Alan Anderson

Use Eight Audit Exit Items to Deepen Client Relationships

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Developing a deep understanding of an industry is a surefire way to make your audits more relevant.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Making the audit relevant doesn’t stop when the audit report is signed. To demonstrate your value and stand out from the competition, deepen the relationship with the client.

MORE: Exceptional Audit Client Service Demands Effective Communication | Deliver More Audit Value by Getting Out of the Conference Room | Six Essential Elements in Audit Planning | Before the Audit: More Than Just Planning | Five Crucial Attributes for Successful Audit Leadership | Put the Ethics Code to Work for Your Clients and Your Firm | Is Audit in Crisis Because of Definitions?
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Far too often, the exit conference is a wasted opportunity to demonstrate the relevance of the audit. That’s why I recommend that a standard PowerPoint presentation be used to discuss the audit. This will include the required communications and ideas for business improvement and will be designed to facilitate open-ended, two-way communication. Here’s a basic outline of the information to be covered:

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Exceptional Audit Client Service Demands Effective Communication

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Drop the devices and go talk with clients.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Most firms have guidelines for turnaround time and response times but stop there when it comes to delivering excellent customer service. Does your firm have a definition of what superior client service might mean in an audit?

MORE: Deliver More Audit Value by Getting Out of the Conference Room | Know Your Three Audit W’s | Planning Lays the Foundation of Audit Relevance | Are You Correctly Identifying the Relevance Intersection? | Traditional Audits Don’t Deserve Premium Billing | Turning Audit & Accounting into Assurance & Advisory | Stop Sending the Wrong Message to Audit Teams
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Remember that relevance is the intersection of what your client wants, what you think is important and what the stakeholders need. Providing superior client service is definitely contained within that intersection.

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Deliver More Audit Value by Getting Out of the Conference Room

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Create deeper audit relevance by diving into your client’s business … in the actual business.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Once your team understands the critical role planning plays in creating a foundation for audits and how that enables your team to have the mental bandwidth to deliver relevance, it’s time to focus on other ways to develop a relevance culture in your firm.

MORE: Know Your Three Audit W’s | Five Ways to Prevent Audit Bottlenecks | How Do We Drive Relevance in Audit? | Lack of Relevance Drives Audit Commoditization | Four Basic Understandings Every Auditor Must Master | WANTED: Great Audit Mentors | Closing the Audit Expectations Gap
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At the planning stage, set out the expectation that everyone will add value to the audit by identifying areas where the client can improve. One way to do this is to assign each audit team member the task of interviewing someone outside of accounting who has something to do with their audit area. Have your team members ask this person these five questions and write up a summary of what they learned:

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Five Ways to Prevent Audit Bottlenecks

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Keep your audit team flowing smoothly. 

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Your team must take a proactive, anticipatory approach to completing an audit in the field. Think about the bottlenecks you faced last year with this same client and the bottlenecks that seem to happen with every client.

MORE: Planning Lays the Foundation of Audit Relevance | How Do We Drive Relevance in Audit? | Lack of Relevance Drives Audit Commoditization | Four Basic Understandings Every Auditor Must Master | WANTED: Great Audit Mentors | Closing the Audit Expectations Gap
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Sit down with your team and have open-ended conversations about actions to take to reduce or eliminate those bottlenecks. Here are some ideas for preventing problems:

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Before the Audit: More Than Just Checklists

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Effective inquiry starts with knowing how to ask the right questions.

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

To weave relevance into the fabric of your firm culture, your team must shift from just getting the work done, with relevance as an afterthought, to putting the client at the center of the audit. That starts by building a foundation with the four U’s of understanding your client, the industry, the standards and how to audit.

MORE: 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 | Put the Ethics Code to Work for Your Clients and Your Firm | Turning Audit & Accounting into Assurance & Advisory | WANTED: Great Audit Mentors | Is Audit in Crisis Because of Definitions? | Stop Sending the Wrong Message to Audit Teams | Closing the Audit Expectations Gap
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

To master these, you first need a natural sense of curiosity. Out of curiosity comes inquiry. We’ve all been taught that inquiry is one of the fundamental components of the audit process. But too often, inquiry doesn’t go any further than getting some answers to the questions on a checklist. And too often, those questions are the same ones that get asked at every audit engagement. The client has probably heard them (and answered them) more times than you can imagine.

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