Exactly one year ago Gridlines secured its first financial model audit mandate.
As we now celebrate the one year anniversary of launching Model Audit 2.0, what have we achieved and what have we learned?
Let’s start with the achievements:
- We have been appointed on over 20 audits with a transaction value in excess of 3Bn USD.
- We have clients spread across the US, Canada, Middle East, Europe, and the UK.
- We’ve reinvented the audit process. Our innovative “client first” audit systems are working well and this is reflected in positive client feedback, clients love it!
- We have been fortunate to support some of the best clients in the market and are grateful to be winning repeat business with them.
- We are recruiting the best talent from across the market into our audit practice. The team has grown quickly and we have more great people on the way in.
And along the way we have learned a few things too:
Unlimited model iterations works!
We were worried that offering unlimited model iterations with no extra charges would be a fast-track to bankruptcy. Happily, it is turning out that a combination of getting involved earlier in the process, and the desire from all parties to get the job done quickly has meant that this actually takes us off the critical path and helps us to be much more efficient.
People embrace the new – if it is intuitive
We use new web-based technology for our live issues list. We were initially a bit worried that people would prefer to stick to the familiar old word documents and spreadsheets they have been used to for the last 20 years. So far the feedback has been great, and people have taken to our new system enthusiastically and we are getting great feedback that it is really intuitive and easy to use – as well as being quicker and more secure.
It’s all about the people.
We have spent a lot of time and energy on outbound sales and marketing, with some success. However, we are finding that it is the people that we already know – that have worked with our experienced team members many times before – that trust us to do a great job that are coming to us and returning again and again.
We are really proud of what the team has achieved in 1 year. But in reality we are not really 1 at all; our team brings together over 50 years of model audit experience and has advised on 300+ audits around the globe.
As well as our home grown talent, we have been fortunate enough to attract some amazing people from other leading model audit practices including Operis and Mazars.
We are grateful that we can bring together expertise from across the industry and build on it to create something new and exciting. Doing new things, and doing them well, is core to the Gridlines team culture. On all fronts we strive to deliver a wow experience for all of our clients, and an energising environment for our team.
We’d like to say a huge thank-you to our team who have worked with determination and passion to build something new. And to our clients who have trusted us as a ‘new’ team of experienced professionals. We look forward to working with you again in the many years ahead.
Read more about how we are delivering a better client experience with our Model Audit 2.0 process.
