What does it take to move to an independent SMSF audit service? Surprisingly little when you partner with the right auditor.
Muhammad Khalid, SMSF Audit Manager at independent SMSF audit specialist Evolv, explains just how easy it can be to transition to an external SMSF auditor.
“At Evolv, we understand that making the move from in-house SMSF audits to an external auditor is a new and therefore unknown process,” says Khalid.
“The Evolv approach is all about ensuring help is available – and letting our accounting and advisory firm clients know who they can reach out to for support when it’s needed. That matters because having a dedicated contact greatly helps to create efficiencies, especially when practices first join us.”
A dedicated point of contact
This commitment to providing a dedicated onboarding support team is one of Evolv’s key points of difference.
As Khalid notes, “Onboarding at Evolv extends much further than a perfunctory ‘meet and greet’. Importantly, our new accounting and advisory firm clients know that the support of our onboarding team – and Evolv’s audit teams, is available for as long as it’s needed.
“When several audits have been completed, we follow up with phone calls to new accounting and advisory firm clients. This lets us assess how well they are managing the transition. This one-on-one interaction provides intense attention from one person, and we are happy to maintain this for several months to ensure everything goes smoothly.
“There is no time limit to our onboarding support. It’s about working with our accounting and advisory firm clients, ensuring they have a good understanding of our processes and documentation needs, while we also learn about their own internal processes to make it a smooth transition. We continue to nurture them through the early stages of the relationship until they no longer require that intense attention.”
Multiple resources make onboarding stress-free
Evolv’s step-by-step onboarding process involves substantial collaboration with both Evolv’s onboarding team and its workflow team. This helps new accounting and advisory firm clients become familiar with Evolv’s systems, notably uploading work files into Evolv’s secure client portal, getting the necessary documents on file, and allowing the audit to take place as effortlessly as possible.
Khalid explains, “We have user-friendly help guides and training videos that supplement our onboarding process. They offer an easy way for our accounting and advisory firm clients to familiarise themselves with our processes before they start submitting funds to us.
“As a measure of how informative the videos and help guide is, it’s rare that we are asked for follow-up information or further training on Evolv’s secure client portal. When help is needed, in addition to our system support team, a dedicated client service manager and director are available to provide further support at any stage.”
No specialist software or file types
A key aspect of partnering with Evolv, is that it doesn’t have to involve moving files to a different format.
“Most of the files we receive are either in PDF, excel or word format,” notes Khalid. “This adds to the ease of onboarding to Evolv – we have no requirements for specialist software or unusual file types. It’s as simple as uploading a data file or using the drag and drop functionality.”
Benefits beyond an efficient, independent audit
Many of Evolv’s accounting and advisory firm clients find that partnering with Evolv delivers benefits that go beyond meeting the requirements of APES 110.
“We have received feedback from new accounting and advisory firm clients that as part of meeting Evolv’s requirements, they have finetuned and enhanced their own internal processes” says Khalid.
“As a result, they feel their accounting systems, document preparation and recordkeeping become much more robust after engaging Evolv. From our perspective, it’s very rewarding to know we are adding value beyond completing independent SMSF audits.”
To give your practice the benefit of a streamlined onboarding process, contact David Goldsmith at Evolv on dgoldsmith@evolvsuper.com.au or call 1300 886 536 or visit evolvsuper.com.au/evolv-black.
