4 takeaways on the DAS implementation journey

Watch the video here.

As auditors, we are used to navigating change. We build processes to respond to regulators and market forces, and that brings comfort as we guide our clients through change. But audit transformation, which is dominating conversation within firms, is challenging us beyond our comfort zones. With the pervasiveness of data analytics and AI, auditors must rethink their processes and design them to be both high quality and highly efficient, leveraging technology as a tool to enable better practices, not just for the sake of using new technology. By embracing a forward-thinking approach, auditors can ensure that they and their clients remain at the forefront of the audit transformation, ready to adapt and thrive in the face of continuous change.

The Dynamic Audit Solution (DAS) enables this approach. Built by auditors, for auditors through a partnership between the AICPA, CPA.com and Caseware, DAS is part of OnPoint, a comprehensive cloud-based suite of applications built on the Caseware Cloud platform that brings together embedded methodology, engagement management, automated financial statements, data analytics and client collaboration into a single integrated package. It creates a more efficient, higher quality audit through a transformative, embedded AICPA methodology, guided workflows, data ingestion and re-use, and seamlessly integrated collaboration tools. Since its commercial release in June 2023, DAS adoption has accelerated rapidly, with more than 5,000 active users on the platform (as of July 2024).

I recently led a panel where Matt Walsh, CPA, Partner at Withum, and Jessie Kanter, CPA, Partner in Charge of Methodology and Innovation at Citrin Cooperman, shared their audit transformation journeys, including their experience adopting DAS and their change management strategies. Here’s what they said.

1. DAS enhances the quality of the audit.

   Embedded, guided methodology and guardrails to prevent under or over auditing are just a few of the features that enable DAS to produce a high-quality audit. Both Withum and Citrin Cooperman have put their DAS engagements through a full Engagement Quality Control Review (EQCR), in addition to other internal inspections.

   Explaining the results of the EQCR, Jessie shared feedback from the EQR team, “I had half the amount of comments that I had on our traditional methodology EQCRs.” Matt shared similar results, saying, “I can speak on that one because I was involved and (review) went off without a hitch—no issues. It’s been good so far.”

   Jessie explained that the guided approach of DAS also improved the partner review phase of the audit by both helping the engagement team provide the right information and automatically flowing that into the review screen.

2. DAS creates efficiencies at every step of the audit.

   From a build perspective, DAS is structured to enable efficiencies throughout the audit. Customized industry content, data ingestion and automated data re-use drive both quality and efficiency; by tailoring to an engagement’s specific risks, you do only the work you need to and can eliminate the time spent clicking through non-applicable sections or re-entering the same information. This also reduces human error and the ability to over or under audit.

   While many efficiency discussions focus on year-over-year utilization comparison, another may be one of the greatest gains for firms—upskilling staff. “We have multiple second-year staff that can effectively run an audit because they’ve been involved in DAS,” Matt explained. The embedded, guided AICPA methodology allows for faster upskilling by really emphasizing the “why” auditors perform steps in the audit rather than just following last year’s process. This creates efficiency and capacity for teams to deliver a higher quality final product.

   Both Matt and Jessie spoke about the early results they’ve seen and their expectations of the time needed to learn a new methodology and platform simultaneously “There’s going to be a learning curve,” Matt said. “With each passing audit, [the auditors are] going to understand the process and apply those learnings to the next one.” Matt also shared that while there has been a learning curve that may require a bit more time initially, early returns show the time spent on audits already leveling back out to expected hours. Both emphasized that the learning curve was reduced with each audit run on DAS as teams became more familiar with the platform. “Learning is a half-life,” Jessie observed, reinforcing how the learning curve shortened with each engagement. “And you need to make sure that the expectation is set with the teams that it’s ok.”

3. DAS provides an opportunity to attract, retain and upskill early career staff.

   The talent crunch is a hot topic in every corner of the profession, so we of course started and ended our conversation there. Audit has a reputation for checking boxes—focusing on the Same As Last Year (SALY) approach. So as firms try to attract talent, the ability to work with new, exciting technology like DAS is proving to be a draw. Matt likened the old method to checking a file out of a library where “no one else can do anything with it until you check it back in.” With the cloud-based DAS platform, younger staff expect a more modern, technologically advanced approach to the audit.

   Early career staff don’t just want advanced technology, they expect it. As the iPhone generation, younger staff have grown up with technology as commonplace, and we can’t expect them to be satisfied using outdated, disparate technologies.“ As a firm that methodology needed to change,” Jessie explained. “It needed to change to make people better auditors. It needed to change to retain and attract high-quality talent so that they would actually like what they're doing.”

4. A change management plan is paramount to success.

   The importance of a solid change management plan from day one was emphasized throughout the conversation. “[DAS] is the biggest change that our people are going to go through, and we just need to recognize that head on,” Jessie offered to firms considering their DAS implementation plan. When Citrin Cooperman began their migration, they emphasized communication and feedback, which is paramount for a solid change management strategy. “After performing an engagement we ask, ‘What do we think? Can we ramp up or do we need to pause? What’s working and what do we need to change?’”

   In addition to communication, both Matt and Jessie emphasized the importance of getting the right people involved from the start for a successful implementation. “That may not be a partner,” Matt explained. “It may be one of your young leaders, somebody that is going to be really passionate about it.”

CPA.com has robust professional services offerings around DAS implementation and training, as well as change management best practices, customizable based on a firm’s needs and internal capacity.

To learn more about the Dynamic Audit Solution, visit cpa.com/services-solutions-main-hub/. And to hear more from our panel, check out the summary video here.