Defining assurance plans
Assurance Plans is an app in Diligent One. An assurance plan is an annual program that determines the scope of assurance activities, the areas of coverage, and the availability of resources. Define an assurance plan to execute on the key objectives of the organization, ensure that appropriate coverage and resources are available, and align directly to strategic risk.
Before you start
There are a few optional things you can do before you define an assurance plan.
If you are creating a new project within an assurance plan, you can define the estimated project start date by specifying a fiscal quarter and year.
To specify a fiscal quarter, you can define your organization's fiscal year end date in Launchpad. The default fiscal year end date is December 31.
For more information, see Updating organization settings.
How it works
The fiscal year end date and estimated project start date are used to determine the actual values in the Fieldwork Start Date and Target Completion Date fields in a project:
Example
Dates input | Project dates |
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If you are creating a new project within an assurance plan, you can import objectives from multiple frameworks to the project. You can create frameworks and objectives as part of your assurance plan setup. Later, if you create an objective in a a project, you can import it back to an associated framework for use in other projects that use the same framework.
For more information, see Managing information using frameworks and Defining objectives.
To achieve a comprehensive view of your coverage at all levels of your organization, you can set up your organizational entity structure, and tag projects and project items (objectives, risks, controls, and issues) with entities.
If you are creating a new project within an assurance plan, you must first set up entity tagging before you can tag projects with entities.
For more information about entity tagging, see Setting up entity tagging.
To communicate to your board and managers how your plan relates to your organization's strategic risks and treatments, you can base your assurance plan on framework objectives tied to your strategic risks.
By linking framework objectives in Projects to strategic risks in Strategy, you can ensure complete coverage of all strategic risks identified during annual risk assessments, and determine how well your organization is doing in mitigating risk.
For more information, see Defining risk treatment.
How it works
Proper governance requires leaders to assess strategic risks and then propose an assurance plan to the board for approval, illustrating potential impacts to the organization and how and why strategic risks will be resolved. Assurance plans are the means to gaining approval for your list of audit plans, risk management plans, or compliance reviews.
Assurance plans can capture:
- the strategic risks you want to address
- the objectives you want to focus on
- the areas of the organization you will cover
- the overall progress of the plan and the individual projects that are part of the plan
- the total available resources (in hours) allocated to the plan
Adding projects to an assurance plan
You can add up to 100 projects to an assurance plan by:
- creating a new project
- linking an existing project
- rolling forward an active project, archived project, or project template
A single project can be added to multiple assurance plans. If you create a new project, you can import objectives from frameworks to the project and tag projects with entities as part of the assurance plan setup:
- Objectives the key areas of a project and the organizing containers for work done within a project
- Entities business units, departments, locations, or key initiatives that are within the scope of the project function
Viewing coverage
After you define your assurance plan, you can view coverage across the different projects in your assurance plan by entity category or entity.
In each assurance plan, coverage is displayed in a table. The rows show the individual projects associated with the plan, and the columns show the tagged entities.
Entities tagged to projects and items contained in projects (objectives, risks, controls, and issues) are indicated with a check mark . Entities that have not been tagged to projects or project items, but are a part of your organizational entity structure, are specified under Entities not covered (#).
Viewing strategic risks
Within an assurance plan, you can use the Risks tab to see how your plan aligns with your organization's strategic risks:
Example
A financial reporting mistatement risk that is linked to two objectives in the assurance plan:
Note
Only strategic risks that you previously linked to framework objectives in the Strategy app display in your assurance plan. To view strategic risks, you must add any projects linked to the framework to the assurance plan.
Strategic risks linked to project objectives are not displayed.
Viewing progress and available resources
Each assurance plan displays the progress of each project in the plan, the overall progress of the plan, and the total available resources (in hours) allocated to the plan.
Progress and available resources are visualized using in the following percentage bar charts:
Chart name | Example | How it is calculated |
---|---|---|
Progress |
the sum of scores received for each project phase divided by the maximum score you can obtain across all project phases and objectives For more information, see Understanding project progress charts. |
|
Overall progress |
the average progress across all projects in the assurance plan |
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Total available resources (hours) |
Tip You can hover your mouse over the bar sections to view the number of hours. |
Example
Viewing coverage by entity in an assurance plan
Scenario
As an Audit Manager, you need to determine the scope of assurance projects for the year and the areas of coverage.
Previously, you defined an assurance plan, and specified entities within scope. Now, you want to view coverage across the different projects in your assurance plan by the British Columbia entity.
Process
You open the assurance plan, select Entities, and filter the information in the table by the British Columbia entity.
Result
Selecting British Columbia shows the direct descendant entities (Vancouver and Victoria) as distinct columns in the table.
Projects that cover the Vancouver and / or Victoria entities are indicated with a check mark .
Permissions
Project Admins, Project Creators, and Assurance Plans Admins can define assurance plans.
Note
Assurance Plans Admins that are also Project Creators can create, link, and rollforward projects in an assurance plan. Assurance Plans Admins that are not Project Creators can only link projects in an assurance plan.
Create an assurance plan
Provide a name and description for the assurance plan, and define the total available resources and planning period.
- Open Assurance Plans.
The Assurance Plans page opens.
- Click + Create plan.
The Create new plan side panel opens.
- Enter information in the following fields and click Create plan:
Field Description Assurance plan name the title of the plan
The maximum character limit is 255.
Description
optional
a statement about the plan Total available resources (hours) the total number of hours available for project work Planning period the start and end dates of the plan, defined in years
Tip
Typically, the planning period is defined as a calendar year.
Result The assurance plan is created.
Add projects to the assurance plan
Define the projects that form the basis of the assurance plan.
Click + Add to plan and choose one of the following options:
- Create a new project set up a new project from scratch and add it to assurance plan
- Link active projects add existing active projects to the assurance plan
- Rollforward project rollforward an active project, archived project, or project template, and add it to the assurance plan
Create a new project
- Provide basic information about the project, and click Continue.
For more information, see Creating projects.
- Optional. Select the objectives from frameworks to import to the project.
Note
The following limitations apply:
- To select objectives, your role must allow you to view the objectives in the framework.
For more information about roles, see Projects app permissions.
- You can select up to a maximum of 100 objectives to import from frameworks to the project at one time.
- You cannot import objectives in frameworks from the Content Library.
Situation Steps Additional information You want to base your assurance plan on strategic risks. - Under Objectives linked to strategic risks, select from existing objectives in frameworks linked to strategic risks.
- Click Continue.
Strategic risks are sorted by Inherent Risk Heat in descending order first, and then by creation date.
For more information, see Defining risk treatment.
You want to base your assurance plan on existing objectives from frameworks. - Under All objectives, select from existing objectives in frameworks.
- Click Continue.
Objectives linked to strategic risks are included in the All objectives list.
You do not have any existing frameworks or objectives. Click Continue to skip this step or create new frameworks and objectives:
- Create a new objective in an existing framework Click + Create objective and select the framework from the dropdown list.
- Create a new objective in a new framework Click + Create objective and select + Create new framework... from the dropdown list.
For more information, see Managing information using frameworks and Defining objectives.
- To select objectives, your role must allow you to view the objectives in the framework.
- Optional. Select the existing entities that apply to the project, and click Continue.
Any entities that have been previously tagged to objectives are pre-selected.
If you do not have any existing entities, click Continue to skip this step for now and set up your organization entity structure at a later date. For more information, see Setting up entity tagging.
- Review and finalize the project, and click Create project.
Result The new project is added to the assurance plan. If you selected objectives and entities as part of the setup, the objectives from the framework(s) are imported to the new project, and the entities are added to the assurance plan.
Link active projects
Select the projects that you want to add to the assurance plan, and click Link projects.
Result The existing projects, objectives, and tagged entities are added to the assurance plan.
Rollforward a project
- Search or filter for the project you want to add to the assurance plan.
- Select the project and click Continue.
- Provide basic information about the project, and click Continue.
For more information, see Rollforward projects.
- Review and finalize the project, and click Save and rollforward project.
Result The new project and any entities tagged to the project are added to the assurance plan.
View or update an assurance plan
View coverage, update the details of an assurance plan, or add projects to and remove projects from the assurance plan.
- From the Assurance plans page, open the assurance plan you want to view or update.
Assurance plans are sorted by planning period, and then by alphabetical name.
- Do any of the following:
- View coverage Under Show coverage in, select either Entities or Categories, and select the appropriate entity or category from the filter:
Action Outcome Select an entity category shows the associated entities as distinct columns in the table Select Top level entities shows the root entities as distinct columns in the table Select a parent entity shows the direct descendant entities as distinct columns in the table View Entities not covered (#) shows a filtered list based on the entity you select
Entities not covered (#) is hidden when you select an entity category.
- View strategic risks Click the Risks tab.
Strategic risks are sorted by Inherent Risk Heat in descending order first, and then by creation date.
- Update the details of an assurance plan Click Edit plan.
- Add a project to the assurance plan Click + Add to plan, and follow these steps: Add projects to the assurance plan.
- Remove a project from the assurance plan Click the beside the project in the table, and click Unlink.
- View coverage Under Show coverage in, select either Entities or Categories, and select the appropriate entity or category from the filter:
- Optional. Make any necessary updates and save your changes.
Result The assurance plan is updated.
View the activity log
View a complete history of changes to an assurance plan.
- From the Assurance plans page, open the relevant assurance plan.
- Click the Activities tab.
Result The activity log associated with the assurance plan displays.
- Optional. Use any of the filter options to limit the actions shown in the summary table:
Note
You can combine any filter selections together to refine the list of actions displayed in the table. To clear all filters that you apply, click Clear.
Filter Description Example Date range Specifies the date range to show activity for. Actions that occurred between the start and end date are shown.
Use the arrows to scroll through periods of time. You can specify weekly, monthly, or custom date ranges.
Last 30 days Users Includes actions completed by the selected users only. You can select one or more users to view at once.
John Doe
Download a report
Download an assurance plan report in .docx or .pdf format.
- From the Assurance plans page, navigate to the assurance plan you want to export.
- Click the overflow icon , and select either Export as Word or Export as PowerPoint.
- Click Download.
Result The assurance plan report is downloaded to your machine:
- Word organizationName Assurance Plan Report date.docx
- PowerPoint organizationName Assurance Plan Report date.pptx
Delete an assurance plan
Delete an assurance plan to permanently remove it from Projects.
Caution
Deleting an assurance plan permanently removes all plan data and links to projects.
- From the Assurance plans page, navigate to the assurance plan you want to delete.
- Click the overflow icon beside the plan, select Delete plan, and click Delete plan to confirm.
Result The assurance plan is deleted.