Turn Hours into Minutes: AI-powered Substantive Testing with Caseware Extractly 

Auditors don’t choose their profession to spend hours rekeying numbers from PDFs. Yet that’s exactly where too much audit time goes — combing through invoices, bank statements and government forms, manually tying them back to client records. 

The cost is steep. Work that should take minutes stretches into hours, increasing the risk of transcription errors, draining team morale and leaving less time for analysis or client conversations. For firms already juggling staff shortages and rising client expectations, manual testing has become one of the biggest bottlenecks in the audit process. 

But some firms are proving it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Why manual testing holds firms back 

Traditional substantive testing consumes valuable hours because evidence rarely arrives in auditor-friendly formats. Instead, it’s buried in: 

• PDFs and scanned images that don’t translate easily into Excel 

• Messy layouts with inconsistent columns or formats 

• Bulk documents like monthly subsidy statements or transaction listings that stretch across dozens of pages 

For firms under deadline pressure, these challenges compound. Teams spend more time cleaning and verifying data than actually interpreting it. The result is delays, late nights and reduced capacity for higher-value work. 

Synectic’s breakthrough: From hours to minutes 

Synectic Accountants & Advisors, a full-service firm in Australia, faced this exact challenge. In aged care audits, clients receive standardized monthly government subsidy statements. Auditors had to manually copy figures from 12 separate statements into their workpapers, check them against client records and reconcile totals. 

As Synectic Director Ben Coull recalled: 

“We’d go through 12 monthly statements, copy out the numbers, check them off, tie them back to the client’s records. It’s a good substantive audit procedure, but incredibly time-intensive.” 

By adopting Caseware Extractly, Synectic automated the process: 

• Upload in bulk — entire sets of statements processed at once 

• Template-driven extraction — consistent formatting for recurring layouts 

• Automated matching — totals and details verified against client records instantly 

• Interactive review — one-click navigation between extracted data and source documents 

The result was transformative. 

“What would have taken two or three hours, probably longer for our larger clients, is now a matter of minutes,” Coull said. 

Synectic now processes multiple aged care clients, including those with several facilities, using Extractly. They’ve scaled their testing capacity without needing additional staff, all while improving accuracy. 

Auditeo’s results: Cutting testing time by 50% 

Sydney-based audit firm Auditeo faced similar issues. Transaction testing was a manual grind, requiring junior staff to transcribe data from invoices and receipts into Excel. Errors slowed reviews and left senior auditors questioning the reliability of the work. 

Founder Didarul Khan turned to Extractly and saw immediate impact: 

“We reviewed timesheets before and after using Extractly and the difference was dramatic. It saved us hours per engagement.” 

Auditeo cut transaction testing time by more than 50%. Instead of junior staff spending hours on data entry, they now focus on higher-value tasks like risk assessment and balance sheet analysis. 

The bigger benefits for firms 

Time saved is only part of the story. By removing manual evidence handling, firms also gain: 

• Reliability — Automation reduces human error, giving auditors more confidence in their results. 

• Scalability — Firms can take on larger or more complex clients without hiring  significantly more staff. 

• Stronger staff experience — Juniors spend less time on rote work and more time developing professional skills. 

• Better client service — Faster turnaround and fewer errors strengthen client relationships. 

From bottleneck to advantage 

Substantive testing doesn’t have to be a bottleneck that holds firms back. With Extractly, it can become a competitive advantage, turning hours of manual work into minutes of automated, reliable testing. 

For Synectic, the payoff was scalability. For Auditeo, it was cutting testing time in half. For both, it was proof that automation isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about raising standards while freeing staff to focus on higher-value work. 

If your teams are still losing hours to PDFs and manual rekeying, now is the time to change that story. Discover how you can transform your substantive testing with Caseware Extractly.