UHY is one of the nation’s largest professional services firms providing audit, tax, consulting and advisory services to clients primarily in the dynamic middle market. The firm is a Top 100 national CPA firm with roots dating back to 2001. Established through the merger of several U.S. firms joining the Urbach Hacker Alliance, UHY has grown significantly, maintaining its commitment to serving small and medium-sized businesses, sole proprietorships, and other essential segments of the U.S. economy.
The accounting industry faces a critical challenge in attracting and retaining talent, with many professionals reluctant to pursue CPA certification. UHY, like many firms, is navigating this issue while striving to maintain high standards in audit quality and efficiency. However, disparate tools, including Suralink, Asana, and Excel, made it challenging for UHY to efficiently manage risk controls, team activities, and client requests. In 2023, the UHY team began looking for a platform that could improve productivity and streamline collaboration.
Ben Hunter, a principal in UHY's Great Lakes region, specializes in IT audits, SOC reports, and cybersecurity assessments. In addition to SOC audits, his team also performs assessments and audits for ISO, PCI, HIPAA, NIST and CIS standards.
At Hunter’s previous firm, working with multiple systems and disparate data was inefficient and made it difficult for his team to be as productive as they wanted. But, after implementing Fieldguide, his firm was able to streamline communication and collaboration with team members and clients, reducing the time required to complete engagements by 20% to 30%.
When Hunter joined UHY, he quickly realized that Fieldguide could help his current team as well. Since implementing Fieldguide, UHY has been able to realize huge time savings and an increase in productivity. The real-time communication and collaborative features enhance the efficiency of audit engagements, by allowing better transparency and seamless collaboration making it easier for staff members to get tasks done faster and smarter. Fieldguide helps streamline the entire engagement lifecycle for team members, especially when it comes to managing client requests, evidence and documents, and testing procedures.
UHY’s clients benefit from Fieldguide through faster audit completions and improved transparency to all the tasks, milestones, and requests from UHY’s staff members.
"Fieldguide has transformed our client experience. The platform provides our clients improved transparency throughout the audit process, ensuring faster completions and clear communication from kickoff to close. And because Fieldguide automates so many tasks, our teams can spend more quality time with our clients as well,” said Hunter.
What sets Hunter’s experience at UHY from his previous firm is their use of Fieldguide AI. Fieldguide AI is purpose-built for the advisory and audit industry, and allows firms to reduce the work associated with creating test procedures, reviewing documents, and highlighting issues with evidence. For example, staff members can use AI to analyze client documents to determine if they meet certain controls, as well as make recommendations on how documents can be improved. Unlike generic AI technologies, Fieldguide's robust data security measures ensure that client data always remains protected, eliminating any concerns related to privacy and confidentiality.
UHY’s team members are using Fieldguide AI in a number of ways. UHY uses Fieldguide AI to draft test procedures, which are then reviewed and refined by senior team members. This approach saves time and ensures high-quality procedures. Fieldguide AI also helps team members to easily scan documents, policies and tickets, identifying relevant sections and highlighting discrepancies. This enables staff to focus more time on critical tasks and significantly less time on manual reviews.
“We're using Fieldguide at UHY because I've seen how it can help save 20 - 30% of engagement time. With new innovations like Fieldguide AI to assist with reviewing client evidence, creating test procedures, and evaluating controls, we're experiencing significant time savings – reducing some tasks from 3 hours to just 15 minutes,” said Hunter.
UHY's use of Fieldguide and its AI capabilities exemplifies the firm's commitment to innovation and client service. By leveraging technology to streamline processes and support staff, UHY is well-positioned to navigate industry challenges and continue its growth trajectory. Hunter anticipates even greater savings in the future, particularly in subsequent years as the platform becomes more fully integrated into UHY's processes. The collaboration with Fieldguide highlights the transformative potential of AI in accounting, promising increased efficiency and sustained excellence in client service.