Assurance and advisory platform Fieldguide expanded into the financial audit space through its release of Fieldguide for Financial Audit, a cloud-based end-to-end solution that assists professionals through each step of the engagement.
Fieldguide CEO Jin Chang, in an interview, said it sports the same end-to-end AI platform as the company's advisory solution, but the model is tuned specifically to the financial audit practitioner. While auditors are no stranger to Fieldguide, Chang said that, up until now, "our bread and butter" has revolved around IT and risk engagements versus the financial audit. The new solution represents expansion into this area.
"We have more AI and automation, workflow automation, features specifically tailored for financial audits. For example, when a CPA firm uploads or injects a trial balance, we do an automated mapping to the chart of accounts. Previously we didn't have that automation, but with the trial balance mapping feature firms can map the chart of accounts within seconds," said Chang.
He said the platform is designed so the workflow and engagement lifecycle will feel very familiar to the average CPA. Fieldguide's new product automates the highly manual and error-prone parts of the engagement, such as designing audit test procedures for a first-time client, automating sample selection for accounts, assessing the quality of audit evidence and annotating and documenting based on the test procedures. However, the AI is not meant to take over parts of the engagement wholesale but instead act as a guide on each step of the process, which is part of Fieldguide's philosophy of always having a human in the loop. "So, human practitioners are prompted to review and validate the quality of the work the AI produces," said Chang.
The decision to expand into this area was driven by their customers, according to Chang. He'd often hear from customers who liked what Fieldguide did in advisory and risk who wanted a similar solution for financial audit. Specifically, auditors would complain about having to use disparate applications at different legs of the audit process, which can be awkward and lead to human error. He said many of Fieldguide's customers are contending with the talent shortage that has affected the entire profession, so the release also speaks to the need for firms to do more with less. An AI-enabled end-to-end solution, according to Chang, can act as a force multiplier allowing firms to do just that.
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