AI for external audit
Ultramarine Work reads the files already in your engagement folder and turns them into finished workpapers, full-population journal entry testing and a tie-out of the draft statements. Every figure it produces carries its source.
JE-exceptions-FY25.xlsxExample| JE | Posted | User | Account | Amount | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JE 25-4417 | 12/22/25 | T. Marsh, Controller | 2150 Accrued bonus | 182,400.00 | The entry agrees to the bonus schedule the comp committee approved Dec 18. |
| JE 25-4425 | 12/23/25 | D. Oyelaran, Sales Ops | 4000 Revenue | 75,000.00 | A user outside accounting posted it, and no approver appears in the log. |
| JE 25-4431 | 12/29/25 | K. Liu, Sr. Accountant | 1450 Prepaid insurance | 64,250.00 | The entry agrees to the broker invoice and the Dec 29 wire. |
| JE 25-4438 | 12/31/25 | T. Marsh, Controller | 1210 Allowance | 250,000.00 | The round-dollar top-up ties to the allowance memo and the AR aging. |
NoteRequest the contract and approval for JE 25-4425, a $75,000 revenue entry Sales Ops posted on Dec 23.
Ask it for
“Reconcile this GL export to the December trial balance, then flag manual entries over $50,000 posted after the 20th or by users outside accounting.”
JE-exceptions-FY25.xlsx“Build the revenue lead schedule from the trial balance with prior-year and flux columns, and vouch the 25 sampled invoices to support.”
Revenue-lead-schedule.xlsx“Match the ERP user list to the year-end HR roster. List leavers with active access and anyone who can both create vendors and release payments.”
ITGC-access-testing.xlsx“Take the 2025 SEFA, compute the Type A threshold, and build the major program determination and testing grid from the 2025 Compliance Supplement.”
Single-audit-testing-grid.xlsx“Draft the Cardinal Packaging planning memo, with materiality off estimated pretax income, performance materiality, fraud risks and walkthrough schedule.”
Planning-memo-FY2025.docx“Tie the draft financial statements and notes to the final trial balance, page by page, and mark anything that doesn’t agree.”
FS-tieout.pdf
Inside the External Audit mode
Proposals and RFP responses
Turns a county audit RFP into a technical proposal with the independence statement, staff hours by level and a compliance matrix for every required form.
Project budget and cost forecast
Builds the engagement budget by staff level and compiles the month’s timesheets into a cost report of fees against budget, the arithmetic managers run in WIP.
Tie-out and page-turn review
Before you run the page-turn, it ticks each line in the draft statements and notes back to the trial balance and writes up what breaks.
Technical accounting memo
Writes position memos on revenue recognition, lease modifications and new ASU adoption, with the ASC paragraphs cited for the reviewer.
Audit planning and risk assessment
Drafts the planning memo, calculates materiality off the benchmark you choose and performance materiality from that, and lists the fraud risks to consider.
Audit and ICFR documentation
Documents the walkthrough in the risk and control matrix, selects control samples and lays out deficiency severity for your judgment.
IT general controls testing
Reconciles user lists to HR terminations, tests privileged access, flags segregation-of-duties conflicts and checks SOC 1 coverage against your gap period.
Substantive testing and workpapers
Builds lead schedules tied to the trial balance, matches sampled invoices and receipts to bank activity, and drafts the tickmarked workpaper per account.
Journal entry and population analytics
Runs the whole journal entry population for round-dollar amounts, odd posting hours, rare account pairs and duplicates, then lists the items to investigate.
Single audit testing and reporting
Foots the SEFA, computes the Type A threshold, maps the Supplement’s requirements to tests and drafts findings with questioned costs computed.
Audit completion and reporting
Prepares the completion memo, the summary of uncorrected misstatements, the subsequent events list and the draft representation letter.
Audit findings and report
Writes findings as condition, criteria, cause, effect and recommendation, with room for the management response your client will edit.
Reviews compilations and agreed upon procedures
Assembles the AR-C 90 analytics and inquiry documentation, drafts compilation reports and sets out AUP procedures under AT-C 215.
SOC examination reports
Maps the system description to the control objectives, drafts the SOC 1 control matrix and lays out exceptions for the report sections.
- Office skills
- Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF
- Tools
- Read, edit and write files, Search files, Run code, Search and read the web, View images
- Connectors
- SharePoint, Google Drive, Gmail, and additional custom connectors
- House style
- Your fonts, layouts and rules, on every file
How it works
- 1
Assemble the engagement file
The trial balance, the general ledger export, prior-year workpapers, draft statements, PBC support, board minutes and lease files go into one folder, on your laptop or a firm shared drive.
- 2
Ask for the procedure
It builds the workpaper in Excel with live formulas, tickmarks each item to its source file, and lists anything it could not find or reconcile instead of filling the gap.
- 3
Review, resolve and conclude
You review every file it touched, check the exceptions, follow up with the client and write the conclusion. The report goes out under the firm’s signature, not the tool’s.
Who it’s for
Auditors at CPA firms and government audit offices who perform financial statement and integrated audits, single audits, reviews, AUPs and SOC examinations, from associate to partner.
Questions
Will PCAOB inspectors or peer reviewers accept this work?
No tool can promise that, and the judgment is your firm’s. Inspectors and peer reviewers ask how the work was performed, what information the tool used, what it produced and who reviewed it. Each figure names the file it came from, unreconciled items are written up rather than papered over, and you review what it produced before anything enters the engagement file. AU-C 230 duties stay with the team, so record how the tool was used and how you evaluated its output.
Can we feed client data into it without breaching confidentiality?
Putting client data in is your firm’s decision, made through its compliance process. Ultramarine Work changes files only in the project’s folder. When a request needs it, it can read files elsewhere on your computer, never passwords, keys or app data, and you can turn that off in settings. The model runs on Paper Instruments’ servers, so the content it works on is sent there to be processed. Paper Instruments is SOC 2 Type II, and our security and compliance details are on our compliance page.
Is the exception list it produces audit evidence?
No, an exception list is a lead, and the procedures you run on it are the evidence. The tools and the analysis they run are not audit evidence in themselves, and your procedures have to establish that what the output relied on is relevant and reliable. Vouching an exception is a click instead of a hunt, because each flagged item points back to the document it was drawn from.
Does it know the current year’s Compliance Supplement?
Not on its own, but it reads the documents you give it. Save the current Compliance Supplement into the engagement folder and ask it to map the Part 3 compliance requirements and their audit objectives, plus the program-specific requirements in Part 4, to tests for each major program. It does not ship with the supplement, and it will not know which edition governs your audit period unless you say so. Confirm the edition before you rely on the grid it builds.
Can it pick our samples or classify a deficiency on its own?
No, it proposes and you decide. It drafts sample selections with the criteria shown, lays out the factors that separate a control deficiency from a significant deficiency and a material weakness, and documents what it considered. The engagement team still evaluates each exception and sets the severity, and the classification and every conclusion in the file are yours to make and sign.