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Data in Audit Trail and Summary Document

C

cjpaine

Member
Hello,

Both the audit trail and the summary document should pay reference to data but presumably their treatment of the matter should differ in some way.

Please could someone advise how the treatment of data differs when comparing the audit trail and the summary document?

The only difference that I currently anticipate is that the audit trail should signpost to the model whereas the summary document needn't do this. I cannot see the treatment of data will differ as a result of a change in audience.

In summary I am anticipating that both documents should detail:
  • description of data and it's source
  • results from summary statistics and how these reconcile with other information in the question
  • any amendments that have been made e.g. outliers, missing, duplicates, typos
  • any other preparation steps e.g. conversion to different units
Many thanks,
Christopher
 
Hi Christopher

You're right that both the audit trail and summary report need to reference the data. The key difference is the audience you are writing to.

The audit trail needs to be written primarily to another student to explain how your spreadsheet handles the data. So, for example, you will probably be referencing particular cells and explaining how each check works.

However your summary report is written to a senior actuary, so your manager perhaps. They don't need to know the individual cells where things are done, but need to be given confidence that you have checked appropriate things, made appropriate changes and that therefore the data will not cause any issues in your work (or if you have concerns about the quality of the data you should mention these too).

I hope this helps.

Thanks
Sarah
 
Sarah,

It therefore seems to me that the audit trail describes "what we did and how we did it" whereas the summary document describes "what we did and why we did it".

Many thanks,
Christopher
 
Hi Christopher

That's a good way to think about it. I'd add in "where we did it" to the audit trail though :) You might need a bit of "how" in your summary too so your manager knows you took a reasonable approach and therefore your results should be correct - but this can be done at a higher level than the audit trail obviously.

Sarah
 
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