AUDIT & ASSURANCE

The PE Takeover: Audit Problem? What Audit Problem?

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1,000 Deals Show Where PE Money in Accounting Really Goes.

By CPA Trendlines

Private equity’s expansion into accounting is widely framed as a takeover of public company audits. But new data shows that’s only a myth.

MORE Private Equity | The 7.6x Machine: How Grassroots Firms Are Taking Private Equity for a Ride | Deal Tracker: PE Platforms Accelerate the Grab for CPA Firms | With Apax Sale, CohnReznick Starts Building a National Platform | Unicorns and Funerals: From the Demise of Botkeeper to the Rise of Basis AI | Jeremy Dubow: Raising the Bar for Talent | Big 4 Transparency | Twelve Great Reasons to Merge In a Smaller Accounting Firm

A close look at almost 1,000 PE deals over the last 10 years shows only about 10% involve firms with assurance practices. The reason is as clear as it is simple: The vast majority of PE and PE-backed deals are for firms too small to play in the audit business.

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The Six Stages of 401(k) Audits

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green marker checking boxes

Keep the process from dragging on.

By Jody Grunden
Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud

As with any service area, it’s important to have a solid process in place. Without one, it can be a little bit like the Wild West! The 401(k) audit process involves six stages, which are typically completed within four to eight weeks.

MORE by Jody Grunden
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Once a prospective client confirms they want Summit to complete their audit, we send them the engagement letter and the questionnaires along with the governance planning memo that we’re required to give them.
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Goldman Bets $75 Million on Fieldguide: AuditTech Comes of Age

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Goldman’s rationale: Vertical AI with measurable ROI.

The new AuditTech ecosystem of startups and backers
Fieldguide, an engagement workflow platform powered by agentic AI, closes a $75 million Series C round, for a $700 million valuation.

By CPA Trendlines

Fieldguide, an engagement workflow platform powered by agentic AI, has raised $75 million in a Series C round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, valuing the company at $700 million.

MORE: Jin Chang: Why Repeat Last Year’s Questions? | The Disruptors, with Liz Farr | Jin Chang: Why the Future Is in Risk Advisory | with Donny Shimamoto
MORE Tech and Assurance

The financing is one of the clearest signals yet that audit technology—long one of accounting’s most conservative corners—is becoming a prime target for growth equity investment.

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Regulators Put PE Under the Microscope

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Private equity meets public trust.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The nation’s accounting regulators are signaling that private equity’s rapid expansion into CPA firms has reached a point that demands closer scrutiny.

MORE Private Equity

In a new white paper, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy lays out a framework of questions that could shape the next phase of regulation for firms backed by private equity or operating under alternative practice structures. At the same time, senior officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission are warning CPA firms to remain focused on “the basics.” The AICPA is also considering revising its independence regime.

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Jin Chang: Why Repeat Last Year’s Questions? | The Disruptors

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Jin Chang: SALY isn’t useless—but it shouldn’t be lazy.

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Audit has spent decades digitizing the past—paper binders moved to the cloud, workflows wrapped in prettier software, and manual testing dressed up as “innovation.” According to Jin Chang, that’s not transformation. It’s inertia.

Chang knows because he lived it.

Early in his career as an auditor, he found himself doing exactly what generations before him had done: matching evidence to samples, racing against the clock, and wondering why a four-year degree was being spent on work that machines should have mastered long ago.

MORE STREAMING: Cannon: Busy Season is Self-Inflicted | Carroll: When One Person Can Break the Firm |  Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road’s Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don’t Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years |

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“Why aren’t computers doing this better and faster?” he remembers thinking.

That question became the seed for Fieldguide—the audit platform Chang says he wished he’d had, powered by AI agents designed to work alongside auditors rather than replace them.

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