PwC wins ‘Audit Innovation of the Year’

12 October 2016

PwC wins ‘Audit Innovation of the Year’ at 2016 International Accounting Bulletin Awards

PwC’s revolutionary data-auditing tool, Halo, has been awarded the prestigious International Accounting Bulletin’s ‘Audit Innovation of the Year’. PwC received the award in London on 6 October 2016 at the International Accounting Bulletin Forum & Awards.

The award recognises organisations that, with a new initiative or innovation in audit, have made a major change in improving audit quality, efficiency or added value to clients. Judges consider cutting-edge thinking behind the innovation as well as improvements in efficiency, accuracy and reliability; client satisfaction; contribution to improved audit quality and reliability.

“This award is especially gratifying for the New Zealand team as we’ve been deeply involved in the development of Halo products through our people and tools,” says Andrew Holmes, PwC Partner and Data Assurance Leader.

According to the IAB, PwC impressed jurors with their innovation around Halo which could impact the overall audit engagement through data extraction and analysis – showcasing possibilities of big data beyond just audit application. Jurors felt it is an innovation that not only drives audit efficiency, but is also useful in providing insights for clients who see their data presented in new and useful ways. Jurors said that the use of artificial intelligence to unlock patterns and trends within data will keep PwC at the forefront of the profession.

Karl Deutschle, PwC Partner and Audit Transformation Leader says: “Halo is unique to PwC and is revolutionising our audit process and harnessing the power of data. It is our platform for a pipeline of new data products that will use, for example, artificial intelligence and augmented reality to add value by helping to unlock patterns and trends.

“We are very proud to have received this award which recognises our leadership and the value we’ve been able to deliver to our clients. Through the use of Halo, we’ve already been able to give our clients richer insights into what their data is revealing,” says Karl.

“These developments create major opportunities for us to continually meet the changing needs of our clients and stakeholders and to reshape the assurance landscape by opening up the way to new forms of assurance and audit in the future - such as real-time assurance,” concludes Karl.

Halo is used by 14,000 of PwC’s auditors across the world on over 8,000 client engagements worldwide. More than 80 billion journals have been processed globally through Halo.

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