What happens when you merge audits?

Important: DO NOT MERGE AUDITS MID-AUDIT 

Merging is a function that allows multiple audits to be merged or amalgamated into a single document.

This functionality is especially useful when:

• Multiple Auditors break up a specific audit and each auditor conducts part of the documentation review(s) and/or part of the required interviews and/or part of the observation tour(s) – the results from these individual “partial” audits can then be merged into a single audit document

• Team Audits: For large organizations, it may be necessary for a team of auditors to each conduct a full audit at a different site/location. After completion of these individual audits, the results from all the audits are amalgamated or merged into a summary audit that contains the results of all the individual audits. 

To launch the Merge Audits function, first ensure that that all open audits are saved and closed. Then select the Merge Audits function from the menu bar.

The Merge Audits window defines the names of the input files that will be merged to create a new amalgamated/merged output file:

• Select the input Base File (1). When merging data all the company and auditor information will be taken from this file, including Title Page information, Auditor Details and Company Details
• Next, select the Browse to Add (2) button to select additional files in the order that they should be merged/appended to the Base File.
• There is no limit on the number of input files (3) that can be merged or appended to the Base File.
• Select the Output File name (4) – this file will be created from the combined information from the base file and input files.
• Finally, select the Merge Audits button (5) to execute the merge.

The merge functionality executes the merging of the following information:  

Justification Table Information

When merging Justification information the information is taken from the base file (A) and then in additional information is appended to this file from input files (B) to create the merged output file (C) according to the following rules:

• Site information from the base file (1) will be copied to the merged file and additional sites, that appear only in input files (2), will be added to give a complete list of all sites (3).
• If the same site appears in both files ((4)&(5)) then the number of employees will always be taken from the first file that references the site (4) and that information will be copied to the merged file (6) - The number of employees listed in subsequent files (5) will be ignored.

Documentation / Observation Results and Comment

When merging Documentation Review and Observation information the base file (A) is merged with information from additional input files (B) to create the merged output file (C) according to the following rules:

• If the same site appears in more than on file, as is the case for the site “Calgary” in the example below, then:
  • If a Result is documented for a specific question in more than one file ((1)&(2)) then the resulting output will be the average (3) of all the valid results from all the files that are merged.
  • If a result appears in only some of the input files ((4)&(5)) and is not defined in the other input file ((6)&(7)) then the average will be calculated by only considering the results that have been defined ((8)&(9)).
• If a site appears in an input file (10) and that site is not defined in the base file, then the additional sites will be added to the merged output file (11).
• If comments are defined for a input file (12) then they will be appended to the base file’s comments (13). In the merged file the comments from the input files will be separated with a file name separator (14).

Interview Responses and Comments

When merging Interview information the information from the base file (A) is merged with information from additional input files (B) to create the merged output file (C) according to the following rules:

• Every interview is handled as if it is unique and the final merged file (C) will contain all the interviews from all the input files :
• If comments are defined for a input file (2) then they will be appended to the base file’s comments (1). In the merged file the comments from the input files will be separated with a file name separator (3).

Findings, Notes and Supporting Documents

When text sections are merged from multiple audits the text is appended in the order that input files were selected. Text from different files will be separated with the file name separator.