Kreischer Miller Delivers a Higher Quality Audit with Engagement and Knowledge CoachAccounting firm Kreischer Miller believes in providing early insight into their clients’ financial health so they can plan ahead and be ready to respond to fast-evolving opportunities and challenges. To accomplish this mission, the firm wanted the best in methodology, workflow and training, and it chose CCH®, a part of Wolters Kluwer, as its technology solutions partner.

The firm already used ProSystem fx® Tax, Fixed Assets, Scan and Practice Management. However, Steve Carr, Accounting and Audit Manager at Kreischer Miller, saw opportunities to better serve its audit clients by developing a more cohesive auditing process that would further increase efficiencies.

Therefore, the management team turned to ProSystem fx® Engagement, Accounting Research Manager® and ProSystem fx® Knowledge Coach. Carr recalled that the firm chose these CCH solutions based on five factors:

�� Ease of use — “Engagement is very intuitive. The learning curve on the software is pretty quick.”

�� Audit methodology — “We were looking for a new audit methodology that helped our users learn easier and become better auditors.”

�� World-class training and support — “CCH has helped us a lot with our training.”

�� CCH’s industry expertise — “We wanted somebody that really focused on our industry.”

�� Integration — “It had to integrate with our tax software so we could gain efficiencies.”

Engagement Creates a Seamless Workflow ProSystem fx Engagement is a paperless workflow solution that stores key client data in an intuitive electronic filing cabinet and binder system. Engagement serves as Kreischer Miller’s central location for tracking, reporting, reviewing, sign-off and archiving, and it also allows staff to synchronize work from any location and email an entire binder with one click.

Carr says Kreischer Miller saves time with Engagement because staff can automatically create first-year engagements using customized binder templates, reducing data entry time. The convenient roll forward feature allows staff to update information easily from year-to-year and instantly populate financial statements and work papers with current dates, account balances and variances. And, it’s easy to use.

Engagement is very intuitive. You look at a menu, and 90% of the time you can read it and know exactly what an option or tool is going to do. The learning curve on the software is minimal.

—Steve Carr, Accounting and Audit Manager, Kreischer Miller

Kreischer Miller Key Data:�� Leading independent accounting, tax and advisory firm that has served the Greater Philadelphia area since 1975

�� Approximately 200 team members (100 Knowledge Coach Users)

�� Extensive experience and expertise working with privately-held businesses

�� Industries served: manufacturing, distribution, construction, real estate, media services, not-for-profit, investment industry, government contracting, professional services and long-term care

Knowledge Coach Creates a Higher Quality AuditTo complement the efficiencies gained by Engagement, Kreischer Miller also implemented Knowledge Coach, a tool that works like a GPS for auditors helping with planning, generating work papers and evaluating risk. Through CCH’s Knowledge-Based Audit™ methodology, Knowledge Coach completes the administrative tasks and facilitates the audit workflow for you, letting users concentrate on the audit itself.

Knowledge Coach has solved many challenges that Kreischer Miller once faced. With the implementation of Knowledge Coach, the firm was able to also implement consistent procedures that the entire firm now follows with ease and confidence.

Kreischer Miller is also very focused on ensuring the highest quality audit possible while increasing staff efficiency at the same time.

Before Knowledge Coach, the linking of assertions and risks to the steps we were performing in the audit procedures was much less intuitive. In Knowledge Coach, linking is much clearer, and built-in diagnostics alert you to potential errors. That really tightens up the whole process and provides immediate feedback to the team.

By advising auditors when more documentation is needed, and alerting them when something has been missed, Carr says Knowledge Coach has helped produce a higher quality audit. The firm’s professionals are very positive about the results and appreciate the time it has saved them.

Since switching to Knowledge Coach, our professional staff has acknowledged that the methodology has broadened their understanding of a risk-based audit. The auditors tell me they spent half the amount of time this year planning as they did last year. As a reviewer, that’s fantastic! I’m really spending my time now on determining where our risk is and where we have issues with documentation.

Knowledge Coach Automation Increases Audit EfficiencyCarr also appreciates how Knowledge Coach increases the efficiency of the audit team. Users only have to enter data once for it to automatically transfer to all work papers, which ensures accuracy and productivity. Any future changes also flow automatically.

Knowledge Coach automates the audit process without taking away my audit judgment, and that’s very important, because I need to have the flexibility to customize an audit based on my perception of audit risk.

Further, it allows staff to roll forward prior-year audits, providing cumulative increases in efficiency year-over-year. Users can save answers to questions as well as customize program steps and risks as templates so they can be used for other clients and similar engagements. For Kreischer Miller, the benefits of these features are obvious.

Our audits have become more efficient, while we’ve simultaneously grown from a revenue base and an employee base. The roll over process is very easy, and we saw significant decreases in year two planning time. The result was we had more time in the fall to focus on activities that you would normally have to do during busy season, which made our busy season more manageable for our people.

Integration Is Key to Saving TimeCarr said with the integration between CCH’s Accounting Research Manager, Engagement and Knowledge Coach, staff can access GAAP or GAAS references by simply clicking a link. Additionally, the integration between Tax and Engagement simplifies tax return preparation by linking financial data between the two solutions, reflecting trial balance updates automatically in the tax program. Plus, there is even integration with Microsoft® Office products like Word and Excel®, allowing Kreischer Miller to automate updates to financial statements and work papers.

In our financial statements, we link all year one names, dates and numbers. For year two, after you drop that trial balance in, you might add or group a couple of accounts, but most of the financial statement should be done. Automating saves us more time every year down the line.

Using ProSystem fx Engagement and Knowledge Coach, Kresicher Miller is able to:�� Establish a consistent, companywide process for all procedures and tasks.

�� Develop a higher quality audit by associating risks to specific auditing steps.

�� Build the confidence and knowledge of their auditors.

�� Perform a risk-based audit in a much more cost-effective manner.

�� Significantly decrease time for the roll over process in year two.

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Backed by a Company that Understands AccountingCarr said it is essential that the firm’s business partners understand the accounting industry through and through, which is a big reason why Kresicher Miller chose CCH as their technology partner.

We needed a partner who was focused on the accounting industry and had experts working for them that were going to help us from a customer support standpoint. We’ve had great success with CCH and quick response times.

Training is especially important to a successful implementation, and Carr credits the world class training and support from CCH.

Not only did CCH provide training to the entire staff, but consultants also showed the software’s capabilities to the firm’s leadership and those who were resistant to it, which really helped build the change culture.

Carr also finds the best practices document created by CCH to be an invaluable tool for Kreischer Miller’s implementation, something that every Knowledge Coach firm gets when they go through the training and consulting courses. CCH’s consultants have been able to incorporate their experience with many firms and provide real-world examples that cover every area of the paperless process.

Kreischer Miller knew changing to a new paperless workflow, audit process and audit methodology all at the same time would be challenging, but the firm was confident it would see positive results in the end. Today, with the support of CCH, they have a more efficient, cohesive organization that is even more responsive to their clients’ needs.

Implementation Best Practices1. Carefully evaluate your firm’s software needs.

Identify the pain points in your organization by asking what isn’t working and how you can fix it. Involve IT so you’ll have the right hardware.

2. Start early to gain buy-in. Kreischer Miller spent an extensive amount of time discussing their need for change and selling the benefits before they were ready to implement.

3. Allocate enough time and resources. If you restrict the time or number of people assigned to the change, your implementation will be more difficult, and you’ll risk losing support from users.

4. Invest in planning time upfront. Carr said every hour he spent planning early paid off big time in the end. “Through extensive planning and the involvement of a large number of staff, we were able to minimize the number of post-implementation process refinements.”

5. Choose the best people for your Champions Team to lead the change. “Sometimes the best people aren’t the most powerful or the most experienced,” explained Carr. Choose people from all levels in the organization; involve partners as well as emerging young leaders.

6. Integration is key. Your firm will be much more efficient when all of your software solutions can easily share information and automatically transfer data from one to the other.

7. Train your champions early. The earlier you can train your champions on the software and have them start running real engagements, the deeper the knowledge they’ll gain of the new methodology and the more helpful they will be implementing the solution firmwide.

8. Commit to constant evaluation. Even after implementation, the Kresicher Miller Champions Team is still active, always looking for ways to improve and make processes better. How the firm is best leveraging the Accounting Research Manager, ProSystem fx Engagement and ProSystem fx Knowledge Coach with its Knowledge-Based Audit methodology continues to evolve.