I am the first internal auditor our bank has had so I am creating everything as I go. When I perform an audit I present it to sr. management. How much time do you allow for them to respond?

I usually give them 2 weeks. That said, we have already had an exit meeting to discuss all findings and recommendations, so there should be no surprises in the official report.

I have found that giving more time leads to lower priority on management's to do list. Of couse, there are always exceptions which call for a longer response time - I usually make them request it.

There was a thread in this section a couple of months ago about this topic. If this link doesn't bring you to it, it was called "How long do you give management" and it was in the Audit section.

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2 weeks was the norm. I said shorter, but I have since changed to 2 weeks also. I agree with Sid about no suprises and that the long times allow them to "forget" to respond.

Welcome aboard! I was in your shoes last year. If you register with BOL, you can PM me and I'll be happy to help you out. Or, you can always post here. Everyone has been very helpful. Either way, good luck! It's a lot of work, but worth it when you get everything running like you want it.

I guess I am generous. I give 30 days.

I agree with Sid and use two weeks currently. I used to give longer and found that I had to continually pursue getting responses. With the two week turn around, the responses generally come in on their own.

What steps do you take if you find mgt. is exceeding the given time limit?

Ten business days. However, we do allow the auditee to have an extension up to 30 days if necessary. We then report the request for an extension to the audit committee. Also, if we do not receive a reply on an audit performed and there isn't a request for an extension it is reported as an exception to the audit committee.

When you are talking about the two week timeframe to respond, are you talking about them just acknowledging/agreeing to the findings of the audit? Or are you talking about completing the recommendations? It would seem like a short amount of time for them to correct the findings?

They respond in writing how the item will be completed and give a time frame to have it completed by. Sometimes it can be done in the 2 weeks, but more than likely not. We go back and test to see that the corrections have been made shortly after the provided due date for correction.

Ditto Kiwi, except they report back to me that the correction has been made. If it is minor, I wait until next audit to review. If it is major, I review it after completion.

Thank you all for your comments. It helps so much!

2 weeks. That is more than enough time for them to respond. They generally know the issues prior to the exit meeting, we don't have any surprises- so they should mentally be preparing their responses prior to that.