The Four C's of findings?

• A. Condition, Criteria, Cause, Consequence
• B. Context, Criteria, Cause, Challenge
• C. Conformity, Criteria, Cost, Consequence
• D. Capacity, Criteria, Cause, Correction

Answer: (A)

The Four Cs of findings organize a finding so it clearly communicates what happened, what should have happened, why it happened, and what the impact is. The observed state is called the Condition. It describes the actual situation or deviation you saw, such as a control not functioning or a policy not followed. The standard or expectation against which the finding is measured is the Criteria, which comes from policies, laws, regulations, or established practices. The reason the condition occurred is the Cause, the root or contributing factors that explain why the deviation happened. Finally, the Consequence (the risk or impact) explains what could go wrong or what harm could result if the issue isn’t addressed.

This structure makes findings actionable: you can map the observed issue to the applicable standard, identify why it happened, and articulate the risk to inform remediation work. Other terms in the alternatives aren’t the standard components of a finding—Context, Challenge, Capacity, or Correction describe different ideas and don’t serve as the consistent four-part framework used here.