Customer story
Audacie
Discover how audit teams at Audacie save 50-75% time on Substantive Procedures and Walkthroughs with Intelligent Automation
For more than a 100 years, Maner Costerisan has been a full-service public accounting, technology and business consulting firm that has grown into one of the top firms in the Great Lakes region in the United States. They serveindustries such as affordable housing, cannabis, construction, education, employee benefit plans, government, healthcare, high net worth, manufacturing, nonprofit, small & midsize businesses, and telecommunications. Maner Costerisan’s services include accounting, audit & assurance, consulting,tax, technology solutions, and wealth management.
This success story was created in collaboration with the AffordableHousing team from Maner Costerisan in Grand Rapids and Lansing, Michigan, US.
Maner Costerisan faced significant challenges in their preliminary fieldwork and walkthrough procedures for various financial engagements specific to the affordable housing sector. Their manual processes for handling documentation, repetitive tasks like disbursements and cash receipts, and compiling information for cash and cash equivalent accounts, accounts receivable, prepaid expenses, accounts payable and other liabilities, rental income, and management fees were time-consuming and involved high degree of manual work. With a total of 391 engagements in the sector, the affordable housing team was seeking a solution that would reduce the time taken for staff to preparetheir binders, and eliminate repetitive tasks and streamline the review process across all affordable housing engagements.
One of the firm's primary concerns was the time required for staff to complete these procedures manually, which averaged around three hours per task fortransactional testing and 10-12 hours for trial balance tie outs and analytical procedures. Additionally, their financial statement procedures involved cumbersome back-and-forth between staff, reviewers and clients, risking errors. Despite their meticulous approach, the manual nature of their processes left room for improvement in both time efficiency and accuracy.
DataSnipper has helped build capacity and make things easier for newer associates. Our teams have a top-down approach to using DataSnipper as a must-have, not just a nice-to-have. Standardizing engagements with DataSnipper has also made it easier to set up new associates for success in the future.
Maner Costerisan turned to DataSnipper to streamline their documentation processes and improve overall efficiency. By implementing DataSnipper across most areas of theiraudit binders, they were able to modify their audit focus from repetitive ticking and tying of workpapers to a more robust analytical procedure analysis in the following areas of the audit binder.
· Cash and cash equivalents
· Accounts receivable
· Prepaid expenses
· Accounts payable and other liabilities
· Rental income
· Management fees
Maner Costerisan developed tailored Excel templates for rental income andmanagement fees, customized for each property by financing type (Rural Development, MSHDA, and HUD). Their focus on analytical procedures, such as examining fluctuations in rental income and rental rates,was facilitated by data extracted using DataSnipper from client provided rental schedules. This implementation included creating internally standardized templates within Excel that allowed for easy uploading of source documents, Text and Sum Snipping necessary information, and instantly cross-referencing all data to the source, significantly saving time and binder space.
For financial statements, DataSnipper eliminated the need for back-and-forth communication, reducing errors and enhancing accuracy by use of the financial statement suite by all staff and the internal administrative word processing team. Notably, the time required for staff to complete transactional testing procedures was cut in half, from three hours to just 1.5 hours per engagement. With newly implemented templates already standardized across 391 affordable housing engagements (excluding compilation and review engagements), the firm anticipates even greater time savings in future years.
Using DataSnipper has been a game-changer for Maner Costerisan, allowing the Affordable Housing team to save an estimated 2,000 hours across their procedures. This efficiency gain positions the firm to take on more engagements in the future. Standardizing engagements with DataSnipper has not only streamlined processes but also made it easier for new associates to integrate and perform effectively from the start.
Maner Costerisan has incorporated DataSnipper into the ironboarding process. New associates receive specific training on how to use the software in their dailytasks. This training ensures that all team members are proficient with the platform, promoting consistency and efficiency across the board.
Additionally, the firm encourages creative applications of DataSnipper, with identified champions within each industry group responsible for ensuring its usage. These champions facilitate knowledge, sharing best use cases among team members.
To further enhance their training program, Maner Costerisan plans to utilize the DataSnipper Academy for new hires, integrating them into upcoming trainings and making available relevant content. This proactive approach to training and onboarding underscores the firm’s commitment to leveraging DataSnipper for continuous improvement and success.
The use of DataSnipper cut the time required for transactional testing procedures by 50%, from three hours to 1.5 hours, with potential for further reductions in the future.
Standardized work papers for cash and cash equivalents saved Maner Costerisan time and space, becoming a best practice across 1,400 audits performed firmwide.
The firm saved an estimated 2,000 hours in a quarter, increasing their capacity to take on more engagements.
