Tax & Accounting

PriceKubecka®, PLLC Improves Workflow with Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach and CCH Axcess™

Case Study: Tax Workflow and Audit Workflow

When you have to be right

PriceKubecka®, PLLC Improves Workflow with Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach and CCH Axcess™2

PriceKubecka, PLLC, an accounting firm serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, started on the path to a better audit process when the firm implemented CCH ProSystem fx Knowledge Coach back in 2011. However, only after going through Wolters Kluwer’s School of Audit, did the firm get the full benefits of the technology solutions.

The firm uses Wolters Kluwer’s software not just for audits but for its digital tax workflow, project management and time tracking across the firm, and for secure file transfers with clients. Read on to see how the firm has implemented the software solutions and the results it has achieved.

“The payoffs have been huge.

We’re talking months of

time saved.”— Brian S. Price,

Founding Principal, PriceKubecka, PLLC

“I was really amazed that

there was a solution that

was so integrated that the

workpapers talked to each

other. It was just so much

work doing things the old

way instead of using Wolters

Kluwer’s automation.” — Jennifer Miller,

Audit Senior, PriceKubecka, PLLC

Brian S. PriceFounding PrincipalPriceKubecka, PLLCAddison, Texas

Challenge: PriceKubecka, PLLC wanted better processes for its audit and tax workflows. For audit, the firm wanted a workflow application that integrated with CCH® ProSystem fx® Engagement so staff members could produce audit work faster. For tax, the firm wanted to move to the cloud in order to gain more efficiency and stay ahead in the marketplace.

Solution: By implementing CCH® ProSystem fx® Knowledge Coach and attending Wolters Kluwer’s School of Audit, the firm has saved thousands of hours, made things easier for auditors, jumped ahead of competitors when it comes to recruitment, and found an efficient way to on-board new staff. And by implementing CCH Axcess, Wolters Kluwer’s cloud-based tax preparation, compliance and workflow solution, the firm has saved more than 50 percent in managed IT costs.

Jennifer MillerAudit Senior PriceKubecka, PLLC Addison, Texas

PriceKubecka®, PLLC Improves Workflow with Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach and CCH Axcess™ 3

The Integrated Audit Approach Taking a new perspective on auditing, Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach starts with the Knowledge-Based Audit Methodology (KBA) as its foundation. The KBA Methodology relies on auditor judgment to drive the audit process, improving audit quality and minimizing over-auditing, which is a huge step forward from past practices that use a checklist mentality and add unnecessary steps. Combine that with the technology and research behind this approach, including CCH ProSystem fx Engagement, CCH ProSystem fx Knowledge Coach and CCH® Accounting Research Manager®, and you’ve got a completely integrated audit process that directly addresses recent emerging concerns around declining audit quality.

Before PriceKubecka added Knowledge Coach, the firm was using PPC for audits paired with CCH ProSystem fx Engagement. The firm spent at least two hours per audit engagement simply trying to make the ratios work on every single workpaper. Also, the firm had to take additional steps because the solutions were not designed to talk to each other and automatically flow changes throughout all workpapers without requiring duplicate data entry.

With this technology, the firm expects to go from 66 percent realization to 100 percent realization.

“On the financial statements

alone, saving two hours

apiece quickly adds up

across 130 of them.”— Price

Putting It Together with the School of AuditIn November 2015, the firm decided to have all audit staff members go through Wolters Kluwer’s School of Audit. What they discovered was that, even after four years, they were using only a portion of the capabilities available in the Integrated Audit Approach.

During the courses, PriceKubecka learned all sorts of tricks around where to link financial statements and when to drop in the trial balance so that financial statements are automatically 90 percent built as a standardized template, eliminating hours to fix.

“We learned so many

things, such as how to set up

binder templates effectively

so that our audits are

much more streamlined.

In fact, we came up with

about 23 ideas that we

implemented immediately

to fully utilize the software.

CCH ProSystem fx Knowledge

Coach is so powerful, with

so many capabilities that

can do so much for you,

that our decision to invest in

continuing education through

Wolters Kluwer’s School of

Audit was a wise one.”— Price

PriceKubecka®, PLLC Improves Workflow with Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach and CCH Axcess™4

“By saving a couple of

hours on every audit and

every review that we do,

we’re talking months of

time saved. Time-savers

like that are why Wolters

Kluwer’s School of Audit

is so powerful.” — Price

Helping to On-Board New StaffThe firm recently sent one of its interns through all four courses, and she was trained and ready to go before starting full-time.

“I wish I would have had

that right out of the gate

when I was hired. The

School of Audit answered

a lot of the questions that

I had, and it would

have prevented some

of the mistakes that

I made early on.” — Reed Carrigan,

Staff Auditor, PriceKubecka, PLLC

“All your big firms have their

own universities. Wolters

Kluwer’s School of Audit is

our university. We love that

this part of its structure helps

teach newer auditors how to

audit while they are learning

how to use the software at

the same time.” — Price

PriceKubecka Enjoys Major Time Savings Using CCH AxcessThe firm also uses Wolters Kluwer’s cloud-based tax preparation, compliance and workflow solution for its tax work. It converted from the on-premise based CCH® ProSystem fx® Tax (which it used for about 20 years) to CCH Axcess™ Tax, in December 2015.

One of the benefits of the move has been major IT savings, which Price estimates to be more than 50 percent. Since the firm has not had servers in the office for years, that 50 percent comes from having Wolters Kluwer host and automatically update the software from the cloud, which saves on managed IT costs that the firm would otherwise have paid for in order to have the updates rolled out onto each staff member’s computer.

Another time-saver on the tax side is CCH® ProSystem fx® Scan with AutoFlow Technology, which takes source documents and flows the data into a 1040 tax return in CCH Axcess Tax. The firm is a big fan of the software.

Reed CarriganStaff Auditor PriceKubecka, PLLC Addison, Texas

PriceKubecka®, PLLC Improves Workflow with Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach and CCH Axcess™ 5

“CCH ProSystem fx

Scan takes some of the

tediousness out of 1040s so

you’re able to be analytical

and think about the tax

law instead of data entry.”— Price

In January 2015, the firm moved from CCH® ProSystem fx® Document — Wolters Kluwer’s on-premise document management solution — to CCH Axcess™ Document, and expects even more process efficiencies as a result.

Price says that he didn’t just move to the cloud for the time savings, but because it’s a must.

“We need to go where

the industry is going,

which is the cloud. We

need to stay current with

technology to maintain

our competitiveness and

be relevant.” — Price

Making Project Management EasyIn the fall of 2015, the firm also moved to the cloud versions of the project management and time tracking software. CCH Axcess™ Workstream features project management components to monitor due dates, manage projects and map processes into standardized steps to ensure consistency. CCH Axcess™ Practice has time and billing features, such as automated time tracking, real-time billing and automatic invoicing.

The firm is putting every project into CCH Axcess Workstream with the assigned team members, due dates and budgets so that staff members can see in their dashboards the budgets with hours, dollars and notifications. It will note, for instance, when a project is at 50 percent of its budget so that staff members can make sure that it’s also 50 percent complete.

“We’ll have the ability

to see where we did well

with budgets and where we

didn’t. And we’re entering

our time automatically, too,

through CCH Axcess Practice,

and fully using the real-time

billing features.” — Price

“We have complicated returns, and a lot of them have large

brokerage statements. CCH ProSystem fx Scan does that

automation so beautifully. I would say it probably has saved

up to an hour or two per tax return.” — Price

PriceKubecka®, PLLC Improves Workflow with Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach and CCH Axcess™6

Gaining Back Countless HoursAnother of the firm’s favorite pieces of software for both tax and audit is CCH® ProSystem fx® Fixed Assets, which the firm has been using for 10 years. The savings quickly add up since most of the firm’s clients are corporate entities with fixed assets.

“I can’t even begin to put a

number on it. It’s a very large

number in savings over all of

these years. What I do know,

is if another company gave us

their fixed asset program for

free, I’d say no. I’d rather pay

for integration with the other

Wolters Kluwer software and

get our time savings.”— Price

Protecting Clients’ DataThe firm uses CCH Axcess™ Portal for secure file transfers so that the firm isn’t exchanging sensitive documents through email. Portal also helps the firm provide better client service.

“Some of our clients are

business owners with one or

two businesses and maybe a

family trust. In CCH Axcess

Portal, they can see all of

their entities in one place.

That’s a big benefit for them

that they really like.” — Price

“We love that program. For one, it’s easy to use. It’s one

central database, so the whole firm can get to it. You input

one asset, and the software can calculate up to 10 methods

of depreciation. My tax guys can calculate tax depreciation;

my auditors can calculate GAAP depreciation. We can run

multiple schedules, and we can print the PDFs straight into

the Engagement binders. You can import the fixed assets into

the tax returns. It is by far one of our favorite programs.” — Price

MSI Global Alliance

The firm is part of the MSI Global Alliance, an international association of attorneys and CPAs. In the past, if a client was going international and wanted the firm to continue to help them, PriceKubecka had to say no. Now, through the alliance, the firm can call on an affiliate in another country to help structure the entity.

The firm sometimes gets additional business, too. For instance, they do inventory counts for other United States firms because it is less expensive to send a local group of auditors than to travel themselves.

PriceKubecka®, PLLC Improves Workflow with Wolters Kluwer’s Integrated Audit Approach and CCH Axcess™ 7

Better Staff RecruitmentOut in the field, the firm’s auditors use new multipurpose tablets with lightweight dual monitors to access their Wolters Kluwer solutions and go to work on audits. Use of the latest technology like that is a must when recruiting talent, Carrigan points out.

“One thing that drew me

to PriceKubecka is that

the firm is on the cutting

edge of technology. That

was part of my decision to

join the firm. I want to be

where technology’s going.” — Carrigan

“We pull out of college for

internships. You’ve got to

be cutting edge to draw

from there. If you want to

fight for talent, you have

got to be able to give them

the best technology tools

on the market today.” — Price

Impressed ClientsPrice says that one reason clients hire his firm is because the office is spotless.

“There’s no paper stacking

up. It’s an image thing,

and it makes a big

difference. Clients feel

safer, like everything’s

under control when

they see our technology-

driven, paperless office.” — Price

Another client benefit of Wolters Kluwer’s cloud software solutions is convenience. While meeting with clients, staff members can log in to the software remotely, pull up the client’s information, strategize and show the client the savings based on those strategies on the fly. Plus, staff members can answer client questions quickly from anywhere.

4/16 2016-0014-9 © 2016 CCH Incorporated and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Contact information: Wolters Kluwer 2700 Lake Cook Road Riverwoods, IL 60015 United States 800-739-9998

Visit CCHGroup.com/QualityAudit for more information on our Integrated Audit Approach.

Visit CCHGroup.com/DigitalTaxWorkflow for more information on our Digital Tax Workflow.

When you have to be right