Applying Ledger Intelligence, Grant Thornton Improves Service and Anticipates Client Needs
Case Study
The Challenge
Initially, data processing of client accounting ledgers relied on desktop execution, storage, and a host of third-party tools. These desktops were placed under undue stress when the weekly processing of hundreds of client ledgers was needed to meet the compressed calendar year-end financial audit and accounting schedules.
This legacy desktop-based approach was:
- Manual & Inefficient – limiting scalability and consistency given the use of individual desktops by team members.
- Less Stable and Fragmented – due to the distributed desktop model, integrating data outputs and technologies increased risk and slowed delivery.
- Myopic on Insights – as analytics could only be applied to each client dataset and not across the entire data lake.
To modernize, Grant Thornton needed a secure, stable and automated infrastructure to support its analytics at scale.
The Technical Solution
Grant Thornton aligned with Microsoft and Arbutus Software when transitioning client data processing from desktops to Unite, its proprietary Microsoft Azure-based data lake.
The new platform integrates:
- Azure Event Grid – Event notifications enable downstream processes to subscribe and react in real time, while acting as an overall monitor of ledger data transformation.
- Arbutus Hub Servers – Scalable execution of data cleansing and normalization while processing 100+ unique analytics across a farm of processing servers.
- Microsoft Power Shell and Power Automate – Intelligent orchestration of workflow management to queue up and transfer data to the next available server for processing or, when complete, an appropriate storage location.
- Azure Synapse Data Layer – Data is first stored in a specific Azure data folder structure, facilitating the organized collection of these client ledgers. Once organized they are simultaneously connected to the Synapse data layer, providing cross-data lake analytics from all securely viewable ledgers.
- Microsoft Power BI Visualizations– Real-time process monitoring and client-specific chart dashboards are powered by Microsoft Power BI.
- Microsoft CoPilot – Running alongside the entire processing journey, CoPilot provides guidance while inducing near super-intelligent insights not readily determined through classical query approaches.
Client Benefits
- Utilizes optimized data acquisition methods to minimize client time while affording a consistent, secure, and complete extract process
- Strengthens client trust with secure data management, backed by Microsoft Azure technology
- Act sooner with faster decisions and next step improvements through an expedited processing experience
- Provides drill-down-capable Power BI visualizations with integrated CoPilot, facilitating sharper client-focused financial business diagnosis and investigation
- Crystalizes deeper insights with cross-data lake queries and CoPilot agents
Internal Benefits
- Integrates with the Grant Thornton Convene document preparation platform for a seamless client experience.
- Automatically organizes client data into a coherent, secure, and uniquely identifiable set of data folders
- Allows client data to be easily shared within and across service lines, without duplication of client effort
- Establishes a common data layer for service engagements, allowing for galaxies worth of diagnostic, predictive, and generative AI computations, supporting AI-driven quality improvements across audits.
About Grant Thornton
Grant Thornton delivers professional services through two specialized entities in the U.S.: Grant Thornton LLP, a licensed, certified public accounting (CPA) firm that provides audit and assurance services ― and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC (not a licensed CPA firm), which exclusively provides non-attest offerings, including tax and advisory services, and with the entities of Grant Thornton Ireland, including ones that provide attest and non-attest services, form a multinational platform. With $4B in revenues and more than 50 offices in the U.S., Ireland and other territories, Grant Thornton represents a community of more than 12,000 problem solvers, relationship builders, and quality-driven industry specialists.
About Arbutus Technology
Arbutus Software empowers audit, risk, and compliance professionals with advanced analytics, automation, and anomaly detection across massive datasets. Its server-based processing and scripting capabilities make it a suitable analytic engine for Grant Thornton’s insightful professional solutions.
Rich Lanza
Managing Director – Audit Technology Delivery,
Grant Thornton LLP
Rich Lanza is Managing Director in the Audit Tech Delivery team, where he weaves automations, analytics, and GenAI into the firm’s audit and advisory services using his 35+ years of experience.
