Checks & records
What is a client compliance audit?
A client compliance audit is a hirer or a framework checking an agency's files against the requirements they set — usually by sampling rather than reviewing everything.
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<img src="https://agencyoptix.co.uk/glossary/audit/diagram.svg" alt="client compliance audit — diagram from AgencyOptix" width="880" height="620" loading="lazy">
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<a href="https://agencyoptix.co.uk/glossary/audit">What is a client compliance audit?</a> — diagram by
<a href="https://agencyoptix.co.uk">AgencyOptix</a>
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</figure>Sampling is what makes partial compliance dangerous. A firm with ninety-five per cent of files complete will still fail an audit that happens to draw three of the incomplete five per cent.
Audits look at when documents were obtained as well as whether they exist, so a file assembled after an audit was announced is visible from the dates.
Failure is commercial rather than only regulatory: removal from a framework or a preferred supplier list is usually the consequence, and it is hard to reverse.
What goes wrong in practice
- Files completed retrospectively when an audit is announced.
- No internal view of which files are currently short of what.
- Audit findings closed without changing the process that produced them.