As my career changed, my use of computer-assisted auditing techniques changed course. However, in early 2017, I revisited IDEA to assist in my due diligence of a middle market business during a bankruptcy process. There were a myriad of issues including disordered financial records attributed to a departed CFO who failed to perform his function. With IDEA I was able to quickly gain insight into the business’ process performance by executing steps that would have been nearly impossible using other tools. IDEA made my work much more effective and efficient, and the conclusions were clear.
The improved functionality of IDEA was certainly impressive. It made me wonder why some audit and accounting professionals were not using it more. My question to the profession is, “With all the technology you’ve personally adopted, are you going as far as you should around increased data insight and analysis? When tools like IDEA are readily available, easy to use and cost effective, what’s stopping you from using them?”