Audit procedures have to make clear the audit objective, scope, frequency and methodologies, as well as the responsibilities for conducting audits and reporting the results. Many companies amend their existing quality audit procedures to include environmental audits because the practices, protocols and procedures are similar.

Not every audit has to have its own procedure but it is valuable for each audit to follow either a general checklist or to generate a specific checklist. Checklists provide a structure to do the audits against and a structure to report the audit findings.