The compliance leaders’ guide to a better audit season

Cloud adoption is accelerating. Security automation is evolving. 

But the way we handle audits? It’s still stuck in the past.

Compliance teams today are managing audits with the same reactive, manual playbooks they’ve used for years—despite new tools that promise better outcomes. It’s no wonder audit season still feels like a fire drill complete with last-minute scrambles, endless email chains, and that familiar sense of dread when the auditor’s first request hits your inbox.

But there’s a better way—one that transforms audits from chaotic ordeals into streamlined, collaborative processes. 

In this article, we’ll explore why the traditional audit model is broken, what the “new way” looks like, and how forward-thinking compliance leaders are already reaping the benefits of a more integrated approach.

The current landscape of the audit model and why it’s broken

Audits haven’t changed much in decades. They’re still largely treated as one-off events—a point-in-time snapshot where a clean report is the only goal.

The reality is more complex. Today’s frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc.) demand continuous control, stakeholder involvement across teams, and credible evidence that your security program is working.

And yet most organizations still rely on outdated tools and fragmented processes. That gap between what audits require and how they’re executed creates major friction for the both auditor and auditee.

Many companies view audits as solely an IT function

Instead of treating audits as a business-wide initiative, many companies silo the responsibility within IT. That leads to bloated scopes, missed risks, and controls that don’t reflect the actual business context. Add multiple departments, four or more auditors, and disconnected evidence requests, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

The thing is, these frameworks are not IT specific. Security isn’t just relegated to the IT function. It’s an organizational and people problem just as much as it is a technology problem.

This misunderstanding leads to poorly scoped audits that miss the business context entirely. Poorly scoped audits can lead to a false sense of security, or potentially worse – wasted time focusing on risks that are not pressing to the business or the users of the audit reports themselves. 

The audit gap across industries persists

If you’ve ever sat through a chaotic audit cycle and thought, “This shouldn’t be this hard,” you’re right. There’s a reason the audit season comes with a lot of stress every year. And it’s not because your team isn’t capable or committed.

It’s because of what we call the audit gap: The disconnect between a company’s audit  preparation and auditors  actual expectations.

Here’s what that looks like in practice: Your compliance team spends months gathering logs, maintaining controls, and documenting policies. But when the audit begins, the auditor shows up with a long list of evidence requests—and suddenly none of your prep feels like it “counts.” 

Documents get sent over email. Requests are unclear. Version control gets messy. And you’re fielding repetitive questions from someone who may not even understand your environment.

And that’s not just frustrating—it’s costly. All of this back and forth can  delay certifications or tank deals with prospects who want fast, confident proof of your security posture. .

Worse, your best people are pulled away from high-impact work to chase down evidence or re-explain decisions to an auditor who’s out of sync. You start to burn out. Not just because audits are hard—but because the whole process is disconnected.

The tools problem adds more work

While technology has advanced dramatically in other areas of security and compliance, the audit process itself remains largely manual. Spreadsheets, email chains, and ad-hoc file sharing still dominate the evidence-collection process. 

Even organizations with sophisticated governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) platforms often find themselves reverting to manual processes when audit time arrives—usually because their auditor requires it and because their systems don’t talk to each other.

The ripple effects of this broken model extend far beyond productivity loss. Teams burn out from the constant firefighting and your security program actually gets worse.

The solution to a better audit season

Instead of treating compliance preparation and audit execution as separate processes, forward-thinking organizations should focus on integrating them into a unified workflow, bridging the audit gap that exists between traditional audits and your compliance workflows.

Here’s what that looks like with Thoropass:

1. Preparing for audit success from day one

Rather than guessing what auditors might want, our platform and expert services provide compliance teams with proven control recommendations  based on common industry-agnostic security risks as a security program baseline. Once the baseline is set, teams are freed up to consider unique risks and develop controls to further protect their organization.  

Thoropass offers a list of controls that, in our experience, have been broadly accepted in the market. So from the start of your audit process, you not only see what we recommend but have the confidence to deploy resources that will hit your audit targets.

This approach eliminates the guesswork that plagues traditional audit prep, giving teams confidence that their efforts will align with auditor expectations. 

2. Project management that gets you compliant faster

After the control parameters are established, the next challenge is operationalizing those controls.

Thoropass can help you project manage and prioritize recommendations to get compliant with whichever framework you need. This function ensures that compliance activities stay on track and that nothing falls through the cracks—a common problem when audit prep is managed through spreadsheets and email.

3. Automated evidence collection

Manual evidence gathering is one of the biggest time sinks in traditional audits. No more digging through email chains or SharePoint folders. Thoropass integrates directly with over 100 source systems to pull relevant evidence automatically.

This not only saves time—it improves accuracy, ensures traceability, and makes it easier to maintain a state of readiness between audits.

4. Built-in auditor collaboration

Here’s where things get really interesting: While many vendors focus on either client-side compliance tools or auditor-facing platforms, Thoropass provides integrated technology for both sides of the audit relationship, which fit together hand and glove. 

That means shared visibility, fewer misunderstandings, and less back-and-forth during audit season. By enabling real-time collaboration between compliance teams and auditors, we eliminate many of the communication breakdowns that cause delays and frustration.

The benefits of the new audit model

When compliance and audit processes are properly integrated, the benefits extend far beyond just easier audit seasons. Organizations see improvements across multiple dimensions of their security and compliance programs, including:

Full GRC adoption

Integrated platforms naturally encourage broader adoption of governance, risk, and compliance practices across the organization. When audits become less painful, stakeholders are more willing to engage with compliance requirements year-round rather than treating them as annual fire drills.

Enhanced security posture and compliance

By maintaining continuous visibility into control effectiveness, organizations don’t just achieve compliance—they actually improve their security posture. The ongoing monitoring and evidence collection provide real-time insights into potential vulnerabilities and control gaps.

Consolidated framework management

Many organizations need audit reports or certifications for SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and other frameworks. Traditional approaches require separate audit processes for each framework, leading to significant duplication of efforts.

With an integrated approach, organizations can leverage the average 70% overlap that typically exists across  frameworks. For example, to do an ISO certification and SOC 2 at the same time, Thoropass aligns both timelines and issues one single request list. That way, there’s no duplicate efforts requesting the same information for multiple audits. 

Faster time to certification

When auditors and compliance teams work from the same platform with the same data, audit cycles naturally accelerate. Clients using Thoropass have cut their time to audit by more than half.

Improved communication and collaboration

Integrated platforms transform the relationship between organizations and their auditors. Instead of potentially adversarial interactions caused  by constant clarification requests, teams can collaborate more effectively toward shared objectives.

With one connected system, everyone knows where the audit stands—what’s been submitted, what’s approved, and what needs fixing. Auditors give feedback in real-time instead of after weeks of silent testing.

Real-world results

The benefits of this new audit model aren’t just theoretical. Matt Steel, Head of GRC at The Access Group, says the transformation “has made massive differences in terms of our costs and our resource requirements, and has saved us a vast amount of time. Generally, a SOC audit could’ve taken us 12 months from beginning to end, and now we’re probably doing it in six or seven months.”

The Access Group also eliminated the communication challenges that plagued their previous audit processes: “We’ve had a lot of challenges with the audit process that we inherited. Communication was really difficult,” Steel says. “We had four different auditors, and each of them wanted the evidence in their own specific way. All of it was done through email chains and we had version control issues.”

With Thoropass, The Access Group cut audit timelines by 50%, reduced external consulting costs by 25%, and reclaimed hours of internal time. More importantly, they now approach compliance as a continuous, strategic effort—not a one-off scramble.

Integrated auditing is the future

By closing the audit gap and embracing integrated compliance and audit platforms, your organization can eliminate the chaos, reduce costs, and build a security program that actually supports growth. It’s time to stop surviving audit season—and start owning it.

Ready to transform your audit experience? Schedule a discovery session to see how Thoropass can help you close the audit gap and modernize your compliance program.