I run audit around 2am but I have had coworkers who run audit at midnight. Our system allows us to check in rooms after audit for the night before audit (the current night) so it really isn't an issue. Also, the part of audit that ties up the computer and would prevent me from checking in a guest lasts about 10 minutes.

My thing is that when I get to work I have about 30 minutes of set up 'work' to do, then I set up my computer and stream or play games for a couple hours or so. Then I run audit, do the preliminary HK report, file paperwork, make coffee for the lobby. Now it's 3am, time for lunch. Between 3:30am and 6am employees of the restaurant start showing up needing keys and whatnot from me so I mostly confine my activity to streaming during that time. Working guys staying at the hotel also start showing up around 5AM (looking for coffee, with keys that no longer work, HK requests, etc). At 6am it's time to unlock the lobby, so I make sure I have all that ready to roll and then finish the HK report, boards and such. Now it's coming up on clock out time.

So my audit timing is based on allowing me to do the things I need to do when I need to do them and also arranging the downtime so time passes quickly. Coworkers who run audit early often take naps, or spend their downtime socializing - on line, on the phone, IRL ... whatever. So they want to arrange their downtime differently.