CCH Audit Automation 2022.3 Service Pack Release Notes
Release Highlights
This release provides a number enhancements and minor quality improvements.
Prerequisites
Installing CCH Audit Automation 2022.3 Service Pack and Hotfix
This release is installed using the Central Suite Installer. This ensures that all prerequisites are in place and that all the products for which you are licensed are installed in the correct sequence.
Click here to find out more about the Central Suite Installer.
Offline Data
Any client data that has been taken offline should be traveled back to the office database before updating the system.
Software Enhancements
Document opening speed
Documents can be slow to respond when opening due to the way that hyperlinks are handled by the software so that they work correctly when different users open the document. The current process opens the document twice, the first time silently in the background to check for hyperlinks, it then closes and opens a second time and is made available to the user.
We have implemented a new option that will allow the user to tell the software that they do not use hyperlinks when opening documents. This will now allow the document to open without opening to check for hyperlinks first or display the various warning boxes for hyperlinks, therefore opening the document only once. This will mean that if hyperlinks do exist on the file, they will not be updated for the different users that work on the file and will not work. This can be toggled on or off at the user level by the Use office hyperlinks checkbox on the system settings interface options screen:
The default following installation is that the checkbox will be ticked to retain current functionality.
For users who do make use of hyperlinks we have provided an addon for excel that when installed will mean that the software will not download hyperlinked documents at the point of opening them. Instead, the addon can be used to control this process once the document is open.
MS Addon
When opening a document from the audit software the addon will be available as a new tab within MS Word and MS Excel.
MS Excel:
MS Word:
Opening documents
With the MS add-on installed the system will no longer search for hyperlinks when opening the documents, this will improve the opening speed of the documents. To download the documents that the open document contains hyperlinks for, select the download hyperlinks option from the CCH Audit Automation SQL tab.
The system will search the current document and show the normal hyperlink dialog to allow the user to select which documents to download:
Select the required document and click ok, these documents will now be checked out of the system and downloaded to local check out location. Upon completion of the document download the following confirmation will be shown:
Closing documents
Upon closing the document, the following options will be displayed:
Check In – This will save the current changes, close the document, and check it into the system.
Save – This will save the current changes and close the document.
Discard – This option will discard the changes and revert to the excel warning dialog for unsaved work
Cancel – Will cancel the close document request.
Working paper review
When a document has been opened in read only work the user will have the option to mark the document as reviewed. This can be achieved by selecting the working paper review option from the CCH Audit Automation SQL tab. The following dialog will be shown:
Select the corresponding button to mark the working paper as completed or reviewed at the correct level. The option to mark the document as reviewed will follow the same hierarchy rules as if reviewing the document from the software.
Note: The above functionality will only be available for documents that have been opened and checked out of the database. Therefore, any new documents that are created from the software will need to be checked in and opened before the addon functionality will be available.
Future development
The ability to mark the documents as reviewed is currently only available from the excel addon, we will extend this functionality to word documents in the next update.
When reviewing or checking in documents using the addon the audit software is not aware of these events. This means that the audit screens will need to be manually refreshed to see the changes in the software. We will look to automate this process.
ISA 315 Update
In order to reflect the requirements of the revised standard, the audit methodologies have been updated to support the changes to the standard. These are major updates and details of these changes are available in the master pack manuals for the relevant master packs.
The revised standard is a complete overhaul of the previous version and introduces many key changes to the approach that must be followed when identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement, including:
- The introduction of the concept of a spectrum of inherent risk when assessing risks of material misstatement (a concept which will be familiar from previous revisions to ISA 540 Accounting estimates and related disclosures);
- A requirement for separate assessment of inherent and control risk; and
- Increased focus on information technology and general IT controls.
In order to reflect the requirements of the revised standard, the software has been updated to facilitate these requirements. The following changes show how to enable the updates and the changes to identified risks, key controls, and the effect on the area risk assessment.
Master pack update
Master pack update – ISA 315 master pack setting
A new checkbox has been added to the Risk Model tab in the master setting menu. The ISA 315 updates are activated by selecting the ISA 315 checkbox on the master pack settings page:
Activating this option will result in the changes to the identified risks database, controls database and updates to the area risk assessment when viewing client data.
Master Pack update - Control Risk
A new control risk type and material misstatement option have been added to the risk names tab in the master pack options page:
Activating this option will result in the changes to the identified risks, key controls and updates to the area risk assessment at the client level. This option should only be selected for new master packs as updating the setting for existing master packs will result in unwanted changes to the finalised audits attached to these master packs.
Master pack update – Risk names
Two new risk types have been added to the risk names tab in the master pack settings page, control risk type and material misstatement. These new risk types work in the same way as the previous risks types and will allow the firm to update the names of the risks attached to these options that flow through to the user interface at the client level.
Master pack update – Default identified risks
The default identified risk dialog has been updated. The options for financial risk and likelihood of misstatement have been updated to show the updated risk model of 1 to 5 from low, medium and high. A fraud risk option checkbox has also been added.
Master pack update – Risk model
The risk model has been updated to support the update to the changes in spectrum of risk.
Specific risk
A new band has been added to the specific risk table to allow for the updated risk model bands from 1 to 5 and also allow for the “None” option.
The specific risk values have been updated to work with 5 levels of risk.
Sample model
The sample size table has been updated to work with 5 risk bands and a 16th row added into the calculation to allow for when no risk is present:
The sample interval range has remained the same from 0.5 (highest risk) to 5 (lowest risk). The spread of values has increased to accommodate the move from a 3-band risk model to 5 bands.
Please see the relevant master pack manual for updates to the changes to sample size and risk calculation.
Control risk
A new Control Band names option has been added to the control risk table that will allow firms to override the default options of High, Medium, Low and N/A for control risk.
Client Update – Identified risks
Assess risk at the assertion level
The identified risk screen has been updated to allow the assessment of risk at the assertion level. The financial impact, likelihood of misstatement and risk assessment and response options will now record these selections for each assertion instead of at the risk level.
Changing master pack from previous version
Due to the following changes in the identified risks and risk model, any risks that are balanced forward will be updated to work with the new updates. The risk description, financial statement areas and assertions will be carried forward. The risk profile, risk assessment and audit response will be cleared and ready to be assessed using the updated screens.
Risk assessment and audit responce
The risk assessment and response area will now appear as the default risk assessment approach for identified risks when the ISA 315 option is selected at the master pack. For firms that have not used this system option as default before should not change this at the system level as this will result in unwanted changes to finalised audits on previous master packs.
The new control risk and risk of material misstatement options added at the master pack level will flow through to audit assessment and response area. Control risk is not allowed to be assessed unless the user is placing reliance on the controls and therefore will only become active for selection if the reliance on tests of controls is changed from none. Risk of material misstatement will update to the same selection of inherent risk and will only become active for selection for the user to update if the control risk is assessed.
There is no change to the other options and residual risk will be calculated in the same way albeit the underlying risk calculations have been updated.
Assertion level risks
The identified risk screen has been updated and when open the software will assume the risk is to be assessed at the assertion level and the following updated screen will be shown:
The identified risk screen has been updated as follows:
The profile and justification area for the risk screen has been updated to allow the assessment of financial impact and likelihood of misstatement using the new 1-5 spectrum. A fraud risk option has been added and the risk and audit response area will now become the default choice for identified risks. The identified risk screen will now allow for the assessment at the assertion level with the profile and risk assessment areas now recording the selection for each assertion. An option to assess the risk at the financial statement level has been added along with the option to assess material classes.
When selecting the assertions a new text dialog will appear on the right side of the screen allowing the user to record information for the assessment of the assertion:
If multiple assertions are linked to the risk when the justification and risk assessment has been made for the first assertion the next assertion can be selected, this will clear the results entered for the first assertion and the next assertion can be assessed.
Note: The identified risk screen will not save the justification entered for each assertion when closing the risk or switching between assertions. The trigger to save the justification narrative is when the user assesses the inherent risk for the assertion. If the justification is updated following the inherent risk assessment the justification must be manually saved. This can be achieved by right clicking on the justification box and selecting save justification.
Financial statement level risks
A new option has been added to allow assessment of the risk at the financial statement level. Upon selecting this option, the financial impact and likelihood options will be disabled. The risk assessment and audit response area will have the control risk and risk of material misstatement deactivated as the assertions can no longer be assessed individually.
Material classes not otherwise tested
Identified risks summary
The identified risk summary has been updated and the risk profile column has been updated to show if the risk has been identified as a fraud risk. As there is now potential to have multiple assessments of assertions, the summary screen will only show the assertion with the highest assessed risk.
The risk summary report has been updated to allow for the updated reporting requirements. We have also introduced a matrix to show the assessment of the risk. If multiple assertions are assessed within a risk, the risk will appear in the matrix with the highest assessed assertion.
The matrix can be used to filter the risks that have been assessed high in the spectrum. Clicking Show all without filtering the report will result in all risks being included.
Area risk assessment
The area risk assessment screen has been updated to work in the same way as the identified risks showing the updated risk assessment approach.
Key controls update
The key control dialog has been updated with new drop-down options to indicate if the control has been designed and implement effectively.
The plan to test operating effectiveness has been changed to a drop-down menu to allow the option of not applicable.
An IT control checkbox has been added to allow users to flag a control as an IT control.
The key controls database summary screen has been updated to show the selections for the new drop-down menus on the controls (Designed effectively and Implemented) and if the control has been tested.
Key accounting estimates
A new area of the software has been created to give functionality when working with key accounting estimates (KAE). Previously when adding multiple key accounting estimates to the audit file there was no easy way of doing this without copying audit areas and templates. This new area will allow for the creation of KAE at the planning stage with the audit programs flowing through to the current audit file.
Master pack update - Key accounting estimates
A new Key accounting estimates tests area has been added to the risk model tab:
To add tests to an area select the add button and populate the following screen. Do not update the Test type drop down as a new test type for key accounting estimates will be selected by default.
Key accounting estimates database
A new area has been created to record details of key accounting estimates. This area works in the same way as the updates to the identified risks screen with regards to assessing the key accounting estimates at the assertion level.
Key accounting estimate work programs
To create the audit tests, select the work programme button and then select the pool button from the following dialogue. If key accounting estimate tests have been created at the master pack level, they will flow through to this screen for selection. If no tests have been defined the add button can be used to create the relevant tests. When working in the current audit file the key accounting estimate tests will be included in the combined audit program. When the review mode option is selected the key accounting estimate tests will appear in their own work program.
Key accounting estimate current audit file
When viewing the audit file with review mode selected, the key accounting estimate tests will appear in a new audit program called Key accounting estimates. When viewing the current audit file with review mode off the key accounting estimates tests will appear in the combined audit file.
Quality Improvements
Logging into software
We have updated the routine when logging into the software. The log in process should now be much quicker.
Checklist speed
We have updated the logic when opening the question dialog from a checklist. Working from this screen should now be noticeably more responsive when moving to the next question and closing the screen.
Balance forward permanent schedule folder
If the name of the permanent folder was over a certain length it would be lost during the balance forward process, this issue has been resolved.
Error when trying to link audit tests
Previously when trying to link audit tests via the area risk assessment area the following error message was shown, this issue has now been resolved:
Master pack updates
The following master packs have been included in the CSI and once updated can be installed from the master pack menu when logging into the software with administrator rights. Only the master packs that are licensed will be available.
CCH master packs
- IFULL 13 - CCH - ISA Full Audit Pack
- IGROUP 13 - CCH - ISA Group Audit Pack
- CCHCH 14 - CCH - Charity Audit Pack
- CCHLLP 12 - CCH - LLP Master Pack
- IPEN 10 - CCH - ISA Pension Scheme Audit
- IPENEM 10 - CCH - ISA Pension Earmarked Scheme
- LAP 13 - CCH - Limited Assurance Pack
- NONAUD 23 - CCH - Non Audit Pack
Note: The ISMALL master pack has been retired from this update as is it not applicable to the new standards. IFULL should be used for audits.
Mercia master packs
- IMER 18 - Mercia Company Audit Pack
- IMERG 18 - Mercia Group Audit Pack
PCAS master packs
-
IPCAS17 – Private Company Audit System
The Charity, Pension, LLP and Non-Audit Master Packs for the Mercia & PCAS methodologies will be updated in the 2022.3 Service Pack.