HKMP Wins Practice Innovation Award for the Third Time!

Practical Accountant magazine issued their annual "Practice Innovation Awards" this month.
September 1, 2008
The results are in, and Held, Kranzler, McCosker & Pulice (HKMP) has won the Practical Accountant's 2008 Practice Innovation Award for the third time since 2005.

HKMP has pursued having a high-tech, digital, paperless office for years, but "one gaping hole" remained: a tool for automating programs and checklists related to audits, compilations, and reviews. In the past year, HKMP developed a program that enables the digital creation and completion of programs and checklists, using a combination of industry standard content as well as the firm's standard content and the tailoring of programs while still allowing for management and enforcement of the firm's methodology at every step in the process.

The firm conquered several issues in this area. For instance, audit, review, and compilation programs were available in Word, with "ample opportunity for questions to be inadvertently skipped or errantly transcribed. In response, the firm instituted technology by which forms are completed directly on the screen, with a status report telling what percentage of the form remained complete/incomplete.

Updates to audit methodology couldn't easily be applied to engagements in process, as there was not an easy way to compare a tailored program to the standard and tailoring programs was tedious, so version-controls were created to allow users to see when updates had been made to any program. Likewise, solutions were added for completion of status reports.

The proper number of sign-offs was streamlined; questions on forms can be altered, and designated non-editable or non-deleteable, by staff to fit specific circumstances for a client, and a comparison screen allows reviewers to see changes; "dependencies" for "yes or no" answers have been installed; staffers can elect to have answers that will remain static year to year roll forward; and once the program/checklist is complete in the system, a PDF is generated and questionnaires in process or completed are placed directly into the firm's document-management system.