# Read the audit readiness score

Understand the score deductions, labels, and checklist shown on the Audit Readiness page.

Canonical: https://demo.qixcount.com/help/period-close-and-audit/audit-readiness-score

Who can do this: Owners, or people with *View audit trail*

Where: Books, then Compliance

You'll need: Audit & compliance turned on in Features

The **Audit Readiness Score** is QixCount's calculation from four checks. It is not an external assessment or a prediction of an audit result.

## Open the score details

1. Open **Books**, then **Compliance**.
2. Select **Audit Readiness** or **View Full Checklist**.
3. Read **Score Breakdown** to see the counts and deductions.
4. Select **Review** beside a checklist item to open its detailed page when available.

![Audit readiness score with deductions and an automatically calculated checklist](https://demo.qixcount.com/images/help/audit-readiness.webp)

## Understand the deductions

The score starts at 100 and cannot fall below zero. Segregation of duties (SoD) means the permission-pair checks configured in QixCount. These checks exclude owners.

| Score component | Deduction |
| --- | --- |
| SoD Errors (Critical) | 15 points per error without a currently valid override, up to 45 points. |
| SoD Warnings | 5 points per warning without a currently valid override, up to 15 points. |
| Pending Reviews | 2 points per flagged audit entry without a review time, up to 20 points. |
| Audit Integrity | 30 points if the most recent 100 hash entries contain any detected problem. |

The labels are **Excellent** for 90–100, **Good** for 75–89, **Fair** for 60–74, **Needs Improvement** for 40–59, and **Critical** below 40.

## Read the checklist separately

**Audit Readiness Checklist** is calculated automatically. It checks the recent hash chain, error-level permission matches without overrides, warning-level permission matches, pending audit reviews, and whether any audit events were captured in the past week. You do not tick these items yourself.

The checklist and score are not identical. A warning with an active override causes no score deduction, but still appears as a warning in the checklist. A business with no events in the past week can receive a checklist warning without losing score points.

Missing hashes do not by themselves reduce the score. The integrity check also covers only recent entries, even when a checklist message refers to the total record count. See [Check audit integrity](https://demo.qixcount.com/help/period-close-and-audit/audit-integrity) for the scope and limitations.

Use [the separation of duties report](https://demo.qixcount.com/help/period-close-and-audit/separation-of-duties-report) or [the audit trail](https://demo.qixcount.com/help/period-close-and-audit/audit-trail) to read the individual records behind the counts.

## Good to know

If **Compliance** isn't in the sidebar, someone with settings access can turn on **Audit & compliance** in [Features](https://demo.qixcount.com/help/setup/features-and-presets).

You need **View audit trail** permission. Owners have this permission.