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Relevance protects you from technological obsolescence.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

The days of delivering an audit report months after year-end are numbered. How relevant is an audit report when it’s months after the fact? Even when we move to continuous audit – which will happen sooner than you think – it will still be historical information. But what will make it more relevant is that it will be delivered more timely, even if we don’t change much about how we perform the audit.

MORE: How ‘Business Expert CPAs’ Get Their Own Business Wrong | Say Adios to Audit Fee Pressure | Eight Items to Cover in the Audit Exit to Deepen Client Relationships and Prove Value | Know Your Three Audit W’s | Planning Lays the Foundation of Audit Relevance | How Do We Drive Relevance in Audit? | Before the Audit: More Than Just Planning | Are You Correctly Identifying the Relevance Intersection? | Lack of Relevance Drives Audit Commoditization | Five Crucial Attributes for Successful Audit Leadership | Traditional Audits Don’t Deserve Premium Billing | Four Basic Understandings Every Auditor Must Master
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If you’re taking the time to understand the workings of the business, how that business works in relation to the industry, and how it serves its customers, you’re on the path to providing true relevance. That’s how you move into advisory and assurance. If you provide that baseline level of relevance and then build more real-time techniques and tools, you can expand on that knowledge base of the industry and the operating environment. Then you can give your clients even more advice and suggestions for what they do.

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Only a small percentage of audit leaders understand businessmindedness’s inward and outward components.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

I talk to leaders of firms all around the country who think that if they get their fee realization right, that’s a sign that they’ve got great business minds. They ask me what the market fee realization is, so I tell them that’s a miserable measure.

MORE: Say Adios to Audit Fee Pressure | Eight Items to Cover in the Audit Exit to Deepen Client Relationships and Prove Value | Know Your Three Audit W’s | Planning Lays the Foundation of Audit Relevance | How Do We Drive Relevance in Audit? | Before the Audit: More Than Just Planning | Are You Correctly Identifying the Relevance Intersection? | Lack of Relevance Drives Audit Commoditization | Five Crucial Attributes for Successful Audit Leadership | Traditional Audits Don’t Deserve Premium Billing | Four Basic Understandings Every Auditor Must Master
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

There is no perfect fee realization. As extreme examples, I’ve worked with firms with 10 percent and 200 percent fee realizations. Which is better? Neither. The firm with a 10 percent fee realization bills at $5,000 per hour, while the other bills at $20 an hour.

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What client goes out for an audit proposal when their auditor provides relevant advice and useful suggestions?  

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Your client likely engaged your firm for an audit because they need an audit. But what is it that they want? They don’t want a stack of paper delivered months after year-end. Like anyone else, they focus on “What’s In It For Me?” or WIIFM.

MORE: Use Eight Audit Exit Items to Deepen Client Relationships | Exceptional Audit Client Service Demands Effective Communication | Deliver More Audit Value by Getting Out of the Conference Room | Know Your Three Audit W’s | Planning Lays the Foundation of Audit Relevance | How Do We Drive Relevance in Audit? | Before the Audit: More Than Just Planning | Are You Correctly Identifying the Relevance Intersection? | Lack of Relevance Drives Audit Commoditization | Five Crucial Attributes for Successful Audit Leadership | Traditional Audits Don’t Deserve Premium Billing
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

They want relevant ideas that will help them improve their businesses. They want to learn from you about your experience with others in their industry or in a similar situation. They want a relationship with you to talk about their business in plain English. They want someone who can explain the accounting standards and how they impact how they report their results.

Remember our definition of relevance:

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