ABC Audit Data and Evidence
Providing data to ABC
At ABC there are four options for providing data or information required to complete your audit:
| Method | General usage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ABC SharePoint (Mailing Lists) |
Mailing lists (for ABC Data audits) containing large volumes of personal data * |
We can create a dedicated folder for you on our SharePoint server, and send you a secure link to access that (the link is specific to the email address of each person who requires access). Within ABC, this folder is only accessible by the team who process these data files. |
| Client Secure FTP, FTP or cloud storage (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) |
Mailing lists, log files and other large or sensitive files |
You provide us with a link, password/key and instructions to collect data from your server. |
| ABC SharePoint (Audit Documents) |
Audit evidence documents which are confidential, such as contracts, invoices, spreadsheets and policy documents |
We will have created a dedicated folder for you on our SharePoint server, and send you a secure link to access that (the link is specific to the email address of each person who requires access). Within ABC, this folder is only accessible to the auditor(s) conducting your audit. |
| Email to your allocated Auditor |
Other audit evidence documents |
This is not considered an appropriate or secure method for sending large files containing personal data or confidential information to us |
* such as names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, subscriber IDs
If you have any questions about sending information to us, or accessing your SharePoint folder(s), please use the following contact email addresses.
| Mailing Lists containing personal data: | Inbox: Mailing.lists@abc.org.uk |
| Confidential audit evidence documents: | Inbox: Audit.filing@abc.org.uk |
Please do not send any lists including personal data or confidential documents to these email addresses.
You can of course always speak to your Auditor, or for any other general questions, you can check the contact us page of our website.
Sharing audit evidence with your Auditor
Once your audit work starts, you may be communicating with various members of the Audit team via email, and we may require various documents or files as supporting audit evidence, so that we can complete our audit work.
If you aren’t sure who your allocated auditor is, or their correct email address, please use audit.filing@abc.org.uk to contact the Audit Administrator.
However you should be aware that using email carries an element of risk if you’re sharing confidential information, as emails can be accidentally mis-addressed.
Below are some scenarios setting out current and best practice for sharing audit evidence:
- Consider that some audit evidence supplied in support of samples we have selected from mailing lists may themselves contain large volumes of personal data (e.g. digital edition log files may contain email addresses, IP addresses or User IDs). Such files should not be shared via email.
- Documents you chose to send by email, that you consider to be confidential, should be password protected, and you should send the auditor the password via a different route to the email containing the file (e.g. different email address, text message, phone call).
- Email servers might have a maximum size limit for attachments (typically 10-25MB), resulting in the email being rejected either in the sending or delivery system. Please use the ABC SharePoint (or your own secure system) for sending us any large files, to ensure that we receive them.
- It may be more appropriate and secure for you to walk through the evidence with the auditor in a video call, sharing evidence live, and allowing the auditor to note down and selectively screen-capture the necessary information, rather than requiring you to send any data to us at all.
- Please do not send any documents to the Auditor’s personal email or cloud storage account, please only use accounts secured by ABC systems or your own credentials.
- If you have some paper records you need to share with us, we ask that you send scanned copies to us, as we do not keep paper records. If you are unable to scan the documents, please post them to the ABC offices (Charter House, 207-209 High Street, Berkhamsted HP4 1AD) by recorded delivery, for the attention of the Auditor, so that we can scan them. Please do not send any documents to the Auditors’ home address. We will securely destroy all records supplied on paper, once we have taken appropriate copies and the audit work is complete, unless you ask your auditor to return them to you.
Further information
For further detailed information about procedures in relation to personal data that you supply to us, for each type of audit that we conduct, please request a copy of our relevant Data Processing guide.
Please also take a look at our Privacy Policy https://www.abc.org.uk/privacy-policy
Or if you have any questions about our management of personal data, please email us on: dataprotection@abc.org.uk
If you need to us to sign a Data Protection Agreement or Non-Disclosure Agreement before sharing any information with us, we’re happy do to that, just speak to your Auditor or Audit Manager who will make sure that is taken care of.