Paula Rae is an associate with Aberdeen-based Acumen Accountants and Advisors, one of the largest ACCA registered firms in northeast Scotland.
“We were still coming to terms with updates to our existing spreadsheet based audit methodology” she explains. “The introduction of the International Standards on Auditing meant it had to be substantially revised. Getting to grips with those new formats and inputting all the client data it required was, as one of my colleagues put it, like wading through treacle!”
“Owner-managed businesses don’t have financial controllers or accounts teams. When they do have financial systems in place, accountants can’t rely on them, because the owner can override them at any time. Historically, we approached these audits in a very hands-on way, going into the company with an open mind and assessing what we found with a mixture of common sense and best practice. Nowadays, we have to document all our advance planning and all the client’s systems and controls, however unreliable. That’s a good thing for our profession, of course, because it will improve the quality and consistency of the audit process, but it has created huge amounts of administrative work - which is where CCH Audit Automation comes in.”
Talking about the actual software, Paula explains: “Each file is tailored to the individual client and the software directs you to the correct audit tests, based on the risks you’ve identified within that business. It’s far more efficient than our previous system, which presented you with all the possible tests and left you to choose, and there’s far less chance of something being missed.”
She also singled out the results-handling and reviewing, saying: “It won’t let you proceed to the next stage until the appropriate reviews have been completed and signed off, so the risk of an important schedule going unreviewed is removed. And it will produce a checklist of all the sections that are still to be reviewed, so the reviewer doesn’t have to keep trawling through to find new or revised areas of work.”
“It is essential that we trust the software,” Paula stresses. “We have to know that we can rely on the checklists that are guiding us and be confident that standards are being maintained. That’s why we chose CCH Audit Automation – because we know CCH and trust them to get it right.”
If you'd like to know more about CCH Audit Automation, please contact your Account Manager.
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