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Streamline your audits with approval automation: how ApprovalMax helps

By Dee Jones

9 min read •

February 14, 2023

Approval automation software is changing business processes for financial approvals and businesses that are regularly audited – for the better.

Approval automation apps are designed to save time, streamline the approval process, and improve the overall efficiency of AP operations. By sending notifications and reminders to approvers, approval automation apps become valuable as it reduces the administrative workload for bookkeepers and accountants, freeing up time to focus on more important tasks.

If your client is regularly audited, you’ll want to make sure they have a comprehensive and organised way of making and logging their financial approvals. A huge bonus of using a cloud-based app is having an audit trail that’s automatically generated, as this means auditors get a clear understanding of the approval process. It’s also a win for your client as it helps ensure they stay compliant while reducing the risk of fraud at the same time.

During an audit, the ability to invite auditors to view workflows and audit trails with read-only access is helpful; it streamlines the evaluation process and makes audits easier to get through. Approval automation becomes an investment that pays off for clients who get audited regularly due to the reliability, transparency, and efficiency it provides when recording and tracking financial approvals.

ApprovalMax is a cloud-based approval automation platform that helps accountants prepare for audits by streamlining the approval processes and providing an organised and comprehensive overview of financial data.

Read on to learn how our features simplify the audit preparation process:

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Five ways ApprovalMax simplifies audits:

A delegation of authority policy is built into your workflows

It’s good to have a separate document for your delegation of authority, but how do you make sure it’s not just a piece of paper in a file cabinet or an online document saved in a folder? If your clients are still doing approvals on paper, their files will need to be organised and stored so they’re easy to retrieve.

Keep in mind that human error can still come back to haunt your client during an audit if they are doing this manually! Alternatively, if your client is using email to grant approvals, during an audit they will need to search through inboxes to find the approval history for all approved documents. This can take up a lot of their time and effort, and result in missing information that’s been deleted.

With ApprovalMax, you can create your delegation of authority policy in an approval workflow, so authorisation rules are followed consistently each time. You can also show auditors quickly and easily how your approval process works based on the authorisation rules you have set up in ApprovalMax.

You can create a simple or complex approval matrix, set up approvals that happen one after the other or at the same time, and add rules based on cost limits, GL codes, and tracking categories.

Automated audit reports and trails mean less manual work

When a document is approved in ApprovalMax, a report showing all the details of the approval process is automatically created and added to it in Xero. This includes all decisions made, exceptions, comments, and more. ApprovalMax simplifies audit preparation with automated reports for every approval. These reports capture decisions, timestamps, and exceptions – capturing all the details you need without lifting a finger.

Create easier access for auditors

With ApprovalMax, you can invite auditors to view your workflows and audit reports. The auditors will have read-only access, so they can evaluate things safely without the risk of making changes. They can see all reports and requests for your organisation and add comments. To invite an auditor, go to the ‘Users’ page, add a new user and choose the ‘Auditor’ role from the drop-down menu.

Use built-in reporting to extract more information during an audit

ApprovalMax provides comprehensive reporting to help evaluate the compliance of approval processes. Auditors can see how approvals were granted and get a complete picture with searchable reports. You can also get an overview or dive into specific details by downloading reports in Excel. These reports help find exceptions to the approval process, such as approvals delegated to someone else, requests that were automatically approved, incomplete requests, and approvals made by administrators instead of the person who was meant to approve.

Want to show off your approval workflow? Just export it.

Alternatively, you can share information about your approval workflows without inviting auditors to ApprovalMax. Simply open the workflow and press the ‘Export workflow’ button to produce a PDF document with a written description of the flow. For example, if it’s a purchase order workflow, the document will include a list of individuals who are authorised to create purchase orders, the rules for each request maker, and for every stage, a list of those who approve them, with the rules for each approver.

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Why approval automation is a must for audits

Audits can feel overwhelming, especially for businesses managing complex financial workflows and navigating complex compliance requirements. Manual approval processes often fall short, creating gaps in traceability and increasing the risk of errors. Approval automation steps in to bridge these gaps, giving you a reliable way to integrate compliance, accuracy, and transparency into financial workflows.

With approval automation, every decision is logged, timestamped, and securely stored in a comprehensive audit trail. This level of clarity and organisation simplifies how you prepare for audits, ensuring all the right data is readily available and easy for auditors to evaluate. No more sifting through emails or paperwork – everything you need is at your fingertips.

Take the pain out of audits with ApprovalMax

If you have clients who are regularly audited, getting them onto an approval automation tool that’s built with the audit process in mind can help them feel better prepared during an audit. It also provides confidence to board directors asking for financial controls to be put in place.

Here’s how ApprovalMax makes audits a breeze:

Business critical processes are fully visible and traceable

Auditors have easy access to any document they need and find all the relevant authorisation data

Audit trails and reports facilitate data and process accuracy, which is the base for informed decision-making

Accountants benefit from time savings because the manual effort is minimal

By automating workflows, generating real-time audit trails, and simplifying collaboration with auditors, ApprovalMax helps businesses to maintain compliance without the usual headaches. It’s a smarter, more efficient way to manage audits – every single time.

Dee Jones believes the most powerful words are 'Let me tell you a story.' Her passion for storytelling helps her create meaningful, customer-focused experiences while removing friction, so customers never feel the complexities of the org chart.

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