From Test Result to Finding in 5 Minutes: How AI Drafts Audit Findings

Every internal auditor knows the pain: you’ve completed testing, identified exceptions, and now comes the tedious work of writing it all up. Drafting findings is time-consuming, and the quality varies depending on who writes them.

What if that process took 5 minutes instead of 50?

The Traditional Findings Workflow

Here’s how most CPA firms draft internal audit findings today:

Complete testing: Identify exceptions through control testing
Gather evidence: Collect supporting documentation
Draft condition: Describe what you found
Document criteria: What should have happened
Analyze cause: Why did the control fail?
Assess effect: What’s the impact?
Recommend action: What should the client do?
Review and refine: Senior review, edits, finalization

This process takes 30-60 minutes per finding—sometimes longer for complex issues. Multiply by a dozen findings per engagement, and you’re looking at days of writing time.

How AI Changes the Equation

AI-assisted findings drafting flips the workflow:

Complete testing: Same as before
AI drafts finding: Condition, criteria, cause, effect, recommendation
Auditor reviews: Refine language, add judgment
Done: Professional finding ready for the report

The AI handles the first draft—the blank-page problem that slows everyone down. You focus on refinement and professional judgment.

What AI-Drafted Findings Look Like

When you run control testing through Torvia, the AI has context:

Test objective: What control was being tested
Test procedure: How testing was performed
Test result: Pass, fail, or exception details
Evidence reviewed: Documents analyzed

From this context, the AI drafts a finding like:

Finding: Incomplete Access Review Documentation

Condition: During testing of quarterly access reviews for the financial reporting system, 3 of 25 sampled reviews (12%) lacked documented approval from the system owner. Reviews were completed but approval evidence was missing from the access management system.

Criteria: Per the Access Control Policy (IT-AC-003), all quarterly access reviews require documented approval by the designated system owner within 5 business days of review completion.

Cause: The access management workflow does not enforce approval capture before marking reviews complete. System owners are able to acknowledge review results without recording formal approval.

Effect: Without documented approval, there is no evidence that access reviews were authorized by appropriate personnel. This creates compliance risk for SOC 2 attestation and potential control gaps if unauthorized access was inadvertently approved.

Recommendation: Modify the access management workflow to require system owner approval before reviews can be marked complete. Implement automated reminders for pending approvals exceeding 3 business days.

This draft is ready for refinement—not a starting point from scratch.

The Auditor’s Role

AI doesn’t replace auditor judgment. It handles the structured work so you can focus on:

Root cause analysis: Is the AI’s cause assessment accurate? Is there a deeper issue?
Impact assessment: How material is this finding? Does severity need adjustment?
Recommendation quality: Is the recommendation practical for this client?
Client context: Are there factors the AI doesn’t know about?

The finding gets better because you’re editing a draft, not writing from nothing.

Source Linking: The Transparency Layer

Every AI-drafted finding includes source context:

Which documents were analyzed
Which test results informed the finding
Confidence level in the analysis

This transparency matters for:

Senior review: Verify the AI’s work has proper support
Client discussions: Point to specific evidence when presenting findings
Workpaper quality: Documentation of AI-assisted methodology

Time Savings in Practice

CPA firms using AI-assisted findings drafting report:

Metric	Before AI	With AI	Improvement
Time per finding	45 min	8 min	82% faster
Findings per day	6-8	25-30	3-4x throughput
Review cycles	2-3	1-2	30% fewer

The math is compelling: what took a full day now takes a few hours.

Getting Started

To leverage AI-drafted findings:

Run control testing through the platform: AI needs test context
Review AI drafts: Accept, modify, or regenerate
Refine with judgment: Add client-specific context
Export to your report format: Professional deliverable ready

The workflow integrates with how you already work—just faster.