Capassa launches GRFS as part of the workflow

Capassa is now launching GRFS functionality as an integrated part of the workflow for accountants.

Good accounting practice is a central part of an accountant's work. It must be documented, quality-assured, assessed and followed up. It is not something we should try to make less important. But does the accountant really need to spend so much time remembering what has to be done, and when?

That is a question we have worked on extensively at Capassa.

When you are responsible for many clients at once, the challenge is not necessarily knowing what GRFS requires. The challenge is keeping track of where you stand on every engagement. When was the engagement agreement last reviewed? Is the procedure assessment up to date? Is documentation missing? Are there open quality findings? When was quality management last confirmed?

Multiply that by 20, 50 or 1,000 clients and there is quickly a great deal to keep track of. That is why we have built GRFS into the workflow in Capassa.

From checklist to continuous workflow

We have built six modules that follow the GRFS workflow: engagement management, continuous quality assurance, engagement documentation, procedure assessment, quality management and data export.

The most important thing is not the number of modules, but how they connect. Information that already exists in one place should, as far as possible, not be entered again somewhere else. Information about the services a client receives can, for example, determine which assessments and documentation requirements are relevant to that particular engagement. If the client only has a reporting engagement, the accountant should not be told that documentation for services outside the engagement is missing.

That may sound obvious.

We believe it should be.

The system should keep track when you do not have time to

One of our main priorities is moving more quality work from memory into the system. Capassa therefore runs continuous quality assurance in the background and looks for unusual transactions, missing reconciliations and deviations in key figures. A deviation in a key figure is not assessed only against a general fixed threshold. Actual figures are compared with what was expected for the specific business, and the accountant can adjust the thresholds based on the client's size and industry.

The point is not for technology to replace the accountant's professional judgement. The point is for the accountant to spend less time looking for where that judgement is needed. When something requires attention, you should be able to see it.

You should not have to remember when it is time to follow up

We use the same principle for periodic follow-up. When more than 12 months have passed since an engagement agreement, procedure assessment or quality management confirmation was reviewed, a notification appears in the portfolio overview. You do not need to keep the dates in your head, in a separate spreadsheet or as a reminder somewhere else. When you open your portfolio, you can see which clients need attention.

For us, this is an important principle: technology should remember the deadlines. The accountant should use their expertise for the assessments.

Documentation in the right place

GRFS also sets requirements for engagement documentation. Every GRFS engagement in Capassa therefore has its own closed data room. Documentation for the engagement is collected there, together with a checklist that combines information the system already knows with documentation the accountant must add themselves. The checklist is adapted to the engagement, and documents are labelled so it is clear what has actually been delivered.

We have also built a tamper-resistant audit log, so events in the room can be documented and verified afterwards. Documentation should not be something you have to reconstruct when someone asks for it. It should arise as a natural part of the work.

Quality management without another round of data collection

When formal quality management is confirmed, Capassa uses information that already exists in other parts of the solution. Is the engagement agreement active and recently reviewed? Is the procedure assessment up to date? Are there open quality findings? Is the documentation in place? The status is shown in one place, and when quality management is confirmed, a snapshot of the situation at that exact moment is stored.

The history therefore does not change because something new happens later. We consider that important. History should show what the status actually was when the assessment was made.

And when the engagement ends?

Here too, we want to make the process simpler. When an engagement ends, the accountant can export the documentation from the engagement room together with structured accounting data for the engagement period. We have also built the first phase of export in SAF-T Accounting format. This part is still under development before we have full coverage, including VAT codes and counterparty data.

We want to be clear about that. We would rather release functionality in stages than promise something is complete before it actually is.

GRFS should not be something you do beside the job

This may best summarise what we are trying to achieve. We do not want to build another compliance system the accountant has to remember to visit. We want GRFS to be a natural part of the work you already do with the client.

The engagement agreement is established. The system keeps track. Deviations surface. Documentation is collected. Periodic assessments are flagged. Quality management is documented. And when an engagement ends, the information is there.

The accountant remains responsible for the professional work and assessments. Technology should not take that away. But it can take on more of the work involved in remembering, collecting, structuring and finding information.

That gives the accountant more time to use their expertise where it matters. Perhaps that is what good professional systems should do: not give you one more thing to remember, but make sure you do not forget what matters.