You're Not Alone in the Audit Struggle: Key Takeaways from the Webinar

Compliance managers, quality leads, and operations professionals recently joined Nvolve for a live session addressing a problem familiar to almost every regulated business: audit preparation that is time-consuming, high-stakes, and rarely as joined-up as it should be.

You're Not Alone in the Audit Struggle brought together Nvolve host Linzi Ernstzen, Izzy Vermane, Nvolve's Auditing Specialist and formerly an audit lead at JS Davidson before joining Nvolve, and Helen Franklin, Nvolve's Head of Customer Success, for a session combining audience polling, a practitioner's perspective, and a live platform demonstration.

Most audit processes are still held together by paper and spreadsheets
The opening poll set the scene starkly. Half of attendees described their current audit process as mostly paper-based, with a further quarter relying on spreadsheets and manual tracking. Seventeen percent said they were juggling multiple systems that don't connect to one another, and none reported having a system in place that wasn't working effectively. Only a small minority, 8%, considered their process fully digital and working well. For an audience this size, that leaves the substantial majority managing audits through methods that create duplication, version confusion, and evidence that is hard to locate under pressure.

Finding evidence quickly is the single biggest headache

The second poll asked attendees to name their biggest audit-day challenge, and the results reinforced the stakes described in the opening framing. Half pointed to finding evidence quickly as their primary difficulty, while a combined 28% cited chasing training records and sign-offs or managing non-conformances and corrective actions. A further 21% named lack of visibility across sites and teams. Nobody selected feeling unprepared or reactive, suggesting that for this audience the problem isn't a lack of readiness so much as a lack of retrieval speed once the auditor is in the room.

Appetite for change is strong, but most are still exploring

The third poll turned to intent. A third of attendees said they were actively looking for a solution now, and a further 44% said they were exploring options or researching the market. Combined, that's over three-quarters of the room signalling active or near-term interest in improving their audit process this year, with the remainder either planning improvements later or focused on learning best practice rather than buying immediately. As with any audience at this stage, the opportunity is not a lack of appetite but the need for the right evidence to move from research to decision.

A practitioner's view: from reactive to in control

Izzy Vermane's contribution carried particular weight because she came to Nvolve as a customer before joining the company. Speaking about her previous role at JS Davidson, she described the shift audits went through once evidence, actions, and training records were connected in one place, moving her team from a reactive, document-chasing posture to one she characterised as controlled, calmer, and more confident heading into an audit. She also referenced a similar transformation at Walker's Daily, part of the Samworth Brothers Group, where closing the loop between findings and corrective actions changed how prepared the team felt going into inspections. Her framing throughout was consistent with the polling: the technology matters less than the confidence it gives a team that nothing has been missed.

The live demo: closing the loop between audits, actions, and evidence
Helen Franklin's demonstration of Nvolve's audit and supply chain module was built around the specific gap the polls had already identified. She walked through scheduling an audit, capturing evidence against it, and filtering directly to open non-conformances rather than searching through a full audit history. From there she showed how corrective actions could be raised with photo evidence and a close-out date attached, keeping the finding, the action, and the proof of resolution together rather than spread across separate files or systems. She closed by showing reporting and export to Excel and PDF, addressing the visibility gap the second poll had flagged as a top concern.

What the Q&A revealed about the real barriers to adoption

Five themes ran through the open Q&A. The most persistent concern was change management: several attendees asked how to bring colleagues who prefer paper, or who are less comfortable with technology, onto a digital system without resistance. Notification workflows were a second recurring theme, with questions about how teams are alerted when actions are raised or closed. A third theme concerned trend reporting across multiple audits, specifically whether average scores and recurring issues can be tracked over time rather than audit by audit. Onboarding time for the audit module came up repeatedly, as did a direct comparison between working from paper files versus the platform from an auditor's point of view. Taken together, these questions suggest an audience less concerned with whether the technology works and more focused on how smoothly it fits into existing team habits and reporting needs.

Where this leaves the audit profession

The polling points to an audience still early in solving this problem: a majority still relying on paper or disconnected systems, and most still researching rather than actively buying. What the session suggests is holding teams back is not awareness of the problem but confidence that a new system will genuinely close the loop between findings, actions, and evidence without creating a new burden of its own. Izzy Vermane's account of that shift, coming from someone who experienced it as a customer before joining Nvolve, did more to address that confidence gap than a product walkthrough alone could.

For existing customers interested in exploring the audit and supply chain module shown in the demonstration, a trial can be arranged directly with an account manager.