Setting up audits, end to end

In one sentence

Setting up audits in QFormance isn't "create an audit and pick questions" — it's a five-step flow that starts with an approved document, turns it into one or more audit topics, builds out the question bank under those topics (manually or with AI), scopes everything to your facilities and departments, and then lets you create or plan audits against the right topics automatically.

Three things to remember

Audits start at documents. Only approved documents can be turned into audit topics. The procedure has to exist before you can audit it.
One document can become many topics. A single SOP often covers several distinct things you want to audit separately — receiving inspection, calibration, supplier qualification, etc.
The compliance map flows through automatically. Questions inherit standards and clauses from the document section their topic points at — auditors and findings get the clause context for free.

The full flow

Approve the document

A controlled document with the procedure or policy you want to audit against.

Create audit topics

In Audit Admin, link one or more topics to the approved document.

Build the question bank

Author questions under each topic — manually, or have AI propose them from the document.

Scope the topics

In the Scope Planner, mark which topics apply at which facility × department.

Run or plan an audit

Create an audit ad-hoc, or plan it on the calendar — the right questions assemble automatically.

Each step lives in a different admin area. Once set up, the flow runs itself — every new approved document becomes auditable in minutes.

Step 1 — Start with an approved document

You can only build audit topics on top of approved documents. That's intentional: audit questions reference document sections, and a draft can change underneath them. Approved means stable.

app.qformance.io/documents/SOP-PR-002

An approved controlled document showing the green Approved badge and version number

save as: public/docs-screenshots/audit-setup/approved-document.png

If the document isn't approved yet, finish the approval workflow first — see Document approvals & versions. Drafts and "Under Review" documents won't appear in the topic picker.

Step 2 — Create one or more audit topics

Go to Admin → Audit → Topics. The page lists your existing audit topics; click New topic to add one.

For each new topic, set:

Field	What it does
Name	The label that appears in the audit checklist and reporting (e.g. "Calibration records" or "Supplier qualification").
Linked document	The approved document this topic audits against. Only approved documents are listed.
Departments	The departments where this topic might apply. (The Scope Planner narrows it further per facility.)
Assessment type	Audit, Inspection, or Checklist. Filters the topic so it only appears in the right kind of program.
Plannable	Whether this topic should appear in the Audit Planner's calendar grid. Most topics are; one-off ad-hoc topics aren't.

One document → one or more topics

A 60-page Quality Manual likely covers half a dozen distinct things you'd audit separately — internal communication, document control, training, calibration, inspection. Each of those becomes its own topic, all linked to the same parent document. The topics aren't ranked or hierarchical — they're just different lenses on the same source.

This is the most-missed step. People assume "one SOP = one topic" and end up with a single bloated audit. Splitting topics is what makes scope-driven audits work.

What you DON'T do here

You don't write audit questions on the topic itself — that's the next step. Topics are bridges from the document to the audit program; questions hang off them.

Step 3 — Build the question bank

Questions live at Admin → Audit → Questions (the Question Bank). Each question is linked to a topic, which is what connects it to the underlying document, the facility / department scope, and — automatically — the compliance map.

app.qformance.io/admin/audit/questions

The Question Bank list with topic, departments, standards, and level columns

save as: public/docs-screenshots/audit-setup/question-bank.png

Each question carries:

Field	What it does
Question text	The auditor-facing prompt. Plain language, action-focused (e.g. "Show me the most recent calibration record for gauge 4-7.").
Guidance notes	Optional internal notes — what to look for, what good looks like, what counts as a finding.
Topic	Links to a section of the underlying controlled document. Drives clause inheritance, departments, and assessment type.
Departments	Which departments this question applies to (defaults from the topic).
Standards & clauses	Filled in automatically from the linked document section's compliance map. You don't tag clauses on the question — the document already knows.
Level	L1 (Critical) or L2 (Standard), per AS9101. Surveillance audits run L1 only; full system audits run both. Same bank, different scopes — no duplicated maintenance.
Geography	Optional country / state filter for region-specific questions.

Every save snapshots the question — so audits run before and after a change keep their original wording. The audit trail is preserved automatically.

How the compliance map flows in

This is the part that surprises people: you never tag clauses on a question. Clauses live on the document, the topic links to a document section, and the question inherits both.

The clause-inheritance chain

Document section is mapped to clauses in Compliance mapping. → Topic links to that document section. → Question inherits the section's clauses through its topic. → Audit finding carries the clause forward into the NCR if you raise one.

If you keep the compliance map current on your documents, every audit question and every finding is automatically tagged to the right standards and clauses — no manual re-tagging anywhere downstream.

This is also why document approval matters: when you approve a revised document, the system runs a question health check — flagging questions whose linked heading was removed (Broken) or whose section content changed materially (Needs review). See Document approvals & versions.

AI question proposer

You don't have to hand-write every question. The AI proposer drafts questions from any approved document — citing specific section anchors, inheriting standards, and ready for review.

Two ways to invoke it:

From a document or topic — propose questions

In Audit Admin, choose a document (or one of its topics) and click Propose questions with AI. The proposer:

Reads the document section(s) the topic points at — or, if you're scoping to a subset, the selected sections plus any one-hop hyperlink targets.
Drafts a list of suggested questions, each citing a real section anchor that resolves in the document. No fabricated references.
Inherits the standards & clauses from those sections' compliance map.
Inherits the facility and department scope from the document.

Every proposal lands in a review modal where you edit, accept, or reject each one. Nothing writes to the bank without your sign-off.

The AI propose-questions review modal with proposed questions, their section citations, and accept/edit/reject controls

save as: public/docs-screenshots/audit-setup/ai-propose-questions.png

Section citation — every proposed question shows which heading in the document it draws from. Click to open the section in a new tab.

Edit each row — the question text, departments, level, and standards are all editable before commit.

Bulk accept / individual reject — pick the ones that actually belong in your bank; discard the rest.

From the Audit Coverage tab — fill audit gap

The same proposer is invoked from the Gap Analysis → Audit Coverage matrix. Amber cells mean "we describe this clause in a document but don't audit it" — click Fill audit gap on any amber cell (or bulk across many) and the proposer drafts questions for the underserved clauses.

This is the right entry point when you're building the bank by working backwards from your compliance gaps rather than forwards from a single document.

What you DON'T have to do

Re-tag clauses on every question. They flow from the document's compliance map.
Re-enter departments. They flow from the topic.
Maintain question wording across audits. Every save snapshots the question; older audits keep the wording they were authored against.

Step 4 — Scope the topics to facilities and departments

Go to Admin → Audit → Scope Planner. You'll see every facility down the left side and every plannable topic across the top.

app.qformance.io/admin/audit/scope-planner

Scope Planner grid — facilities × topics, ticked where the topic applies at that department

Facility column — click Departments to confirm which departments exist there.

Topic × department cells — tick where the topic applies. The N/A indicator appears automatically where a topic has been declared not applicable on the topic itself.

Filters — assessment type, country, state. Useful when one region's program is being scoped without the rest of the org cluttering the view.

The flow here:

For each facility, click Departments to confirm which departments exist on-site (Production, Quality, Maintenance, Engineering, Stores, …).
For each department, tick the topics that apply.
Repeat for the next facility.

The grid is large but you set it up once — revisit it only when:

You add a new facility.
Department structure changes at an existing facility.
You add a new audit topic that should be planned (rather than ad-hoc).

See Audit Planner → Scope Planner for the screen-by-screen detail.

Step 5 — Create or plan an audit

With approved documents → topics → questions → scope all in place, audits build themselves.

Two paths, both equivalent in their result:

Path A: Create an audit ad-hoc

From Sidebar → Audits → New audit:

Pick the audit type (1st Party, Self, Supplier).
Pick the facility and departments.
The Question step pre-fills with every question whose topic is in scope at that facility × department combination — no manual checklist building.
Optionally untick questions that aren't relevant to this specific audit.
Save.

Useful for one-off or unscheduled audits. See Audits for the full audit-creation walk-through.

Path B: Plan it on the calendar

From Sidebar → Audit Planner, click any cell on the year grid (or use the calendar view) to schedule the audit. Set the planned date, lead auditor, and audit type. When you're ready to actually run it, click Create audit — the new-audit form opens pre-filled with the scope, lead, and date.

Useful for the recurring annual program — internal audits, scheduled supplier audits, regulatory surveillance audits. See Audit Planner for the full planner walkthrough.

Why the indirection?

If you're new to QFormance, the document → topic → questions → scope → audit chain feels like a lot of clicks. Why not just create an audit, pick a document, and go?

A few reasons it pays off:

Without topics	With topics
One audit per document → either one giant audit or one document audited many times, both painful.	One document → many topics → topic-sized audits that match how teams actually work.
Scope is set on each audit individually. Every audit has to specify "this facility × this department".	Scope is set once in the Scope Planner. Every audit at that facility × department picks up the right topics automatically.
Adding a new facility means rebuilding scope on every audit.	Adding a new facility means adding one row in the Scope Planner.
The compliance map and audit program are independent.	Topics inherit clauses from the linked document's compliance map — audit findings carry clause context automatically.

The flow is built so that as your library grows, audit setup gets faster, not slower.

Common patterns

One document → one topic

Small SOPs that cover a single procedure. WI-CAL-04 Calibration of Pressure Gauges → topic Pressure gauge calibration, scoped to facilities that have pressure gauges. One linked document, one topic, done.

One document → many topics

Master procedures like the Quality Manual. Quality Manual QM-001 → topics Document control, Internal communication, Training, Internal audit program, Management review, … each scoped independently. Different topics will appear in different audit types — Document control in management-system audits, Training in HR audits, etc.

Multi-facility topic

Topics that apply at every facility — Document control, for example. Tick the topic in the Scope Planner across every facility's relevant departments. Updating the linked SOP automatically updates every audit at every facility that uses it.

Topic that doesn't apply yet

You can mark a topic not plannable — it stays in the system, but won't appear in the Audit Planner grid or scope-driven new-audit forms. Useful for topics that are documented but not yet ready for the audit program (or are deliberately ad-hoc).