Audit Platform Overview

Guided Planning Memo

Streamline your audit planning with our Guided Planning Memo tool. By answering targeted questions, the platform structures your planning, and AI assists in drafting the initial memo. This significantly reduces setup time, ensures consistent planning across audits, and frees you to focus on understanding the business environment early on.

Structured Planning Process

Covers Essential Areas

The guided workflow systematically prompts for inputs on critical planning components, including defining clear audit objectives (e.g., "Assess the effectiveness of...") , establishing precise scope boundaries (in-scope/out-of-scope locations, processes, systems, time periods), setting realistic timelines and milestones, assigning specific team member responsibilities, and capturing initial high-level risk assessments based on preliminary understanding.

Prevents Omissions

This structured, step-by-step methodology acts as a dynamic checklist, significantly reducing the risk of overlooking crucial planning details—such as stakeholder communication plans or data requirements—that can easily be missed when starting with a blank document or less structured template.

Ensures Comprehensive Foundation

By ensuring all key planning facets are considered upfront (including resource allocation needs and preliminary risk thoughts), the tool helps build a robust and well-documented foundation for the audit engagement, minimizing surprises, reducing scope creep, and minimizing rework later in the process.

AI-Assisted Drafting

Overcomes Writer's Block

Combat the challenge of staring at a blank page. Based on your structured inputs and identified risks, the AI provides contextually relevant suggestions for phrasing audit objectives clearly, articulating specific scope limitations precisely, and summarizing the overall planned audit approach.

Accelerates Drafting

The AI acts as a co-writer, helping translate your structured inputs, bullet points, and risk considerations into coherent, professional prose. This significantly accelerates the drafting process, allowing you to focus more on the strategic substance and accuracy of the plan rather than getting bogged down in perfecting the exact wording of the memo.

Enhanced Standardization

Improves Quality & Efficiency

Utilizing a consistent, guided process combined with AI assistance promotes uniformity in the structure, content depth, and tone of planning documentation across the entire audit function. This improves the baseline quality and makes peer or managerial reviews significantly more efficient due to predictability.

Simplifies Onboarding & Comparability

Standardization simplifies the onboarding process for new team members, as they can quickly understand the expected planning outputs and methodology. It also enhances the overall comparability and professionalism of audit plans when presented to diverse stakeholders or regulators over time.

Risk Control Matrices (RCMs)

Effortlessly create comprehensive Risk Control Matrices (RCMs). Leverage AI-powered suggestions or structured templates based on your defined processes. The platform helps map risks to controls accurately, minimizing manual effort and ensuring a standardized, high-quality RCM – the foundation of effective auditing.

Intelligent Risk & Control Suggestions

Contextual Risk Identification

Our AI analyzes process descriptions you provide (or potentially linked process maps or narratives) using techniques like natural language processing (NLP), keyword extraction, and semantic understanding. It then suggests relevant operational risks (e.g., "Risk of inaccurate data entry"), financial reporting risks (e.g., "Risk of misstatement in revenue recognition"), or compliance risks (e.g., "Risk of non-compliance with regulation X") commonly associated with that specific process or industry context.

Best-Practice Control Proposals

Based on the identified risks, the AI can access a knowledge base of common control activities and propose relevant best-practice controls (e.g., suggesting segregation of duties for payment initiation and approval, recommending three-way matching for invoice processing, proposing regular reconciliations for key accounts, or advising on specific access controls for sensitive systems). This reduces initial research time and helps surface potential control design gaps or weaknesses early in the audit cycle.

Best-Practice Templates

Framework Alignment

Start with a solid foundation using pre-built RCM templates aligned with common business cycles (e.g., Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Financial Close, Hire-to-Retire) or established internal control frameworks like the COSO Internal Control – Integrated Framework, NIST Cybersecurity Framework, or ISO 27001, depending on the audit's focus.

Accelerated & Customizable Setup

These templates provide a best-practice structure with predefined risks and control objectives common to the selected area, significantly accelerating the initial RCM setup phase. They ensure key control considerations are included by default and can be easily customized (adding/removing risks/controls, modifying descriptions, adding columns) to accurately reflect your organization's specific processes, terminology, and control environment nuances.

Accurate Risk-to-Control Mapping

Intuitive Interface

The platform provides user-friendly interfaces, such as drag-and-drop capabilities between risk and control libraries, multi-select options within the RCM grid, or clear selection lists, to easily establish and visualize the one-to-many or many-to-many relationships between specific identified risks and the controls designed to mitigate them.

Targeted Testing Focus

This explicit focus on accurate linkage is critical for audit effectiveness. It reduces mapping errors (e.g., linking a control to an irrelevant risk) and ensures that subsequent testing efforts are precisely targeted at verifying the operational effectiveness of the *right* controls against the *intended* risks they are meant to address, thereby maximizing audit efficiency and the relevance of the resulting test conclusions.

Standardized RCM Format

Enhanced Clarity & Readability

A consistent RCM layout, utilizing standard, well-defined columns for Process, Sub-Process, Risk ID, Risk Description (what could go wrong), Control ID, Control Description (what prevents/detects the risk), Control Owner, Control Type (Preventive/Detective, Manual/Automated), Control Frequency (Daily/Monthly/etc.), and Test Procedure Reference, enhances clarity and readability for all stakeholders involved in the audit process.

Simplified Reviews & Updates

This standardization significantly simplifies the review process for audit managers and quality assurance personnel, as they know exactly where to find specific information within the RCM. It also makes future RCM updates across different audit cycles (e.g., adding new controls, refining risk descriptions) easier to manage consistently and contributes to a more organized, professional, and easily navigable electronic audit file.

Test Procedures and Objectives

Develop targeted audit procedures with AI assistance. Based on the risks and controls in your RCM, the platform proposes relevant Test Procedures and Objectives. This accelerates test design, promotes better risk coverage, and allows you to refine, rather than create, your testing strategy from scratch, leading to more efficient fieldwork.

Contextual AI Test Proposals

Control-Specific Testing Methods

The AI analyzes the control description, its classification (automated/manual, preventive/detective), and its documented frequency (e.g., daily, monthly, annually) from the RCM. It considers these attributes when proposing appropriate and effective testing methods, such as inspection of documented evidence (e.g., logs, reports, reconciliations), observation of the control being performed by personnel, reperformance of the control activity by the auditor, inquiry with relevant staff, or applying data analysis techniques to relevant datasets.

Actionable Steps & Clear Objectives

It suggests specific, actionable test steps tailored to the control (e.g., "Inspect system configuration settings for parameter X to ensure it aligns with policy," "Observe user performing task Y during the month-end close process," "Reperform calculation Z using source data A and B to verify accuracy," "Select a random sample of 25 approved purchase orders post-period end and verify attribute C exists and is correct") and helps formulate clear, concise test objectives directly linked to the control's intended purpose (e.g., "To verify the completeness of data processed by the interface," "To confirm the accuracy of financial calculations performed by the system," "To ensure proper authorization protocols were followed for high-value transactions").

Focus on Refinement, Not Creation

Reduces Initial Brainstorming

The AI-generated suggestions provide a strong, relevant starting point for the audit program, significantly reducing the time auditors spend brainstorming basic test steps from a blank slate or searching through potentially outdated or irrelevant past workpapers for examples. This is especially beneficial when dealing with new business processes, complex IT systems, or less experienced audit team members.

Empowers Auditor Judgment

Auditors remain in full control. They can efficiently leverage their professional judgment, risk assessment, and deeper understanding of the specific client environment to adapt proposed sample sizes based on materiality and risk, specify the exact data sources or system reports needed for testing, tailor procedures for unique circumstances or known compensating controls, and ultimately refine the AI proposals, focusing their valuable time on strategic optimization and critical thinking rather than purely mechanical initial drafting.

Improved Risk Coverage

Systematic Test Generation

By systematically generating test proposals for each of the controls accurately mapped within the RCM, the AI acts as a helpful cross-check during the detailed test planning phase (often called the audit program development). It helps ensure that all key risks identified during the initial planning have corresponding, relevant test procedures designed to evaluate the effectiveness of their specific mitigation strategies.

Strengthens Assurance

This systematic approach reduces the likelihood of inadvertently overlooking necessary tests for critical controls due to time pressure, complexity, changes in personnel, or simple human oversight. This, in turn, strengthens the basis for the overall assurance provided by the audit engagement regarding the effective design and operation of key organizational risks and controls included in the audit scope.

Issues and Action Plans

Clearly articulate findings and drive remediation with AI-drafted Issues and Action Plans. When exceptions are noted during testing, the platform helps formulate clear audit issues using standard frameworks and generates structured, actionable remediation plans for management discussion and agreement. This speeds up the reporting cycle and facilitates quicker resolution of identified control weaknesses.

Structured Issue Drafting Assistance

Clarity via Standard Structure (5 Cs)

Communicating audit findings effectively and consistently is crucial for driving management action. AI assists in drafting issues using a standard, logical structure, often incorporating the "5 Cs": Criteria (what should be - the policy, standard, or expectation), Condition (what is - the factual situation observed), Cause (why the deviation occurred), Consequence/Effect (the impact or risk exposure), and Corrective Action/Recommendation. This ensures all necessary components are present for clarity, context, and management understanding.

Facilitates Root Cause Analysis

The platform prompts the auditor for specific details related to the finding as they draft the issue (e.g., "What policy or standard was not met?" "What specific transactions/instances represent the condition?" "Why did the failure occur - lack of training, system error, inadequate procedure, override?" "What is the potential financial, operational, compliance, or reputational impact?"). This structured input facilitates easier and more thorough root cause analysis and ensures the final issue write-up is well-supported by evidence, objective, and clearly communicated to management.

SMART Action Plan Generation

Actionable & Measurable Plans

Based on the identified issue and its documented root cause, the AI helps generate proposed management action plans that adhere to SMART principles (Specific - clearly defined action, Measurable - how success will be tracked, Achievable - realistic given resources, Relevant - addresses the root cause, Time-bound - has a deadline). This moves beyond vague commitments like "will improve training" towards concrete, verifiable steps like "Develop and deliver targeted training module on policy X to all relevant staff by end of Q3."

Accountability & Tracking

The AI can suggest potential action owners based on roles involved in the affected process (requiring auditor confirmation), propose realistic implementation timelines considering the complexity of the required action, and outline specific, verifiable steps required for remediation (e.g., "Update system configuration parameter Y by Z date," "Implement new review procedure ABC documented in policy DEF by start of next month," "Conduct post-implementation review by Q4"). This leads to more effective, accountable, and easily trackable commitments from management during issue follow-up.

Accelerated Reporting and Resolution

Streamlined Closing Meetings

Having well-defined issues (supported by evidence linked in the platform) and clear, actionable draft action plans ready before audit closing meetings significantly streamlines these critical discussions. It reduces ambiguity, focuses the conversation on agreed-upon facts and proposed solutions rather than debating the finding itself, and leads to faster agreement and buy-in from management on both the validity of the findings and the required corrective actions.

Timely Risk Mitigation

This efficiency in communication and agreement significantly speeds up the draft reporting phase (as issues and actions are largely pre-agreed) and, more importantly, accelerates the initiation and subsequent completion of the agreed-upon corrective actions by management. Faster remediation allows for more timely and effective mitigation of the identified risks, reducing the organization's exposure.

Audit Reports

Compile your work into professional Audit Reports. The platform assists in bringing together planning documents, RCM details, test results, and issues into cohesive final reports, often using predefined templates for consistency and speed. Spend less time formatting and more time analyzing overall results and crafting impactful summaries.

Automated Information Aggregation

Reduces Manual Effort & Errors

The report generation tool automatically pulls relevant, approved information—such as the final planning scope statement, key points for the executive summary derived from high-rated issues, RCM details for report appendices, summaries of testing procedures and results, detailed issue descriptions including ratings and root causes, and agreed-upon management action plans with owners and due dates—directly from the respective modules where this data is stored and finalized within the platform.

Ensures Data Consistency & Saves Time

This automation eliminates the highly tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone process of manually copying and pasting text and data from various electronic workpapers, spreadsheets, or separate documents into the report draft. It ensures data consistency between the underlying audit file and the final report (reducing reconciliation needs) and saves considerable, often frustrating, assembly time, especially during the critical reporting crunch period before deadlines.

Consistent and Professional Templates

Standardized Structure & Branding

Utilize standardized report templates that can be pre-configured by audit leadership with your organization's specific branding (logos, color schemes), required report sections (e.g., Distribution List, Executive Summary, Background, Scope & Objectives, Methodology, Detailed Findings & Recommendations, Overall Conclusion/Rating, Appendix), standard issue rating scales definitions, and preferred formatting styles (fonts, margins, table styles).

Improved Readability & Familiarity

Employing approved templates ensures a consistent, professional look-and-feel across all audit reports issued by the department, reinforcing the audit function's credibility. This not only saves individual auditors significant formatting time but also makes reports more familiar, predictable, and easier to digest for recurring readers like senior management, the audit committee, and external regulators, allowing them to focus on the substance quickly.

Shift Focus to Analysis and Insights

Reallocate Auditor Time to Value-Add

By drastically reducing the significant amount of time typically spent on the mechanical, lower-value tasks of report assembly, data aggregation, cross-referencing section numbers, and detailed formatting checks, auditors can strategically reallocate that saved effort towards higher-level cognitive activities that provide greater organizational value and insight.

Deeper Insights & Strategic Value

This freed-up time allows for performing deeper analysis of the overall findings to identify underlying root causes and systemic issues, recognizing thematic control weaknesses or risk trends that cut across multiple processes or departments, thoughtfully assessing the broader implications for the control environment's health, and formulating more strategic, impactful, and forward-looking recommendations for management and board consideration.

Data Interaction

Interact directly with your audit evidence without constantly switching applications. Whether analyzing tabular data from uploaded CSV files or exploring complex relationships within connected graph databases, the platform provides integrated interfaces to query, filter, and understand your data within the audit context, keeping evidence readily accessible and linked to your work.

Integrated Data Analysis

Reduces Context Switching & Tool Dependency

Avoid the inefficiency of constantly switching between your audit management software and separate, specialized data analysis tools (like Excel, IDEA, ACL, Tableau, or database clients). Perform quick, common analyses like filtering large datasets based on specific criteria (e.g., transactions over a threshold, users with certain permissions), sorting by key fields, calculating basic statistics (sums, averages, counts), or identifying potential duplicates or outliers directly within the platform's familiar interface using uploaded CSVs or potentially connected data sources.

Supports Diverse Data Types & Queries

For connected graph databases (like Neo4j, commonly used for identity and access management or fraud analysis), execute Cypher queries directly through an integrated query console. This allows auditors to explore complex, non-linear relationships relevant to audit objectives (e.g., tracing user access paths across multiple systems, visualizing transaction flows between related entities, identifying unusual network connections or potential segregation of duties conflicts based on entitlements) without needing a separate database client installed or specialized graph analysis skills for basic queries.

Direct Evidence Linkage

Creates Clear, Digital Audit Trail

Seamlessly link the results of your integrated data analysis—whether it's a filtered list of exceptions derived from a CSV analysis, a summary statistic supporting a conclusion, the Cypher query used, or a graph visualization output illustrating a complex relationship—directly to the corresponding electronic workpaper section or specific test step within the platform where that evidence is being used to support your work.

Enhances Transparency & Reviewability

This direct linkage creates a clear, robust, and easily reviewable digital audit trail. Reviewers (such as audit managers or quality assurance personnel) can directly click through from a conclusion or finding to see the connection to the specific supporting data evidence and the analysis performed. This enhances transparency, reduces ambiguity during review, and significantly cuts down review time and follow-up queries.

Efficient Evidence Gathering

Streamlines Data Handling Workflow

By integrating common data interaction and analysis capabilities directly within the audit workflow, the platform simplifies the process of obtaining, manipulating, and analyzing electronic audit evidence. It reduces the need for frequent manual data export/import cycles between different, potentially incompatible tools (e.g., downloading from ERP, uploading to analysis tool, exporting results, importing back to audit software), saving time and reducing potential data integrity issues associated with manual handling.

Reduces Reliance on External Tools for Common Tasks

This minimizes reliance on potentially complex spreadsheet functions (like multi-step VLOOKUPs, intricate PivotTables requiring careful setup) or separate database query tools for many common data examination, sampling selection, and analytical tasks performed during fieldwork. It streamlines the evidence gathering and documentation phase, making data analysis more accessible, especially for auditors who may be less specialized in advanced data analytics techniques but still need to perform basic data interrogation.