Tools, methodology and process

Grant Thornton audit methodology has been developed to meet the highest international standards and market expectations.

Our audit process is team-oriented and partner-led. We drive the planning and performance of our audit approach from the partners’ and managers’ industry experience and our knowledge of the business. The partners and managers are actively involved in planning and executing the audit, resulting in more face-to-face time with partners and direct access to the senior level professionals most familiar with your business.

In terms of our risk based approach, our audit efforts will be focused on key risk and judgement areas. We will document key controls and evaluate efficiencies, while weaknesses will be communicated to management.

Horizon
Horizon, Grant Thornton’s audit methodology, is designed to deliver a consistent standard of audit service to clients, no matter where they operate. Horizon is designed to focus audit effort on assertions that pose the greatest risk. This requires the audit team to first identify the specific risks within an assertion that could cause a material misstatement.

Grant Thornton applies Horizon using a proprietary software tool called Voyager.

Company and industry-specific focus
Horizon features a partner-led process that focuses the audit effort in those areas of the financial statements that represent the greatest risk. Using Horizon to its best advantage requires understanding your business and the environment in which it operates. In addition to providing insight for making better risk assessments, this deep understanding places the audit team in a position to provide you with valuable advice and recommendations.

State-of-the-art audit tools
Voyager supports the Horizon audit methodology. Using Voyager, audit teams identify financial statement risks and link them to the processes and internal controls that you have established to address those risks. This enables our team to tailor an audit response that is appropriate to the assessed risks. Voyager also generates audit programmes for 16 different industries that are customised for individual client situations and focused on your financial statement risk areas.

Voyager assists audit teams in documenting, evaluating and testing of internal controls. As a result, it helps auditors to identify opportunities for strengthening internal controls.

IDEA
Our audit teams also use IDEA, a data extraction and analysis tool, to analyse large amounts of financial data, independently verify calculations, efficiently select samples and generate confirmations. IDEA enables auditors to extract and analyze data in a matter of seconds, resulting in a more efficient audit process that is less burdensome for our clients.