How do I audit myself?

How to audit yourself means conducting a self-examination of your finances, tax return, business operations, or personal habits to ensure accuracy, compliance, and efficiency before an official audit occurs. For a tax self-audit, start by reviewing your tax return line by line comparing it to W-2s, 1099s, receipts, and bank statements to ensure income matches third party reports and deductions have supporting documentation, check for math errors, ensure you have receipts for charitable donations, business expenses, mileage logs, and that home office deductions meet exclusive use rules. Use IRS checklists and keep files organized by year. For personal finance self-audit, review bank statements, credit card statements, subscriptions, and budget to identify wasteful spending, check credit reports for errors, verify insurance coverage, and ensure emergency fund adequacy. For business self-audit, review internal controls, inventory, payroll, and compliance with regulations. The goal is to catch errors, missing documentation, and inefficiencies early, correct them, and maintain organized records so if an official audit occurs you are prepared with clear evidence and accurate reporting.