Have you ever experienced a delay in an audit because your client’s books were not closed, despite their claim that they were ready? This situation is not only frustrating, but it can also be costly for firms as it puts extra hours against the audit budget without billing the client for overage. However, there is a solution to this problem that can save your firm time and money - let technology evaluate if your client is ready instead of your team. In this blog post, we’ll introduce to how best-in-class firms are using Audit Sight to instantly prove if the base accounting at your client is done and prevent the first few days of the audit from being a complete waste.
The primary reason why audits are delayed is because clients are not ready. This situation can occur despite a client’s assurance that they are prepared for the audit to begin. As a result, your team begins working with the wrong trial balance, prepares work papers that will need to be updated, and inevitably requires a bridge to flow through adjustments. This problem is often amplified because it is not uncommon that the same clients who are not ready are smaller engagements with tighter audit budgets.
As an audit firm, you need to ensure that your team doesn’t waste valuable time and resources on clients whose records are not in order. This is where Audit Sight can help. Audit Sight is a tool that allows your team to match all of your clients’ bank transactions to their debits and credits to cash. This computer assisted auditing technique (CAAT) can instantly confirm if the base accounting work at your client is complete, and your team can start working on the audit without any delay. The output of these tests is an excel file where your team can instantly see which bank transactions are recorded and which transactions are not. This file can be shared with your client to help guide them on how to clean up their books and make them audit ready.
Best-in-class audit firms use this test to evaluate clients who historically have errors in their records or aren’t ready for the audit. Once the client passes the Audit Sight test, your team can jump in and perform their work.
Audit Sight is a game-changer in the world of auditing. It can save your firm precious hours by allowing you to evaluate your clients’ readiness more efficiently. With Audit Sight at your disposal, you can trust that your team will only work on clients who are ready for the audit, saving your firm time and money. So, the next time you face delays in an audit, consider using Audit Sight as your solution.
