Remote Auditing - here to stay?

For just over a year now, finance teams and auditors alike have had to embrace the challenges of remote auditing whilst the country and wider world have gone through periods of lockdown and adapting to social distancing. I was sceptical as to whether remote auditing would be an adequate replacement for the traditional ‘onsite’ method, but looking back it’s one of the positive experiences that came out of 2020 for me.

So, what has remote auditing given us?

• It’s been great to be able to work more flexibly around the needs of our clients in a way that a traditional onsite audit may not have allowed. Now more than ever we are aware that working conditions and priorities can change very quickly, and remote auditing means we are able to adapt to the changing needs of our clients without compromising the quality of our work. This flexibility has included providing deliverables requests to an agreed timetable and ahead of the core audit that has allowed clients longer periods of time to collate information and reduce capacity pressures.
• While initially I was dubious about whether relationship-building would be as prevalent with remote audits (not as easy to pop into your office on the way back from a tea round!), Teams calls and Zoom meetings have served as a great substitute for face-to-face time with my clients. From discussions around this process, the feedback has been positive, highlighting that scheduled catch-ups have improved the efficiency of client finance teams as they are able to plan around audit meetings.
• We have the technical capacity to work on client systems remotely through systems back-ups, cloud and remote access arrangements. Even in instances where access to full client systems has not been possible, through the use of secure information-sharing portals, we have been able to deliver remote audits effectively and efficiently.

While understandably for some, remote audit is not the best-suited approach and may not be the approach adopted where alternative means are available, I personally am a big fan and am keen to continue to develop this service for our clients in the future.

I am excited for the opportunities this presents us in meeting the needs of existing and new clients both locally and further afield. It is a great opportunity for us as a firm to deliver our expert services to all clients, wherever they may be based, and tailoring our audit team not based on location, but skills. The audit process is not a ‘one size fits all’, and here at Bishop Fleming we look forward to working with you on what a remote audit means to you.

To find out more about our remote audit service and how we can offer a tailored solution to meet your needs, click here: Remote Auditing.

Eden

Eden Bernard-John

Audit Executive