Module 01

Welcome — this training adapts to you

You are stepping into an internal audit leadership role with six junior auditors reporting to you, and Archer sitting underneath all of it. This training is built for that specific situation, and it changes shape on your instruction.

What this is

Most training assumes everyone learns the same way and needs the same depth. You have used Archer before, so an introduction would waste your time — but the leadership half of the job is new, and that needs real weight. This tool splits the difference by letting you choose the lens for every single lesson.

You control the depth

The mode selector at the top of every module re-cuts the material. Same subject, five different treatments — from a five-minute quick reference to configuration-level detail. Switch mid-lesson as often as you like.

You control the content

At the bottom of every module is the prompt "SPC, how should this lesson change for you?" Whatever you write there is saved against that module. It is the backlog for the next version of this training.

How to use it

Pick your lens. Start in Archer refresher if you want mechanics first, or Audit leader perspective if the leadership question is more urgent.
Work through the module. Content marked with a lens badge appears and disappears as you change mode — that is intentional, not a glitch.
Write down what is missing. The moment you think "this should have been an example" or "this needs my team in it", put it in the request box. Do not save it for later.
Keep your own notes. The notes box autosaves. Use it for questions to bring to Mike, or things to raise in your first team meeting.
Tick the module complete when you have got what you need, and export your notes when you want Mike to act on them.

How to use it — as a checklist

Pick your lens at the top of the module
Work through it — content appears and disappears by lens, deliberately
Say what is missing in the request box, as soon as you notice it
Keep private notes in the notes box (autosaves)
Tick the module complete when you have what you need
Export and send to Mike when you want changes built in

In plain terms

This is a training tool that you argue with. If a lesson is pitched wrong — too basic, too abstract, not about your actual job — you say so in the box at the bottom, and the page rewrites itself. You are not stuck with someone else's idea of what you need to know.

Where to start

No client context set yet. A reasonable default order: 02 (leadership) to settle how you will run the team, 04 and 05 to get your Archer reflexes back, then 06, which is the module that carries the most risk to you personally. Tell the box what your current client is and these examples re-cut for that sector throughout the training.

Where to start — banking engagement

On a banking client, your exposure concentrates in 06 Issue Validation (severity on payment and reconciliation controls is where you will be challenged hardest) and 07 Reporting (regulatory framing changes how findings must read). Do 03 RCM early — banking control environments are dense and an imprecise matrix costs you weeks.

Where to start — insurance engagement

On an insurance client, the recurring difficulty is that individually small items roll up to something material — reserving, claims authority, delegated underwriting. Prioritise 03 RCM for how you scope that, and 06 for the aggregation and thematic-issue mechanics, which is where insurance findings are usually won or lost.

Where to start — healthcare engagement

On a healthcare client, regulatory exposure detaches severity from financial size — a small access failure can be a high. Read 06 first, particularly the severity factors, and 07 for how to report exposure that has not yet caused harm without either understating or inflaming it.

Where to start — technology engagement

On a technology client, most controls are automated or pipeline-enforced, which changes the evidence question entirely. 03 RCM covers the automated-control testing shortcut and its trap; 06 covers what "evidence" means when the control is a configuration rather than a signature.

The seven modules

Module	Covers	Why it matters to you
02 Audit Leadership	Leading six juniors, accountability, governance, review cadence, QC	The part of the job that is genuinely new
03 Risk Control Matrix	Risk identification, control mapping, prioritization, review approach	What your team builds and you sign off
04 Archer Navigation	Workspaces, dashboards, applications, records, iViews	Fastest path back to fluency
05 Records & Workflow	Create, edit, save behavior, status transitions, permissions	Where juniors most often get stuck or cause damage
06 Issue Validation	Evidence, validation, severity, management response, QA	The deepest module — this is where your credibility is won or lost
07 Audit Committee Reporting	Executive reporting, issue summaries, remediation tracking	Where the whole year's work is judged

Archer refresher

Getting your Archer reflexes back

You are not relearning Archer — you are reloading it. The fastest route is to touch the four things that carry everything else, in this order:

Workspace → dashboard → iView — how the landing pages are assembled (Module 04).
Application → record — where the data actually lives (Module 04 and 05).
Save vs. Apply vs. status change — the behavior that trips everybody up (Module 05).
Findings/Issues application — your daily home as an audit leader (Module 06).

If you do only one thing today, open Module 04, switch it to this same refresher mode, and walk the workspace hierarchy. Everything else hangs off it.

Terminology note

Archer instances get renamed and re-skinned heavily by each organization. Where this training says "Findings", your instance may say "Issues", "Observations" or something local. The structure underneath is the same — match the concept, not the label. Note the local names in your notes box as you learn them.

Audit leader perspective

What actually changes when you lead

As an auditor you were accountable for your own work. As an audit leader you are accountable for work you did not perform, cannot fully re-perform, and may not see until it is nearly finished. That single shift drives everything in Module 02.

Your product is the file, not the fieldwork. The workpapers, the issues and the report are what get judged — and they carry your name.
Your leverage is upstream. Once fieldwork is done, your options are expensive. Scope, risk assessment and the RCM are where your influence is cheap.
Your credibility is cumulative. One indefensible severity rating in front of the audit committee costs you more than five good reports earned you.

The question to keep asking

"If this issue were challenged by the business, by external audit, or by the committee — what would I put on the table?" If the answer is not sitting in Archer, attached to the record, it does not exist.

Team management perspective

Six juniors, week one

Six is an awkward number. It is too many to review line-by-line and too few to run with a layer of managers in between. The way through is structure that you set on day one, not heroics in week six.

Set before work starts

What "done" means for a workpaper
When they come to you vs. decide themselves
Standard naming and evidence conventions
Review turnaround they can rely on

Never delegate

Final severity ratings
Accepting a management response
Closing an issue as remediated
What goes to the audit committee

Module 02 turns this into an actual operating rhythm — review cadence, quality control, and what to do when a junior's work is not good enough.

Deep dive technical

How this training tool works

You are not a developer and do not need to be — but knowing the mechanics tells you what is safe to rely on.

Static files only. Plain HTML, one stylesheet, one JavaScript file. No server, no database, no login, no analytics.
Storage is localStorage under the key spc-archer-training/v1, holding your selected mode, notes, saved requests and completion flag per module.
Scope of storage is per browser, per device, per origin. Chrome on your laptop and Chrome on your phone are separate; a private window keeps nothing.
Export writes the whole store to a JSON file, which is how your requests travel to Mike.
Mode switching shows and hides content blocks tagged with the mode. Nothing is fetched — everything is already in the page, which is why it is instant and works offline.

The one real limitation

Clearing browser data wipes your notes. Export before any laptop rebuild, browser reset, or if you have written something you would be annoyed to lose.

Quick reference

Orientation card

Want to…	Go to
Change how a lesson is written	Mode selector, top of every module
Ask for different content	"SPC, how should this lesson change for you?" box
Keep a private note	My notes box (autosaves)
Track progress	Tick "I have worked through this module"
Send requests to Mike	Export my notes → send the JSON file
Start over on one module	Reset this module

Everything saves in this browser only
No login, nothing sent anywhere
Export before clearing browser data
Module 06 (Issue Validation) is the deepest — budget real time for it

Start here

Before you move on, use the box below. Even one line — "I want more banking examples" or "assume I know nothing about the committee" — changes what gets built next. This is the part of the training only you can write.