Using technology to ensure quality for clients - PwC’s tech-enabled audit

Aura Platinum 

Aura Platinum is our smart audit enterprise resource planning (ERP) system - a web based platform that facilitates the end-to-end documentation of walkthroughs¹, including planning and conducting meetings, preparing and reviewing documentation.

We have been using Aura for more than 10 years to help drive a consistent, focused and efficient approach to address audit risks across the PwC Network. Our adoption of Aura Platinum has also enabled seamless accessibility to our audit documentation especially on global audit engagements where cross border access to Aura files has become a ‘new norm’. We are continually investing in and upgrading the tool to be more productive in the way we plan, prepare and execute and document our work. For example, Aura Platinum mobile is a faster, simpler, experience that helps maximise the tool’s benefits to support our clients on the go.

Aura Platinum also reduces duplication effort by seamlessly integrating with other Assurance Tools such as Connect.

¹a process to gauge the reliability of an accounting system

Smart audit platform

PwC's Smart Audit Platform was launched in Malaysia in April 2020. The Platform hosts a suite of integrated and intelligent solutions which use cutting-edge machine learning and automation technology to streamline traditional audit processes. For example, the Financial Statements Tie Out digitises the end-to-end checking of financial statements by automatically calculating the totals, completing internal cross referencing and ensuring that the numbers agree with the prior year numbers. It makes testing faster and reduces the likelihood of manual errors while enabling faster turnarounds. Apart from the Financial Statements Tie Out, the platform also supports the Smart PDF Extract and Substantive Testing for Operating Expenses.

Halo for Journals

Halo for Journals is a dynamic visualisation tool designed to allow us to analyse clients’ data in different ways, supporting our audit team in performing better risk assessments. The interactive visualisation dashboard allows us to identify patterns and outliers, spot potential areas of higher risk and provide deeper insights to our clients. Halo for Journals also improves efficiency by automating and driving a standardised approach to journal entry testing, allowing our engagement team to spend less time performing manual processes and more time understanding transactions.

Connect v3 

Connect v3, our global coordination tool, provides fast, efficient and secure information sharing at every stage of the audit. It streamlines, standardises and automates real-time communication between client teams and ours, across different time zones and no matter where we are working from. 

The use of Connect is now an integral part of how we manage our client request lists digitally and securely. Audit teams leverage the smart dashboards for status update meetings with key client stakeholders to ensure the audit timeline remains on track. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way we operate, from physical meets to now, carrying out audits remotely. Nevertheless, it is highly encouraging to see that our people have positively embraced the change and are resilient in adapting to new ways of working to continue serving our clients. 

PwC Extract

In a fast-paced digital environment, data is now at the centre of everything we do.

As our client’s data become more complex and the volume of data increases, we took the opportunity to reimagine how to harness data in a more automated and streamlined way. Extract is a Windows desktop application developed by PwC and is designed to provide a secure method of acquiring data from our client’s systems and transmitting it back to us.

This means:

• Lower time commitment from the client in reviewing data needed and extracting data for audits; greater efficiency in our interactions with clients

• Enhanced transparency into data requested 

• Large volumes of data are obtained more efficiently using tools that limit the impact on the client’s systems

• No additional cost to install or run - any additional system requirements to use the tool can be obtained from the ERP provider

• Data is encrypted and securely transmitted to PwC, reducing data transfer risk

• Standardisation of the data extracted which increases control on data quality.