Establishing key audit systems correctly for your business

For far too many organisations, key audit systems are only seriously thought about after something has gone wrong. That might be a series of keys that have gone missing, assets that were stolen, or a serious security breach that puts people at risk.

The whole point of an audit system is that it’s already in place before these incidents occur, collecting data that lets you get to the bottom of them in the aftermath. From inventorisation to proactive data analysis, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Inventorise

For any audit system to function properly, you need to know what assets you’re working with. Account for every single key that’s used in your organisation, for every door, vehicle, locker or cabinet. 

Make sure that you track down duplicates, and don’t treat any key as if it were unimportant. It can be a slightly tedious process, but if you don’t inventorise first, your audit system will very likely be based on an incomplete picture, and could very well fail to function as intended.

Assign ownership & access 

Next, you need to know both who is responsible for the safekeeping of each individual key, and who can be granted periodic access. 

Some keys will be looked after by individuals, while others might be kept in a smart key locker from a provider like Traka. 

Without this, audit systems will be vague at best, and may very well fail to identify what has gone wrong in the event that a key goes missing or an asset is stolen.

Automate your audit systems

A surprising number of businesses are still using paper logbooks to track who uses a key and when. These legacy systems might have been necessary decades ago, but they are no longer sufficient. 

Smart key cabinets that can facilitate individualised access to each key can automatically put data into a digital logbook every time a key is taken out or returned. 

This removes the possibility of human error, while also removing the need to have someone present to physically sign keys in and out. This alone can save enough money to result in a very quick ROI. 

Proactive data analysis

Key audit systems will provide you with plenty of data that can be useful long before an incident actually occurs. 

You can glean insights into all sorts of emergent issues, from where keys are most likely to go missing to where access requirements are being handed out unnecessarily. 

The best thing you can do is to use this data to your advantage, to prevent serious security breaches and operational inefficiencies before they can result in potentially serious losses. 

In many industries, audit systems aren’t just something that’s nice to have, they’ll be a practical and regulatory necessity. The sooner you put one in place, the easier it will be. Updating the system can be done pretty much automatically, and will save you so much time and effort compared to creating an audit system once a relatively chaotic situation has already emerged.