---
title: Audit plan overview
description: An audit plan enables you to plan all your audit engagements in a systematic and logical manner.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/governance-risk-compliance/audit-management/what-is-an-audit-plan.html
release: australia
product: Audit Management
classification: audit-management
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 1
breadcrumb: [Audit Management overview, Audit Management, Governance, Risk, and Compliance]
---

# Audit plan overview

An audit plan enables you to plan all your audit engagements in a systematic and logical manner.

An audit engagement is like a project which involves multiple tasks and it is difficult to manage all audit activities without planning well. Having a well-defined plan with all the audits, their projects, and costs helps audit managers to perform their tasks efficiently.

## Audit plan uses and benefits

An audit team conducts multiple audits in an organization. Creating an audit plan enables the audit teams to plan their audits and engagements better. By creating an audit plan, the auditor directors or audit leads with the role sn\_audit.manager can:

-   Plan engagements effectively and ensure that the goals set in the annual internal audit plan are accomplished.
-   Help the auditor obtain appropriate evidence for the circumstances.
-   Keep audit costs at a reasonable level.
-   Ensure that potential problems are promptly identified
-   Get the scope of the audit program determined by an auditor to perform the audit tasks in a well-defined manner.

## Audit planning workflow

-   Defining the purpose of the audit
-   Risk assessment
-   Audit scoping
-   High-level audit schedule and detailed audit timeline with milestones
-   Resource planning by necessary skills and building audit team
-   Cost planning

When you create an audit plan with advanced planning capabilities and add engagements to the plan, and move the engagement to either **Validate** or **Fieldwork** state, an associated engagement project is automatically generated.

**Note:** A project is only created if the PPM Standard plugin is installed and the user has the it\_project\_manager role. If the user does not have the it\_project\_manager role and has only the sn\_audit.manager role, even when advanced planning capabilities are enabled on the plan, the engagements do not have corresponding projects when they move into **Validate** or **Fieldwork** states.

After you add engagements to an audit plan, you also have the flexibility to change the parent plan of the engagements. It is important to note the following points:

-   Engagements can be either added or removed from a plan only when the plan is in **Draft**, **Awaiting Approval**, and **Approved** states.
-   The parent plan can only be changed on an engagement when the engagement is in **Scope**, **Validate** and, **Fieldwork** states.