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The fastest way to implement audit recommendations is to give every finding one owner, one deadline and one piece of proof that it’s done. A report with twelve findings and no names on them is a report that gets filed and forgotten.
What should you do in the first week after the report?
Read the whole thing once, then sort the findings by money and by risk. A missing signature on an expense claim is annoying. A payroll remittance that’s short every month costs you interest, and that’s a different kind of problem.
Put every finding on a single sheet. Give each one a name next to it, a date and a line saying what “fixed” looks like. “Improve controls” isn’t a fix. “Two people approve any payment over a set amount, and the approver’s initials show on the invoice” is.
Then tell the owners. Don’t just email the report. Sit down with each person and ask whether the deadline is realistic. A date they helped choose gets met more often than one you handed them.
Which findings come first?
Anything that touches tax owed, money held for others or payroll goes to the top. Those are the areas where an error compounds. Taking three employees paid $2,500 every two weeks, the payroll remittance calculator gives this per pay run:
| Item | Per pay run, 3 employees |
|---|---|
| Held back from pay | $1,666.64 |
| Employer share | $593.37 |
| Total to remit | $2,260.02 |
| Full cost of the payroll | $8,093.37 |
If a finding says you’ve been remitting the wrong amount, the error repeats 26 times a year. So fix that before you reorganize the filing cabinet.
Sales tax works the same way. On a $2,000 sale the GST/HST calculator shows $260 of tax in Ontario and $100 in Alberta. A finding that says invoices carry the wrong code for one province is worth a quick look at how many invoices that touches.
How do you make a fix stick?
People forget new routines within a month unless something forces them to repeat. The fix needs a trigger. Put the monthly payroll check on the same day as the remittance. Put the invoice tax check in the same step as sending the invoice.
Keep proof. The CRA’s guide on keeping records asks you to keep books and supporting documents for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. A screenshot of the corrected setting, dated, and a note of who made the change, is exactly the sort of thing that’s worth keeping next to the original report.
Check back at thirty, sixty and ninety days. Ask the owner to show you, not tell you. It’s a short meeting when things are fine and a useful one when they aren’t.
What if you can’t afford to fix every audit recommendation?
That’s normal.
Some findings will cost more than they save, and it’s fine to accept a risk on purpose as long as you write that down with the date and the person who decided. Put the cost of each fix next to your budget and see what fits this quarter.
What you can’t do is leave a finding open without a decision. “Not now” is an answer. “Nobody looked” isn’t.
Mistakes that undo the work
The first is treating the auditor’s wording as a to-do list. The report describes a problem, and the cause may sit somewhere else. A late remittance might come from a cash-flow gap, not from sloppy paperwork.
The second is fixing the symptom. You correct the wrong invoices and never change the tax setting that produced them.
The third is forgetting the past. If the review shows tax that was under-reported in an earlier year, correcting it going forward isn’t enough. The CRA’s Voluntary Disclosures Program exists for that case, so read it before you file anything.
This page can’t tell you which findings matter in your business. We don’t know your report. We can only say how to handle the list once you have it. If the recommendations come from a CRA audit rather than a private review, read the letter for the response dates, since we haven’t confirmed those.
Where the numbers come from
The retention period comes from the Canada Revenue Agency guide RC188, Keeping Records. The payroll and sales tax figures come from this site’s calculators, which use 2026 rates and round to the cent.
Frequently asked questions
How long should it take to act on audit recommendations?
It depends on the finding. Payroll and tax errors should be fixed first, often within days. Process changes can take a quarter.
Who should own each finding?
The person who does the work day to day, with a manager who signs off. One name per finding works better than a team.
Do I have to fix every recommendation?
No. You can accept a risk on purpose if you write down the decision, the date and who made it.
How long do I keep proof of the fix?
The CRA says to keep books and records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
What if the audit found unreported tax?
Read about the CRA's Voluntary Disclosures Program before you file a correction. It only covers penalties and interest, never the tax itself.
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Information only. This page is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Tax-Services.ca is an independent publisher: we don't prepare or file tax returns or offer tax services, and we have no connection with the CRA, Revenu Québec, any government or any company named on this page. Check the figures that matter with an official source or a qualified professional.