We love to assist our users to become more equipped, skilled, efficient and profitable. Here are some ideas:
Have us assess your practice
- We often find that firms that are struggling with their documentation and staying current greatly benefit from a discussion about the kind of work they do and the problems and challenges they are facing.
- We can then make some recommendations about what they could be doing (which may include some or all of the following).
- This discussion often takes place informally in the context of training, however, we are happy to do this at a basic level as a free service on request.
Think outside your location
- In the current audit environment, where many smaller part-time audit firms are struggling, there is a great need for other firms to take up the slack, especially in the more remote regions.
- By embracing paperless, cloud-based technology like Audit Assistant there is no real disadvantage in auditing small entities remotely.
- Have you thought about following your networks and your specialisations to regions where there are few or no auditors?
Use all our online connection tools
- Sharing pages to gather data, complete checklists and otherwise interact with clients is a no-brainer when it comes to efficiencies, yet many firms still don't use these to their fullest.
- The ability to customise pages prior to sharing, hiding sections, and getting prompts when clients complete their work have made this even better, along with the ability to initiate requests that inject the client response directly into your job.
Upload your testing data and trial balance
- Much efficiency is gained by using our sampling tools to create a statistically robust sample.
- Once the data is loaded tests are run against the sample, source documents may be attached and errors notes - all within the software.
- Similarly, trial balance data is easy to upload and manipulate. Xero Trial Balances are a one-click upload.
Embrace paperless - attach and link
- Having everything in a digital file means it is all secure, backed up, and assessable from anywhere.
- Apps like Microsoft Office Lens make scanning from your device while on fieldwork far easier.
- Attachments may be added by simply dragging and dropping them onto the appropriate work item. Links to external sites and repositories may be added using the attachments tool.
Use our review tools
- A huge advantage of cloud-based real-time audit software is the ability to review jobs in smaller, more timely chunks.
- A reviewer may view a job when they have a spare ten minutes, add review notes if required on pages in progress, mark completed pages as reviewed and anticipate any potential issues - no need to wait until the file arrives just hours before sign-off is required, and finding that there are plot holes in the story.
- Review notes may be assigned to a staff member who will then be notified that they have points to clear.
- Partner-required responses are clearly indicated.
Use the right templates
- A prompt tells users if there is a better/newer version of a job type that they should be using.
- In most cases this is critical where a standard has been updated.
- Most data will be retained (that which relates to the old job type will be dropped) and users will be assured that they are using current content.
- Jobs may also be swapped between job types, say if they change reporting standards.
- Jobs may be rolled back to prior points using duplicate/restore.
Use us to assist with your quality control
- We offer a file review service whereby firms submit names of jobs for us to review and provide a written report including recommendations on how to use Audit Assistant better.
- This can be part of a practice assessment, lead to training in identified areas, and/or form part of your formal quality control process.
- Our report also contains feedback on how the file holds together and how it has addressed the auditing standards and best practices.
- This service is charged on an hourly basis.
Customise your work
- Changing page content at a client level is a simple matter that can tailor a file to a client, which is retained on rollover.
- Higher-level template customising may be carried out either in-house or with our help.
- If you can see an opportunity for us to develop some new content that may have wider commercial value please get in touch.
- Our platform is also available for resellers who wish to create products for other documentation and standards-based industries and professions.
Book a training session
- Training gives firms a chance to pause, take a breath and look at alternative ways to do better work. Bad habits can be left behind and better ways learned.
- We carry out training in-house if required, combined by area for new users and smaller firms.
- We also carry out live workshops around issues of special interest.
Let us help with data migration or fee purchase
- The time required to change to a new system can be onerous. We can help with data migration and job setup - either just creating a bulk lot of clients with contact details, or by adding trial balance data.
- This is a custom service that depends on the specific need so contact us to discuss.
- We can also transfer jobs from another user in the case of the sale and purchase of a block of fees.
Tell us what you need from us
We're here to help! Any requests, ideas, or suggestions are appreciated.
Please contact us to discuss further these ways we can partner with you to enhance your business and lifestyle.