• An audit may take a few weeks to complete as the auditor evaluates internal controls, conducts interviews, and assesses reports, receipts, and summaries for accuracy and reliability.
• A post-audit conference meeting is held after the assessment to review the audit findings and the audit report.

For the actual audit, the full assessment may take a few weeks for the auditor to complete. The auditor may also provide the carrier with an opportunity to provide additional data, if data is missing. It’s very important for the carrier to remain engaged with the auditor during the audit. If the auditor calls, the carrier should return the phone call promptly.

Part of the audit involves an evaluation of the carrier’s “internal controls.” Internal controls are the collective systems the carrier has in place to ensure accurate recordkeeping and International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA)/International Registration Plan (IRP) filings. Internal controls, or lack thereof, can give the auditor an idea if the carrier’s recordkeeping system as a whole is reliable and trustworthy. To evaluate the internal controls, the auditor may ask for a walk-through of the recordkeeping process from start to finish. The auditor may also interview personnel involved in the filing and recordkeeping processes.

This is the time of the audit process where the auditor will go through actual trip reports, run trips, and look for gaps in odometer readings. They’ll look at monthly/quarterly summaries, fuel receipts, fuel reports, and bulk fuel records.

When records are incomplete, or are judged to be unreliable by the auditor, the audit will require more time. The audit conclusions may be based upon other criteria, such as estimates, past experience, similar operations, or other information.

Post audit conference

A post-audit conference is held after the auditor has completed the audit and determined the results of the findings. The post-audit conference is often held with the same people who were present for the pre-audit conference. This is a meeting in which the auditor will go over the audit findings and the audit report.

The audit report is:

• A summary of the carrier’s operation;
• A summary of what was covered at the pre-audit conference;
• A narrative about the carrier’s internal controls (how the carrier manages the data and reporting process);
• An explanation of how the auditor picked a sample;
• An explanation of how the auditor analyzed fuel and what types of fuel records the carrier had available (retail receipts, bulk fuel, other fuel arrangements);
• An explanation of how the data was analyzed, and, finally;
• The audit assessment.