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“The Mercia Group’s paperless audit system focuses the mind at the planning stage of the assignment. It aids an efficient and streamlined audit, enabling proper tailoring of audit programs and focus on risk areas”.
David Morris, Corporate Manager - Whittingham Riddell

Established in 1899, Whittingham Riddell has five offices based across Shropshire and Mid Wales. Their client base is broad, comprising agriculture, landed estates, corporate, charities, SMEs and personal clients. Despite recent legislation that increased the audit exemption limit to £5.6m, many clients still require an audit and to improve efficiency in this process the practice has chosen to use the Mercia Group’s paperless audit system, which has been developed in conjunction with CaseWare, as standard.

David Morris is a corporate manager at the practice and has seen many benefits as a result of implementing the system. Says David “we are now just approaching the commencement of the second year on a paperless audit assignment and the efficiencies we have seen can really be quantified in terms of the use of computer technology in completing working papers within the file. As staff use the program for the second, third and fourth time, their familiarity with the software aids both the efficiency of the completion of the assignment and the efficiency of the manager/RI review”.

Helps focus on planning….
Another key benefit of using the system relates to time spent planning, and completing an assignment when compared to their previous paper based system. “Unquestionably” says David “the paperless version focuses the mind at the planning stage of the assignment. It aids an efficient and streamlined audit, enabling proper tailoring of audit programs and focus on risk areas”.

Improvements in quality….
As a paperless office, using Mercia’s paperless audit obviously assists in the overall reduction of paper in the office, however says David “we have found that the system also promotes computer efficiency, increases knowledge and furthers computer development and familiarity within the department. The audit quality is also enhanced as each test is selected and devised at the planning stage and has to be individually answered and signed off at the fieldwork stage. The ‘all encompassing bracket’ is a now a thing of the past”.

Increased flexibility…
Whittingham Riddell use the paperless audit system on all corporate audits, regardless of size, as says David “the planning of the assignment allows you to tailor the programmes to the specific needs of the business in question.

For low risk clients, which may be of a smaller nature, the use of the low risk override function allows you to complete planning for those clients in an efficient manner”.

Better team morale…
Feedback from staff of Whittingham Riddell has been very positive and they are proactively contributing to its use and efficiency. “As staff use it more and more they are all commenting on how much better it is than the completion of a paper file. With regard to manager and partner review, whilst being very different, all have found their own ways of reviewing a file without printing out all working papers. The use of a pdf writer has assisted greatly as accounts can be reviewed and commented upon on screen and saved within the electronic file”.

Happy regulators…
The system has also made the process of regulation much easier says David “At a recent QAD visit a paperless file was selected for review and the inspector was very impressed with how the program worked. Minimal time being spent showing how it worked and the inspector was able to navigate around the software, locating all working papers etc they wished to see”.

Last but not least, a better client impression…
Whittingham Riddell are pleased with how the paperless audit system from Mercia has improved their audit procedures and practices and suggest that other firms should consider this as a solution for their own practices. “In an ever increasing IT world, more and more clients want to see that their advisors are up to speed with such technological advances. Clients are looking for an efficient value added service. The paperless audit system will save time and allow focus on that value added work the client wants”.

Click here for more information about Mercia's paperless audit.