Firm resource
Delivery-pilot planning checklist
Six short sets of questions a firm should be able to answer before a demo or a pilot on one engagement: the service needed, the current bottleneck, intended responsibilities, timing and capacity, review ownership, and evidence and access. Nothing on this page is collected or stored; answer it internally and bring the notes.
1. Which service do you actually need?
Pilots go wrong when the service is named after the pressure rather than the work. Pick one offer for the first engagement.
- Which of the seven offers matches the first engagement (one, not several)?
- Is the work delivery support under your methodology, or a direct assessment for a client who has no auditor yet?
- Who at your firm will own the engagement and sign the report or decision? (It is never AuditPartners.)
- Does the client agreement allow a third party to perform agreed procedures, and on what terms?
The seven offers: Financial Audit Support, SOC, IT Audit, ISO, AI Assurance, Internal Audit, Third-Party Assurance.
2. Where is the current bottleneck?
Name the step that slows the engagement today. The pilot should be measured against that step and nothing else.
- Is the constraint hours (capacity), skills (a specialist you do not employ), or quality (evidence arrives late, inconsistent or undocumented)?
- Which phase takes longest: request lists, evidence chasing, testing, workpaper preparation, review or exception clearance?
- How much reviewer time currently goes to tidying documentation rather than judgment?
- What would "better" look like at the end of the pilot, in words your engagement partner would accept?
3. Who does what?
Write the split down before the demo. The partner model is the starting point; the engagement agreement fixes the detail.
- Your firm keeps: the client relationship, engagement leadership, methodology and standards, professional judgment, required review and sign-off.
- AuditPartners supplies: agreed professional delivery, specialists when an engagement needs them, riskassist™, operated by our professionals, human review before anything reaches your reviewer.
- Will AuditPartners staff appear to the client as your team (white-label), as a named subcontractor, or not at all? Each is agreed in writing.
- Who answers the client's questions during fieldwork, and through which channel?
Co-delivery, white-label presentation, client protection and confidentiality are offered subject to the applicable agreement for each engagement.
4. Timing and capacity
A pilot needs a real engagement with a real deadline, but not the one that decides the year.
- Which engagement, with which start and report dates, is the candidate?
- How many agreed delivery hours or roles does the gap represent, and over which weeks?
- Which specialist skills (IT general controls, cloud, security testing, AI governance, ISO auditing) must be present, and at what qualification?
- What is the fallback if the pilot is stopped mid-engagement? Who absorbs the remaining work?
5. Review ownership
Two reviews happen on every pilot: AuditPartners' own professional review, then your reviewer applying your methodology.
- Who at your firm reviews AuditPartners' working file, and at what points (per section, per sample set, before report)?
- How are exceptions escalated: to whom, how fast, and in which tool?
- Where is the review trail recorded so that every conclusion links to evidence and to the person who reviewed it?
- What acceptance criteria will your reviewer use to say the preparation was good enough?
6. Evidence, access and confidentiality
These are the questions a diligence conversation covers. Answer what you can now; agree the rest before any client evidence is shared.
- Which systems, folders or portals hold the evidence, and who grants access to AuditPartners personnel?
- Which tools and providers may be used on client material, and which are excluded by your policies or the client's?
- Where may data be processed and stored, and for how long after the report is issued?
- Is AI-assisted preparation (RiskAssist™) permitted for this client, and under what conditions?
- Who at your firm approves confidentiality terms, and does the client contract require notice or consent for subcontracting?
What to do with the answers
Bring them to the demo. A demo is a video-call walkthrough of how delivery works with your firm; a pilot is one agreed engagement with a defined review and acceptance plan. Firms adding a new service line can read how a practice is launched; firms with a specific audience in mind can start from the firm pages. This checklist is informational and does not create an engagement.
Ready to talk through a pilot?
We reply by e-mail, usually within two working days, to arrange a time.