New Cloud Options from Wolters Kluwer Streamline Audits

Dduring its 15^th annual CCH Connections User Conference in Colorado, Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting demonstrated several new cloud-based solutions designed to help tax & accounting professionals realize the full benefits of the Integrated Audit Approach, which enables firms to elevate how audits are performed and to transform their services to add more value to clients and drive firm growth. Attendees experienced hands-on demonstrations of CCH Axcess Financial Prep, the profession’s first dynamic cloud-based trial balance solution already in market; CCH Axcess Knowledge Coach, a cloud-based digital audit management tool; and CCH Axcess Engagement , a robust workpaper management solution that minimizes data entry and ensures compliance with changing industry regulations. As they are added over the next year, these integrated solutions will soon comprise the CCH Axcess Audit solution.

“In today’s complex environment, a disengaged audit process negatively impacts overall quality. Many audit methodologies and systems are currently built on standardized checklists and inflexible processes that fail to leverage auditor knowledge, which often discourages critical thinking,” said Cathy Rowe, CPA, CA and Director of Accounting and Audit Product Management at Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting North America. “The new cloud-based solutions are the next building blocks in our Integrated Audit Approach and are helping audit professionals realize the full benefits of the Knowledge-Based Audit Methodology, a dynamic risk-based auditing process developed specifically in response to the AICPA’s risk assessment standards.”

CCH Axcess Financial Prep is a dynamic, end-to-end trial balance solution that uses AI and machine learning technology to eliminate the manual process of grouping accounts when creating tax reports. Launched last year as an integrated cloud-based solution, CCH Axcess Financial Prep leverages data residing in a common cloud database allowing multiple staff to work simultaneously within the same engagement. With instant integration to CCH Axcess, there is no need to sync data, leading to greater productivity when working on trial balance and related reports. Once users upload client trial balance data into CCH Axcess Financial Prep, the accounts are intelligently grouped, and the solution assigns the tax codes respectively. As a result, users can more quickly make adjustments based on their professional judgement before sending balances to the business tax return in CCH Axcess Tax.

CCH Axcess Knowledge Coach is a cloud-based solution built from the award-winning and peer reviewed CCH® ProSystem fx® Knowledge Coach on-premise solution. Offering anywhere, anytime access and real-time contextual-based diagnostics, notifications, and updates, CCH Axcess Knowledge Coach facilitates team collaboration and improves audit quality. It provides auditors with knowledge-based guidance and tools that encourage auditor judgment for a truly complete, thorough, and compliant audit. Firms have the flexibility in how audits are managed by creating recommended audit procedures for all audit types and using tailoring questions to identify complexity. Launching later this year with commercial titles first, CCH Axcess Knowledge Coach will include all industry titles in the coming months.

CCH Axcess Engagement is another cloud-based solution soon being added to the CCH Axcess platform to help audit professionals manage workpapers more efficiently, without changing the way they work. It allows firms to automate their corporate workflow by easily incorporating existing Microsoft Word and Excel workpapers into an electronic binder, complete with dynamic links, then quickly rolling forward an entire binder with a single mouse click. CCH Axcess Engagement helps improve audit efficiency by making importing trial balance data easy from virtually any general ledger system and by enabling users to select the account balance types and related journal entries they need for their company.

Wolters Kluwer Integrated Audit Approach focuses the audit process on auditor judgment. It facilitates the ability to make informed decisions by ensuring that the audit is tailored for each client, always having a link to the assessed risk and the work performed. By focusing on the entire end-to-end workflow, this approach helps firms maximize efficiencies and guide them to a higher quality audit without over or under auditing.

Wolters Kluwer is a provider of professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2018 annual revenues of €4.3 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.