For specialist SMSF audit provider ASF Audits, technology and client education have always been two core values.

The firm’s latest initiative, Intelligent Client Success, combines both these focus areas to deliver a more efficient audit process for clients via direct education. 

Speaking to SMSF Adviser, ASF Audits marketing director Ben Atkins explained that Intelligent Client Success uses Power BI to review all of the data received by clients in its systems to identify trends or spikes in particular types of client queries.

“ASF Audits will then provide an education piece on that particular topic,” explained Mr Atkins.

“For example, let’s say there’s an accounting firm and we’ve received a lot of queries around property. The system will pick that up and deliver an education piece on property to that client.”

By data mining these queries and delivering more direct education to the client and their staff, Mr Atkins said ASF Audits will be able to “minimise queries and friction points during the audit process and speed up turnaround times”.

The technology uses benchmarking to identify where there is a higher rate of queries for a particular firm compared with other firms of a similar type. 

“Intelligent Client Success will also enable us to be able to give our clients live data on where we’re seeing highest rates of queries,” he said.  

“We can then shape our webinars, articles and fact sheets around those topics in order to reduce those query rates.”

ASF Audits already provides a diverse range of education resources for clients, delivered by head of education, Shelley Banton. 

“Our primary focus is to remove client pain points and facilitate a positive experience through building on existing relationships, communication and training,” said Ms Banton.  

Ms Banton said Intelligent Client Success would facilitate an enhanced service offering by identifying problem areas and implementing targeted training solutions.

“Our highly skilled and specialised auditors play an important role in supporting SMSF professionals through education and training in order to help them deliver better results for their clients,” said Mr Atkins. 

The data integration process has already been made simple for the firm with its one-click audit technology, which enables users to connect their accounting software to their audit dashboard in just one step. 

Mr Atkins said Intelligent Client Success is about using data and intelligent design to drive the best outcome for clients. 

“It’s all about the SMSF auditor and the client working together in order to create the most efficient SMSF audit process in Australia,” he said.