This is Audora's first monthly release. Each month we'll share what shipped, and the quarterly recap continues. October's work brought more of the client's tools into Audora and caught more problems before they reach the auditor.
The biggest additions: Audora Connect now works with Drata, firm-wide Chat lets you ask questions across every engagement your firm runs, and pre-checks now cover SOC 2 and connected engagements. The Audit Report Grader arrives in early November. Here's everything in the November release, all built in October.
Seventeen updates. Here are the highlights, scroll down for the full story on each one.
November at a Glance
Drata Integration — Audora Connect now pulls a client's Drata audit into Audora
Firm-Wide Chat — ask questions across every engagement your firm runs
Knowledge Repository — AI Assist works from your firm's own standards and guidance
Pre-Checks for SOC 2 and Connected Engagements — check readiness before fieldwork starts
One Workpaper, Many Controls — upload a testing file once and link it wherever it applies
Wrong-Policy and Empty-File Checks — bad evidence gets caught before it reaches you
ISO 27001 Site Visits — physical site testing tracked through review and into the report
Audora Connect
Work the Client's Data Without Logging In to Their Tools (2 updates)
Compliance tools serve the auditee getting ready. Audora serves the auditor running the engagement, and Audora Connect brings the client's data across so your team works in one place.
🔌 Drata Integration
Audora Connect now integrates with Drata. Pull controls, policies, tests, evidence requests, and evidence from a client's Drata audit into Audora, for both examinations and pre-checks. Drata and Vanta connections sit together in one list, so you never have to log in to your client's compliance tool to work the engagement. See the Drata setup guide.
🔎 Pre-Checks for SOC 2 and Connected Engagements
Pre-checks now run on SOC 2 engagements as well as SOC 1, and on engagements connected to Drata or Vanta. Find out whether a client is ready, and catch the gaps, before fieldwork starts instead of after.
AI Capabilities
AI Across the Whole Practice, You Keep the Judgment (4 updates)
Q3 put AI Assist inside the engagement. This month it reaches across the firm and works from your own standards.
💬 Firm-Wide Chat
Ask about your whole practice, not one engagement at a time. Which audits are behind schedule? What's due this week across the firm? Which controls does a team member usually handle? Chat reasons across every engagement your firm runs. Your chats are private to you and clear automatically after 90 days of inactivity.
📚 Knowledge Repository
Upload your firm's standards and guidance, such as AICPA guides and methodology documents, and tag each one by audit type. AI Assist references them in firm-wide Chat and inside engagements, so its drafts start from your firm's interpretation of the guidance.
🗂️ One Home for Audora AI
Chat, Skills, Automations, and the Knowledge repository now live together in one place. Skills are the reusable prompts your firm runs in AI Assist. Automations run a Skill on a set cadence and post the results into your chat.
🛟 AI-Powered In-App Support
Have a question about how to do something in Audora? AI-powered support answers it right in the app.
Evidence & Testing Workflow
Less Rework, Less Chasing (4 updates)
A wrong file or an empty upload can cost a reviewer an afternoon. These updates catch it earlier and cut duplicate work.
🔗 One Workpaper, Many Controls
Upload a testing file once and link it to every control it supports. Update it in one place, and every linked control sees the change.
⚠️ Wrong-Policy Flag
When a policy attached to a request doesn't look like the right one, AI Assist flags it on a quick scan. It works in pre-checks and in live engagements, so you know before you start reviewing.
↩️ Empty Files Go Straight Back
If a client submits an empty file, Audora returns it to them automatically, before it reaches your review queue. This catches the common case where a compliance tool connector wasn't set up and sent a blank file. In a pre-check, you'll see a warning instead.
🔍 Zoom Into Image Evidence
Zoom into screenshots, data flow diagrams, and other image evidence right in Audora, without downloading the file.
ISO 27001
Built Around How ISO Engagements Run (2 updates)
These changes came straight from ISO 27001 customers working in Audora.
🏭 Site Visits Built Into ISO 27001 Engagements
Physical site visits are now their own tracked part of an ISO 27001 engagement. Test physical controls site by site, keep track of coverage across multiple locations, and carry it through review and into the report.
📄 Draft Report Opens Directly
The draft report task now opens the report itself, so reviewers land on the right document.
Engagement Management & Collaboration
Smoother Day-to-Day Work (3 updates)
Smaller changes that remove friction from the work you do every day.
📅 Scheduling Dashboard Enhancements
Planning your team's fieldwork is easier, with an improved interface across the scheduling dashboard.
✏️ Edit and Delete Comments
Made a mistake in a comment on a task? You can now edit or delete it. On Vanta-connected engagements, the change syncs to Vanta too.
👥 Clearer Role Descriptions
When you add someone, from the engagement setup wizard or user management, Audora shows what each engagement and auditee role can and can't do.
Security & Infrastructure
Built to Hold Up as Firms Grow (2 updates)
Behind-the-scenes investments that keep your engagements secure and available as more firms run their work in Audora.
🔒 Immutable Backups and Centralized Logging
Platform logs now flow to one central place, and backups are immutable, so they can't be altered or deleted.
🛡️ Full-Platform Disaster Recovery
Backups cover the whole platform, including engagement data, files, and evidence, with a standby region ready for faster recovery if the primary goes down.
Coming Soon
A look at what's already in flight:
Audit Report Grader — arriving in early November. Watch for the full announcement.
Automatic Report Grading — the Audit Report Grader runs at the end of each engagement on its own.
Gap & Readiness Assessments — run readiness work for your clients in the same place as the audit.
Pre-Checks for More Frameworks — extending pre-checks beyond SOC 1 and SOC 2.
HITRUST & PCI-DSS Support — HITRUST is in development now, with PCI-DSS to follow.
More Ways to Tailor Audora — finer control over which fields and features each engagement uses.
FAQs
Q: Does Audora integrate with Drata?
A: Yes. Audora Connect integrates with Drata as well as Vanta. Auditors can pull controls, policies, tests, evidence requests, and evidence from a client's Drata audit into Audora for examinations and pre-checks, so the audit team works the engagement in Audora instead of logging in to the client's compliance tool. Audora does not replace the client's compliance tool; it brings that tool's data to the auditor's side of the engagement.
Q: What can firm-wide Chat in Audora answer?
A: Firm-wide Chat answers questions across every engagement a firm runs, such as which audits are behind schedule, what's due this week across the firm, or which controls a team member usually handles. Chats are private to each user and clear automatically after 90 days of inactivity. For questions about a single engagement's controls, evidence, and tasks, AI Assist inside that engagement handles them. Both can reference the firm's own standards and guidance from the Knowledge repository.
Q: What is a pre-check in Audora?
A: A pre-check lets an audit firm check whether a client is ready, and catch gaps, before fieldwork begins. Pre-checks run on SOC 1 and SOC 2 engagements and on engagements connected to Drata or Vanta, with more frameworks coming. During a pre-check, Audora warns about issues like empty files or a policy that doesn't look like the right one.
Q: How does Audora catch wrong or empty evidence files?
A: AI Assist scans attached policies and flags one that doesn't look like the right policy for the request, in pre-checks and live engagements. If a client submits an empty file, which often happens when a compliance tool connector wasn't set up correctly, Audora returns it to the client automatically in a live engagement, before it reaches the auditor's review queue. In a pre-check, it shows a warning instead.
Q: Can one workpaper support multiple controls in Audora?
A: Yes. Auditors can upload a testing file once and link it to every control it supports. When the file is updated in one place, every linked control reflects the change, so the team isn't uploading and maintaining copies of the same workpaper.
Q: What's coming next in Audora?
A: The Audit Report Grader arrives in early November. After that come automatic report grading at the end of each engagement, gap and readiness assessments, pre-checks for more frameworks, and finer control over which fields and features each engagement uses. HITRUST support is in development now, with PCI-DSS to follow.
