Wondering how much time you all spend in this category (non-audit, non-project hours); often our Supervisory Committee and Executive Team question this bucket during our Audit Plan approval process. It would be nice if I could say I took a poll here and my percentage of "admin" time is reasonable in comparison to others. I know we all have different situations, so there will be variations. Below is the breakout from our 2020 plan. Thanks in advance for sharing!
Thank you to The Audit Library blog for this wording:
Step 2: Budget for the Little Things
This may seem counter-intuitive, but before you start allocating hours to big projects, you should consider all the little things you need to budget for. You know how much PTO your staff have, the holidays recognized by your company, how much CPE you expect of everyone, etc. What about jury duty, industry events, and fielding random questions from managers, board members or even customers? If you don’t budget for these needs, you are not being realistic!
You also need to budget for some administrative time. Be honest; no one is productive every minute of every day! Your staff need to read emails, fill out paperwork, take coffee breaks and chat with people at the water cooler. Also consider audit needs such as working in IDEA or ACL, attending staff meetings, sitting with the external auditors or regulatory examiners when the time comes, helping out with hotline and fraud investigations. All of these things take time, and you need to budget for them.
At this point, you may be surprised how few project hours you actually have left to work with! But having an understanding of your resources and the inherent limitations of your department is absolutely critical. You need to know your limits to reach your potential.
Audit/Review Hours
64%
Admin/Training/PTO
18%
Special Projects/Committees
9%
Outside Audits/Exams
5%
SC Meetings and Preparation/CRP Maint.
4%
100%
