Historically, the Audit Commission's financial management work has focused on describing good practice. Increasingly, audited and inspected bodies (AIBs) and auditors want to move beyond a description of the 'what?' to a description of the 'how?'. This is particularly true for financial management, which has broad consensus of what constitutes good or best practice.
Knowledge transfer is arguably the most important way in which the Commission can help bodies improve. Auditors identified in-depth case studies as the top priority and the one thing which could impact most effectively on delivering the Commission's strategic plan objective 'to improve standards of financial management and financial reporting'.