A Cloud-Based Digital Platform to Streamline Audits

Client name: One of The Big 4 Auditing Firms

Project name: Digital Audit Platform

Our client, one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms, is a leading professional services firm and one of the “Big Four” accounting organizations. With a rich history spanning over 175 years, one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms provides a wide range of services, including Audit & Assurance, Tax, Consulting, and Advisory, to clients worldwide.

To enhance the quality and efficiency of their audits, one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms partnered with Mediastep to develop Digital Audit Platform, a cutting-edge digital audit platform. This innovative platform empowers one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms’s world-class practitioners to conduct audits of any scale and complexity. Leveraging evolving technology and data analytics, Digital Audit Platform enables more consistent, transparent, and valuable audit and assurance services. By combining top talent, streamlined processes, and market-leading technologies, one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms delivers impactful solutions that exceed expectations.

The Challenge
The Solution
The Result
Tech Stack

1. The Challenge

One of The Big 4 Auditing Firms faced several key challenges in conducting efficient and effective audits:

  • Time constraints and manual processes: Traditional audit procedures often involved time-consuming manual tasks, such as data entry, cross-referencing information, and updating documentation. This inefficiency led to increased costs and potential delays in project completion.
  • Keeping audit procedures up-to-date: Accounting and auditing standards in Canada and the USA are constantly evolving. Maintaining compliance with the latest standards required significant effort and expertise to ensure audit procedures and documentation remained current.
  • Decentralized documentation and data silos: Critical audit documentation was often scattered across various platforms and formats, making it difficult to access, manage, and maintain a single source of truth. This lack of centralization increased the risk of errors, inconsistencies, and version control issues.
  • Lack of data integration: Auditors needed to access and analyze financial data from various client accounting systems. Manual data extraction and integration were prone to errors and created a significant bottleneck in the audit process.
  • Data duplication and inconsistency: Repetitive data entry across different documents and forms led to inefficiencies and increased the risk of errors. Maintaining consistency across all documentation was a major challenge.

These challenges highlighted the need for a comprehensive digital audit platform that could streamline workflows, improve accuracy, ensure compliance, and enhance collaboration.

2. The Solution

To address one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms’s challenges, Mediastep designed and developed a comprehensive solution within digital audit platform, leveraging our powerful INK Content Management System:

  • Customizable content and workflows: We tailored content and workflows to precisely match one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms’s specific needs and methodologies, ensuring a seamless transition and optimal user experience.
  • Dynamic questionnaires: Digital Audit Platform features dynamic questionnaires that adapt based on user input, ensuring that only relevant information is gathered for each engagement.
  • Data persistence and linking: Our solution eliminates redundant data entry and ensures consistency by allowing users to enter information once and dynamically link it across related sections and documents.
  • Integrated risk assessment: Digital Audit Platform includes a robust risk assessment module that connects objectives, risks, and responses seamlessly, facilitating a comprehensive and efficient risk assessment process.
  • Powerful analytics and visualizations: The platform enables the creation of insightful analytics and visualizations directly from trial balance data, enhancing audit quality and understanding.
  • Group audit capabilities: Digital Audit Platform supports group audits for large companies and their subsidiaries, facilitating collaboration and ensuring consistent audit procedures across the organization.
  • Efficient data management: Our Data Upload Assistant (DDA) streamlines the management of financial data from clients and subsidiaries, while our Journal Entry Testing (JET) module helps identify anomalies and potential misstatements, ensuring compliance with ISA 240.
  • Secure archiving and data retention: Digital Audit Platform incorporates a robust archiving and data retention strategy, enabling secure storage and efficient management of financial data across multiple years.

By combining these features, Mediastep delivered a solution that empowers one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms to conduct audits with greater efficiency, accuracy, and compliance.

3. The Result

The collaboration between one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms and Mediastep resulted in the successful launch and implementation of Digital Audit Platform, a cutting-edge digital audit platform that has transformed one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms’s audit processes. Here are some key outcomes:

  • Increased efficiency and productivity: Digital Audit Platform has streamlined audit workflows, enabling one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms’s practitioners to complete tasks more efficiently and effectively. This has led to significant time savings and increased productivity.
  • Enhanced audit quality: By leveraging advanced analytics and automation, Digital Audit Platform has enabled one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms to perform audits with greater accuracy and insight, leading to higher-quality audits and reduced risk.
  • Improved compliance: Digital Audit Platform ensures that all audit procedures and documentation are consistently updated and compliant with the latest accounting and auditing standards across various jurisdictions.
  • Enhanced collaboration: The centralized platform fosters seamless collaboration among audit teams, enabling efficient knowledge sharing and communication.
  • Greater transparency: Digital Audit Platform provides a clear and comprehensive audit trail, increasing transparency and accountability throughout the audit process.
  • Data-driven insights: The platform’s analytics capabilities empower one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms with data-driven insights to make more informed audit decisions and provide greater value to their clients.

Overall, Digital Audit Platform has significantly enhanced one of The Big 4 Auditing Firms’s audit capabilities, enabling them to deliver more efficient, accurate, and valuable audit and assurance services to their clients worldwide. This successful partnership with Mediastep demonstrates the power of combining industry expertise with innovative technology to achieve transformative results.

4. Tech Stack

  • Frontend: ReactJS, Sass, Webpack
  • Database: Azure SQL, Dedicated SQL pool, mongodb
  • File Storage: SharePoint Online, Azure Blob storage, Azure File
  • ETL & Data integration: Azure Synapse, Azure Data Lake, parquet file
  • User Integration: Azure Active Directory, MSAL
  • Backend: .NET6 & .NET8, API, Azure Gateway, Azure Web, Azure Function/Web Job
  • Message: Azure Service Bus, RabbitMQ
  • Caching: Azure Redis cache
  • Security: KeyVault, MSI
  • Monitoring & Logging: Azure Appinsight
  • CI-CD: Azure DevOps
  • Frontend (third-parties): react-virtual, Handson table, spreadjs, Semantic UI
  • Backend (third-parties): GrapeCity, Syncfusion, Spire.XLS
  • High performance design: micro-services, sharding, SPA, auto-scale, load balancing, large data

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