The special report mentioned how the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) software helps the audit team to analysis over hundreds of rental lease contracts which some of the contracts cover more than 10K pages. Moreover, the application use a combination of optical character recognition (OCR) helps to scan and locate key data into a spreadsheet from lease contracts in order to help teams to verify for the data.
"We use OCR with repetitive, routine processes, especially if we are dealing with a large volume of data that isn't too complex" stated by Matthew Li, Co-founder and Partner at NOVA CPA. "Cloud Accounting is extremely important, especially for SMPs (Small and Medium Size Practising) right now. When our teams have to deal with bank feeds during audits, all the banking data is transmitted directly to the cloud accounting system. The software also uses AI to determine whether certain banking transactions are reconciled with our transactions. This also eliminates the need to print individual statements."
The report had also discussed the change and challenges facing in the audit profession, especially on talent acquisition. The mix of IT and accounting skills and experience are so important for SMP in order to create value for both firms and clients. And this also helps the firms to understand the business risks before or during the engagement.
Matthew and other firms' partners had also shared some of their daily work as a professional accountant. Frequent and effective communication is needed daily to ensure client and teams is tracking to the right progress and speak out to any problems at the onset. The discussion cover from sales, services, HR management, etc. This shows that the importance of business intelligence for instant and accurate data analytic result from the company's control system for growth.