Write the audit request list before the auditor does

The narrower assessment is defined in one sentence, and the documents are its whole method.

verification means an assessment by an approved quality auditor of an applicant, or of a registered NDIS provider, against an applicable standard by conducting a desk audit of the applicant or provider, including reviewing the applicant’s or provider’s relevant documentation, in relation to the standard.

Provider Registration Rules, s 4, definition of verification · open the instrument

The wider one adds a visit, and keeps the same document review as its first limb.

Certification is an assessment by an approved quality auditor of an applicant, or of a registered NDIS provider, against an applicable standard by conducting: (a) a desk audit of the applicant or provider, including reviewing the applicant’s or provider’s relevant documentation, in relation to the standard; and (b) an inspection of the sites, facilities, equipment and services used, or proposed to be used, in the delivery of supports or services by the applicant or provider

Provider Registration Rules, s 5(1) · open the instrument

Put the two side by side. In the instrument's own words the paperwork is a limb of the assessment, and not the preparation for it. Both definitions also name who conducts it, which is where every judgement about the folder sits.

The standards are published, and so are the indicators under each outcome. Here is one outcome, whole.

Human Resource Management Outcome: Each participant’s support needs are met by workers who are competent in relation to their role, hold relevant qualifications, and who have relevant expertise and experience to provide person-centred support. To achieve this outcome, the following indicators should be demonstrated: (1) The skills and knowledge required of each position within a provider are identified and documented together with the responsibilities, scope and limitations of each position. (2) Records of worker pre-employment checks, qualifications and experience are maintained.

Quality Indicators Guidelines, s 17 · open the instrument

Read it as a request list and it has already written two lines. Indicator (1) asks for a document per position: its skills, its responsibilities, its limits. Indicator (2) asks for records per worker: the checks done before they started, their qualifications, their experience.

Neither line says "HR policy". A request for "HR documents" invites the policy, because that is what those words point at.

The slow version of this work is a list that arrives late, a forward, part of it back, and a second round for the rest. The quicker version is a single request at the start.

• Take each outcome in the modules your client is assessed against.
• Turn every indicator under it into one line naming the record that would show it, per position or per worker where the wording says so.
• Keep the indicator's own words beside each line, so your client answers the published question and not a paraphrase of it.
• Send the whole list once, and mark what comes back against the line it answers.

That leaves the finding of documents, which is still real work. It removes the guessing about which documents.