What is audit productivity software? Does it include traditional office applications like Excel, SharePoint, and Outlook? And what differentiates specialized solutions from traditional ones?

In this blog, we’ll explore why credit unions often choose platforms other than Microsoft Office. We’ll discuss the benefits and utility that other solutions provide.

See if you’re a fit for Redboard’s audit productivity solution here.

What Is Audit Productivity Software?

In basic terms, audit productivity software is any computer application that helps audit teams complete audits.

Audit productivity software goes by many names:

• Audit productivity tools,
• Audit management software, and
• Computer-Aided/Assisted Audit Tools and Techniques (CAATTs).

There are more variations, too. Ultimately, Technically, office productivity suites (Excel, Outlook, SharePoint) qualify.

However, we don’t consider Excel and similar applications to be audit productivity software. They’re productivity suites that can be used for audits, but they lack any purpose-built features, including automation, compliance frameworks, project management capabilities. Using a purpose-built platform will result in faster, more efficient audits than generic office suites.

Accordingly, we define audit productivity software more strictly: audit productivity software is an application or platform that enables audit teams to more efficiently and effectively complete audits consistently, on time, and as expected.

Why Credit Unions Use Specialized Audit Productivity Tools

Most credit unions use spreadsheets and email as audit tools. Consequently, most credit unions add 5, 10, even 20 hours per week onto their audit process because spreadsheets and email are inefficient.

For example, if you want to build an audit trail with Excel, you’re stuck with few options. You may turn on “track changes,” which can be toggled off and is cumbersome to use. Or you may download third-party software and integrations to produce more reliable audit trails…

But then you’re paying to enhance a product that wasn’t suitable in the first place.

Software that’s specifically designed for audit programs is much more robust. Credit union audit automation software assists audit teams in ensuring that actions occur consistently, that they occur on time, and that they occur the way they’re supposed to.

Specialized audit software centralizes documents, provides a system for tracking findings, and automates communications and delivery. Such streamlining (with Redboard, for example), cuts administration time by up to 50%.

It’s impossible to get similar functionality from generic office productivity tools without extensive customization. And even then, results tend to be varied (and difficult for business users to work with).

Additionally, using Excel, Outlook, and SharePoint spread your audit across multiple applications. This makes it harder to coordinate everything and increases time spent and exposure to risk. Not only is version control harder, but moving data back and forth between applications introduces a lot of pain points for audit teams.

The Best Solution

Ultimately, Microsoft’s Excel, Outlook, and SharePoint are audit productivity software. But they’re inadequate for the credit union audit environment.

Read case studies about how Redboard increases credit union audit bandwidth here:

• Del Norte Credit Union (DNCU), $700m+
• Digital Credit Union (DCU), $10b+
• Credit Union of Southern California (CU SoCal), $1.8b+

Download our Unresolved Findings Eliminator to prevent overdue and unresolved findings.

DO CREDIT UNIONS NEED EXTERNAL AUDIT TOOLS?

TWO SIMPLE AREAS WHERE AUDIT SOFTWARE HELPS YOUR CREDIT UNION