Covalent Procedures
1.
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
Getting Started and explaining the Audit Module
Accessing the Audit module
The home screen
Requiring Action tab
Recommendations tab
Other tabs
2.
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
Process for Audit Comments
Opening the Audit Comment
About the recommendations screen
How the screen is populated
Sections that you have to populate
Updating your progress with the recommendation
3. Process for Observations and Minor Issues
3.1 How Observations/Minor Issues are recorded
3.2 Sections that you have to populate
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1. Getting Started
1.1 Click on the Audits button across the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and
select “Audits” from the list of options.
1.2 This will bring you to the home page for the Audit module.
1.3 The Requiring Action tab will contain recommendations that fall into two
categories:


These items are overdue – This will give you the top 8 recommendations
with expired due dates.
These items are due soon – This will give you the top 8
recommendations that are due within the current month.
1.4 The recommendations tab contains all Audit Comments, Observations and Minor
Issues that you have been assigned.
1.5 You will not need to use the Audit Files, Dashboards and Universe tabs.
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2. Process for Audit Comments
2.1 To open an Audit Comment, navigate to the recommendations tab and double
click on the Comment you want to view.
2.2 There are areas on this screen that you need to expand before you can see the
information. Click once on the heading or the arrow at the right hand of the
screen to expand.
2.3 This screen is populated with the Audit Comment findings, as described below.

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Title – This is the description of the Audit Comment
Recommendation – This is the recommendation for the audit area.
Findings/Concerns and Risks – This is where we record the test
findings and any resulting concerns/risks.
Notes and History – This is where we record any additional comments
such as due date extensions.
Documents – If there is an appendix to go along with the Audit Comment,
you will find this under the documents section.
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2.4 These are the sections that you need to populate.

Acceptance – Please select from the drop down list whether you accept
or reject the Audit Comment/Observation/Minor Issue.

Response – This is where you add your response/course of action for the
Audit Comment/Observation/Minor Issue. Click on the square box under
“Response” to open the text box.
Once the text box is open you can add detail with basic functions (bold,
underline, text alignment, etc)
The formatting of these text boxes can be quite temperamental and at
present, we don’t have the ability to use functions such as bullet points
and tabs. If the formatting isn’t working or you would like to use bullet
points, type what you would like to add into a Word document then cut
and paste this into the text box on Covalent.
Remember to click “OK” on the text boxes once you have finished!
Your changes will be lost if you don’t click the OK button.

Due Date – Once the Response has been added to Covalent, contact a
member of the Audit team with a due date that we will populate for you.
Once the due date has passed, if the recommendation hasn’t been 100%
completed, you will receive a daily email informing you of overdue
recommendations. Quarterly reports will be sent to CMT highlighting
overdue recommendations. You can request an extension to the due
date on Covalent by emailing crawford.mcintyre@shetland.gov.uk
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2.5 It is important that you update your progress as you are working through the
recommendations.

Progress Bar – There is a progress bar that you update to show progress
with the recommendation. You update this by clicking the bar at 0 and
dragging it across, or by typing the percentage into the box on the right
hand side.

Progress Update – In this section of the recommendations screen you
use the text box to add comments to go along with progress that has been
made on the recommendation. Click on the box beside Progress Update
to open a text box that you can populate with your update. Please add a
date when adding a new note. See example:

Backup – if you have any backup that you would like to add to the
recommendation to go along with any updates, click to expand the
Documents section then click “New”, and select “Upload document(s)”.
Navigate through this window to find the document you would like to
attach, click to highlight it and click “open”
Remember to click “Done” at the top left of the screen once you’ve
finished adding your information.
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3. Process for Observations and Minor Issues
3.1 The only information that we populate on to Covalent for Observations and Minor
Issues is the recommendation and findings.
3.2 Follow steps 2.4 and 2.5 for instructions on how to respond and update the
recommendations.
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