Book excerpt: Audit is an essential activity for all psychiatrists. Involvement in audit must be evidenced by consultants for revalidation and by trainees in their Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP). This book will therefore be relevant for psychiatrists of all grades. It aims to help ease the audit process by offering tried and tested recipes for conducting audits in clinical services. All the audits in this book have been undertaken by the authors and it therefore provides useful practical advice for carrying out the audits in day-to-day practice.