Slash Your Financial Statement Review Times: The Smarter Way to Finalise Financials 

Financial statement reviews are supposed to be the final step before sign-off. Instead, they often feel like a marathon’s last mile. 

Casting, cross-checking, reconciling and comparing multiple versions can eat up hours for every engagement. And when teams are working through dozens or even hundreds of statements a year, the hours multiply quickly. The reality is that the “last mile” often ends up draining teams the most. 

But it doesn’t have to. 

Why the last mile feels the longest 

For many firms, manual review processes are still the norm. Teams rely on spreadsheets to re-enter data, reconcile notes and double-check figures. Every new draft starts the cycle again, even if only a handful of changes have been made. 

At HLB Mann Judd Perth, a leading accounting and advisory firm based in Western Australia, this was the reality. Noah Syed, Audit Manager with the firm, described the strain it placed on his team: 

“The first review of full-year financials took 3–4 hours, while half-year reviews took 1.5–2 hours,” he said. “With multiple drafts, we were spending 1,200 hours annually on first reviews.” 

The problem isn’t just time. Manual processes leave more room for human error, especially when comparing versions line by line. A missed inconsistency can ripple through an audit, eroding confidence and slowing down delivery. 

How Validate takes the burden off your team 

Caseware Validate transforms the way firms handle financial statement reviews. Instead of rechecking every draft manually, it runs thousands of accuracy checks in seconds — across tables, notes and disclosures. 

Here’s what that looks like in practice: 

• Instant accuracy checks: Validate quickly flags casting errors, mismatched notes and inconsistencies. 

• Version comparison made easy: Markups and references carry forward from one draft to the next, so auditors only review what’s new. 

• Defensible audit trails: Marked-up PDFs with direct links to flagged issues provide clear documentation for internal reviewers and regulators. 

• Built for scale: Because it’s cloud-based, Validate handles large sets of financials without the slowdowns and crashes common in Excel. 

With Validate, teams are able focus their energy on higher value tasks such as disclosures, judgement areas and client advisory. 

Real-world results: From hours to minutes 

At HLB Mann Judd Perth, Validate’s impact was immediate: 

• Time savings of up to 50% on subsequent drafts 

• 600+ hours saved annually across the audit team 

Syed described the difference: 

“In the first version, all the casting, referencing and prior-year references are handled by the software. That means managers and seniors can focus on key risk areas and disclosures instead of rechecking figures.” 

MHA, a leading UK firm of chartered accountants and business advisers, and the exclusive UK member of Baker Tilly International reported similar results. Once they began using Validate, they found: 

• Casting time cut in half (25 minutes down to 12) 

• Full first-pass reviews reduced from 58 to 42 minutes 

• Zero false positives — giving teams confidence in the results 

Bronwen de Abreu, Technical Director at MHA, summed it up: 

“We never encountered any false positives. We also found the ‘maybe’ or indeterminate flag in Validate particularly useful. It didn’t just give us a simple yes—it prompted us to think critically and apply our professional judgement, rather than solely relying on the software.” 

What those hours really mean for firms 

Saving hundreds of hours per year on reviews gives you better ways to invest your time. 

• Stronger client relationships: With fewer late nights spent chasing errors, teams have more capacity for advisory conversations and value-added analysis. 

• Improved staff retention: Automation removes tedious, repetitive work that contributes to burnout, especially among juniors. 

• Scalable capacity: Instead of hiring just to keep pace with workloads, firms can take on more clients without adding proportional headcount. 

When the “last mile” of the audit is streamlined, it frees teams to focus on the work that makes the biggest difference. 

The last mile made easier 

The financial statement review doesn’t have to be the hardest part of the audit. With Caseware Validate, firms save hundreds of hours, reduce errors and improve both efficiency and quality. 

As Syed at HLB Mann Judd Perth put it: 

“Validate makes the process of checking the accuracy of financial statements more efficient and of higher quality, which in turn allows the user to focus on the higher-level issues in their review.” 

When the last mile of the audit is faster and more reliable, your team can cross the finish line with confidence. Discover how you can reclaim your time with Caseware Validate.