‘We call them unscheduled (vs. surprise) audits, in that they are not part of the originally planned, annual first-party audit plan.”

“We sometimes need to have unscheduled audits, but they are normally not intended as surprise audits. The auditor may agree with the auditee on an unscheduled audit if the circumstances so warrant. It is to be viewed as a contingency plan when the audit findings necessitate it. We even have that in third-party audits, and they are normally called ‘special audits.’”

“There are formal and informal audits... I prefer the word ‘random’ rather than ‘surprise’ and as a courtesy try to minimize disruption and schedules.”

I came across these statements in an ongoing discussion thread in a LinkedIn group titled “Can We Have Surprise Audits in Addition to the Planned Internal Audits?” A fascinating discussion on several levels, not the least of which was a lack of consensus on the definitions used to describe internal audit types. Judging by the experience, position, and general demeanor of the participants, I figure them to be an intelligent crowd. So how do five professionals come up with five different terms to denote the same activity?

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