This article outlines how to fill in the spreadsheet that is used to upload audit sections, requirements and evidence questions when creating a new audit template.

Before populating the spreadsheet we recommend reading through:

• The Audit Structure Explained
• Building an Audit - Step 2: The Audit Template 

You can find a blank copy of the audit template spreadsheet attached to this article at the bottom of the screen.  Please follow the below instructions when filling in your excel template.

There are 6 steps, outlined in more detail below, to fill in the audit spreadsheet:

Step 1- Setting up your Audit Sections

Step 2 - Entering the Section Details

Step 3 - Adding your Requirements

Step 4 - Adding your Evidence Questions

Step 5 - Repeat for Each Section

Step 6 - Save and Upload to the Audit Template

Step 1- Setting up your Audit Sections

Each tab within the spreadsheet relates to a Section within an Audit. Your audit may have only a single Section, or you may wish to split your audit up into multiple sections. The blank template attached has 3 tabs ready for you to use.

If you only wish to have one Section in your audit, you will need to delete any unwanted tabs. You can do this by right-clicking on the unwanted tab and clicking Delete.

If you require more than 3 Sections in your audit, simply duplicate one of the tabs created for you by right-clicking on one of the tabs and selecting Move or Copy...

...then checking the box to Create a copy in the below pop up box.

Different versions of Excel may appear slightly differently to the above screenshots.

Step 2 - Entering the Section Details

To start entering the Section Details, start with the first tab at the bottom of your spreadsheet labelled "Section 1"

At the top of the sheet you are asked to enter the Section information. 

Fill in this information as you would like it to appear to your users. For example, below:

When entering the Section Reference, it is advisable to keep to a standard throughout the audit, for example for a Health and Safety Audit, you might want to use a reference HS, for a Data Protection audit, your reference might be DP. This is so that when viewing audit questions and any actions linked to them, there is a clear visibility of what type of audit the reference relates to. 

As our example will be a Kitchen Audit and this is our first Section, we have used a Reference K1.

Step 3 - Adding your Requirements

Once you have added the details for this first Section, you can move onto the Requirements. 

Remember, each audit has a 3 tier Structure, Section > Requirement Page > Evidence Questions. 

The Questions you are going to ask will all sit within a Requirement (page of questions). A Requirement is a good way to group your questions together for combined scoring and reporting purposes. If you are creating a very small audit, you may only need a single Requirement, however it is usually the case that you will need multiple Requirements in your Section.

On the spreadsheet, a Requirement can be easily identified by the highlighted row. 

A Requirement must also be given a REF No. 

Enter the REF No. and Name for your Requirements. 

Again, it is advisable to maintain a standard of Reference throughout your audit. For example, in our Kitchen Audit example, we have pre-fixed each of our Requirements with K1 to denote that this is part of Section 1 of the Kitchen Audit. 

For example, see the blue cells below:

If you require more than the 3 Requirements provided, simply copy and paste the cells and continue completing until you have the number of Requirements required for this first Section of your Audit. E.g.:

If you only require one or two Requirements for this Section of your audit, simply delete the Requirements from the spreadsheet that are not needed. 

Step 4 - Adding your Evidence Questions

Under each Requirement you will see you have been provided with space for two Evidence Questions. As with the Sections and the Requirements, you can add additional questions in here, or if only a single question is needed, you can delete the question that is not required. 

Before you enter the questions you want to ask as part of this audit, remember that the Audit Type you are going to use for this audit will depend on how your questions will be answered (please refer to this guide: Building an Audit - Step 1: Audit Types). 

The most common audit type uses Yes/No/NA questions. For these questions Yes is always the positive answer and the No is always the negative answer. It is important to ensure your questions are therefore worded accordingly. 

For example, 

• If we were to ask the question, "Are the floors dirty?" an answer of No would in fact be a positive answer, however in the Radar Healthcare audit a No is marked as a negative. 
• The question should therefore be worded "Are the floors clean and dry?". A Yes is now a positive answer and will fit in with the automatic scoring within the Radar Healthcare Audit tool. 

Fill in your questions on the spreadsheet. 

N.B Do not number the questions - Radar Healthcare automatically numbers the questions with the requirement reference as a prefix when you upload the spreadsheet as an audit template. In the example below questions in the first requirement, K1-KU, would be numbered as K1-KU-1, K1-KU2, K1-KU-3 etc.

Step 5 - Repeat for Each Section

Once you have completed all the Section details, Requirements and Evidence Questions for your first Section, repeat the above as required for each of the Sections (tabs) on your spreadsheet. If your audit only needs one Section, remember to delete the tabs that are not needed. 

Step 6 - Save and Upload to the Audit Template

Finally, you are now ready to upload your completed spreadsheet to your Audit Template. For full instructions on this, please refer to this guide: Building an Audit - Step 2: The Audit Template

Once uploaded your Audit will look similar to the below - here you can see the Section "Kitchen Use, Equipment an Storage" and the 3 Requirements "Kitchen Use", "Fridge and Freezer" and "Kitchen Storage":

When viewing the first Requirement, we can see our Evidence Questions are also now populated:

Please be aware, when uploading questions via the excel import method covered in this article, all Comments and Document Uploads will be optional. 

To change any of the settings for these, find instructions here: Viewing and Editing Audit Evidence Questions