunities. Engaged business leaders use audit results to drive better decision-making and long-term success. When conducting well, they provide leadership insights into where they may have to re-prioritize or allocate resources, where policies may be in conflict, what may be working well and where the system needs their leadership intervention.

What Are Internal and External Audits?

Internal Audits: Performed by or for the organization to check its own processes. These may be process audits or full system audits.

External Audits: These could be supplier audits (second party) or certification regulatory audits (third party). Third party audits are conducted by a third-party or certification body to verify compliance with standards.

Internal and external audits differ in breadth and depth of the audit based on scope and objective.

Why External Audits Should Be Taken Seriously?

External audits affect certification, reputation, and client confidence. A successful external audit demonstrates credibility and reliability.

Tip: Be prepared, be honest, and see auditors as partners in your improvement journey.

How to Prepare for Both Audits?

  • Keep documentation current
  • Review and close previous findings
  • Train staff on audit processes
  • Conduct mock audits
  • Engage leadership in the audit process

Conclusion:

ISO audit and their findings are not to be feared. They are valuable tools for identifying weaknesses and driving continuous improvement. With the right mindset and preparation, audits can move beyond mere compliance and become a core part of your strategic growth. Organizations that stay audit-ready show that they are not only compliant but also committed to excellence.

How to Retain Auditor Training Knowledge When You Can’t Apply It Immediately 

Completing an auditor training course is an exciting milestone. You walk away with frameworks, methodologies to create checklists, audit question techniques, and—if you’re like most professionals—a head buzzing with new knowledge. Ideally, you’d jump right into an audit and apply your skills, reinforcing what you’ve learned while it’s still fresh. But what if that opportunity doesn’t come right away? 

At QMII, we recognize this common challenge among our alumni. Let’s explore effective strategies to bridge the gap between training and practice—so that knowledge doesn’t fade but instead becomes a solid foundation for your future audit work. 

1. Simulate Real-World Scenarios 

Action: Design mock audits for yourself or with peers. 

Even without access to an organization’s system, you can simulate an audit process by reviewing publicly available quality manuals, environmental reports, or sample procedures including your own. Pretend you’re preparing for an audit: write an audit plan, create checklists, additional documentation you would request and practice conducting document reviews. 

Tip: Use scenarios from your training or past experience and ask yourself: 

  • What would I ask as an auditor? 
  • What evidence would I seek? 
  • What risks could be present? 

2. Start a Learning Journal 

Action: Reflect on key concepts, standards clauses, and audit techniques by writing them down in your own words. 

Journaling isn’t just for reflection, it’s a brain-anchoring technique. When you write out what you remember and how you would apply it, you’re reinforcing neural pathways tied to that knowledge. 

Include: 

  • Summaries of ISO clause requirements. 
  • How you would handle nonconformities. 
  • Sample non-conformities within your organization and write down your assessment of them as also the effectiveness of corrective actions. 

3. Teach Others What You Learned 

Action: Participate in knowledge-sharing sessions. 

There’s no better way to solidify your understanding than teaching others. Reach out to other auditors in your organization and discuss applicability and interpretation of a clause. Participate and contribute to discussions on LinkedIn forums. Search the web for interpretation of clauses and see the differences as opined by various different personnel. 

Bonus: You’re also building your credibility and visibility as an auditor. 

4. Stay Active in the QMII Alumni Network 

Action: Engage with blog articles, LinkedIn posts, ask questions, and share insights. 

QMII’s alumni network offers a treasure trove of experience. Staying engaged keeps you in the loop on best practices and might even lead to mentoring or shadowing opportunities. React to blogs written by QMII, contribute articles for QMII blog, comment on QMII posts and connect to QMII alumni. 

Don’t hesitate to: 

  • Ask others how they’re maintaining their skills. 
  • Request mock audit partnerships. 
  • Share resources and templates you’ve created. 

5. Continue the Learning Loop 

Action: Sign up for webinars, read audit case studies, and revisit your course materials regularly. 

Audit skills are built not just on knowledge, but on judgment, observation, and communication. You can sharpen these even while waiting for your first official audit assignment. 

Suggested activities: 

  • Attend QMII webinars or ISO updates. 
  • Subscribe to quality-focused newsletters. 
  • Read ISO audit case studies and identify what went wrong—and why. 

6. Request to Observe Internal Audits 

Action: If you’re part of an organization, ask to shadow an experienced auditor. 

Even if you’re not leading, observing an audit helps you internalize the structure, flow, and behavioral nuances of auditing. Jot down observations on auditor behavior, techniques, and interaction styles. Create your own checklists and then compare it to that prepared by the lead auditor. Discuss the differences after the audit. 

If your organization doesn’t have an active program, this is a great opportunity to propose starting one—a value-added initiative from a proactive auditor-in-training. 

Final Thoughts: Don’t Let the Gap Become a Gully 

Skills fade when left idle, but they flourish with even light engagement. Whether it’s through simulation, teaching, journaling, or community interaction, there are numerous ways to keep your audit knowledge sharp and ready. 

At QMII, we believe that continual improvement isn’t just for organizations, it’s a personal practice. Stay connected, stay curious, and keep that audit mindset active until your next assignment arrives. 

Have your own tips for retaining training knowledge? 
Join the conversation by commenting on this blog or drop us a line—we’d love to feature your story! 

Three Steps to Reducing Human Error in Your System

Reducing Human Error in Your System

As believers in the process-based system approach to management systems, QMII encourages organizations during their root cause analysis to not ask “who” but “how” and “why” the system failed the individual. Human errors primarily occur because the system has failed. Sure, there is a human element to the process, but it is only when the system is assessed that the organisation will look beyond merely training the individual yet again or firing them. This has the added benefit of truly imbibing a no-blame culture because blaming an individual is not going to change the results.

The individual in question may be replaced but unless you assess the system for adequacy, which deemed the person competent, the change of personnel may not lead to improvements.
Where the potential for human error is identified as a risk, the organisation can also choose to put systems in place to mistake-proof in order to reduce the possibility of the individual making errors. In conclusion, when human error occurs, organisations should try to address both aspects of identifying the system failure and mistake-proofing the system.

QMII President & CEO – Dr. IJ Arora presented on the topic “Three Steps to Reducing Human Error in Your System”. The Free Webinar was positively received by participants from various industries.

Click here for the full presentation.

Read more: Implementation of management systems

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Mapping the sequence and interaction of processes

ISO 9001 training is a great starting point for those that do not have a good understanding of the ISO 9001 standard and are looking to implement it within their organization. The standard provides the framework for implementing a quality management system and defines requirements around the plan-do-check-act framework. ISO 9001 is also the basis for many other ISO standards such as ISO 13485 and IATF 16949.

ISO 9001 places responsibility on the leadership to take accountability for the effectiveness of the system. In order to start the system implementation, the standard ask organizations to define the context of the organization. What is context? It is the business environment within which an organization operates and consists of various aspects that may impact the continuity of operations of an organization. ISO 9001 training will provide inputs into how a SWOT analysis or a PESTLE analysis may be use to define the context. The analysis account for the aspects of economic, technological, legal and others that may impact business if not accounted for and acted against. The context also accounts for internal aspects that may pose a risk such as the non-availability of competent personnel or loss of knowledge.

Once the context and needs of the stakeholders are defined the organization needs to clearly state the purpose of their business and how they achieve it. This includes documenting the sequence and interaction of their processes. This is a great exercise for an organization to bring leadership on board as also for leadership to gain clarity on how the business runs. At QMII, this is referred to as the core process. In order to capture this core process, the leadership and executive team must be present. The top management provides the objective of the process or their vision for the business. ISO 9001 training is a great method to introduce leadership to their role in the system and what is expected of them per the standard.

The remaining executive team helps the leadership map out the remaining processes of the system that enable the organization to meet the vision of the leadership. The team must clearly be able to see where interactions take place between the different departments for each key process to achieve its goal and be successful. Once all the key processes are identified they can be mapped in further detail with the help of the process owners. QMII’s ISO 9001 training includes a lecture on developing a process-based management system that covers how to map the core process of your organization.
Once the different departments can see how they contribute as a team to the goals and vision of the organization the quality management system will be better implemented as working in silos has not helped any organization.