Moving from Paper-based Audits to the Cloud and Gaining Efficiency from Day One

Key Highlights: 

• Facing a 10% annual increase in audits, Mark J Rees struggled with paper-based files that limited access, slowed collaboration and hindered efficiency. 

• The firm adopted Caseware Cloud Audit, training a pilot team that completed its first cloud audit after just 5 hours of training and migrated all engagements within two months, achieving a smooth, disruption-free transition. 

• Mark J Rees realized a 5–10% boost in audit efficiency in the first year, with faster reviews, simultaneous team access, and expectations of even greater gains through analytics and AI expansion.

“We’d heard horror stories about firms taking 50% longer in their first year on new systems. That wasn’t our experience at all. In fact, we saw efficiency gains almost immediately.” 

Andy Turner, Audit Partner and Head of IT, Mark J Rees 

Company Profile 

Mark J Rees Chartered Accountants, based in Leicester, UK, is an independent firm with eight partners and a team of 70 professionals. The firm provides a full range of services including audit, tax, accounting and advisory and has been growing steadily, particularly in its audit portfolio. 

Challenge 

Rapid growth in mid-market clients fueled a surge in new audit engagements for Mark J Rees. Within a few years, its audit practice grew to around 150 audits annually, increasing roughly 10% year over year. 

The firm’s audit files were still paper-based. Each engagement required physical files that only one team member could access at a time — a process that was slowing collaboration and review. 

Although partners recognized the need to modernize, they hesitated to move to a digital system while taking on more audit work. The perceived disruption of a new platform made them cautious. 

“We felt that the solutions that were there weren’t quite ready in the early days,” explained Andy Turner, Audit Partner and Head of IT at Mark J Rees. “Also because we were quite busy, we kept putting off the transition because we thought that it was going to be quite a big disruption to us.” 

Solution 

After evaluating several vendors, the firm selected Caseware Cloud Audit, influenced by strong adoption within its Accelerate network, where firms were already benefiting from Caseware solutions. 

Caseware Cloud Audit is a secure, cloud-based solution that streamlines audits from planning to sign-off. It tailors each engagement automatically, enables team and client collaboration in a single live file and integrates powerful analytics with 300+ automated tests to detect anomalies early.  

A small pilot team, made up of the firm’s most experienced audit staff, led the rollout. 

With just five hours of structured training and minimal support, they completed their first audit using Caseware Cloud Audit. The software proved so intuitive that the team needed far less support than expected, ultimately banking much of the implementation assistance originally scheduled. 

Within two months, the firm had migrated all accounts and audits to the cloud without running parallel systems or extending project timelines. 

Results 

Mark J Rees quickly saw measurable efficiency gains: 

• On average 5–10% improvement in audit efficiency in the first year 

• Significant time savings in the review process, as seniors could now review files in real time while team members worked 

• Very few first-year assignments took longer — in fact, many engagements were completed faster than before 

• Smoother collaboration between field and office teams, with multiple users able to access the same file simultaneously 

“We’d heard horror stories about firms taking 50% longer in their first year on new systems,” Turner noted. “That wasn’t our experience at all. In fact, we saw efficiency gains almost immediately.” 

With year two now underway, the team expects further time savings through roll-forward efficiencies and expanded use of Caseware’s analytics tools. 

“There are features that are built into the software to help us with things like sampling,” Turner said. “We haven’t started to use those yet, but we’re planning to use them in the future.” 

The Future 

The firm is now exploring Caseware’s AI-powered solutions, including Validate and Extractly, to speed up financial statement checks and substantive testing. 

“We’re looking closely at how AI can enhance the audit process,” said Turner. “If the gains we’ve already seen are any indication, we expect even greater efficiencies ahead.”