New Data: Firms Report Fixes for 2027 Busy Season

We all have moments where we thought we were being clear in our communication only to have someone completely misunderstand what we’ve said. This happens for everyone, but has been a particular problem in the communication between audit firms and their clients during an engagement. 

In a recent Suralink webinar titled, “Are You Ready for 2027 Busy Season”, research of audit firms and their clients uncovered pain points felt by both sides of the engagement. The two biggest challenges faced by audit firms, taken from Suralink’s 2026 CPA Market Survey, were client delays providing documentation and inaccurate or incomplete data.

According to Suralink’s own Inside the Client Experience Report a whopping 63% of clients state that there is miscommunication at least three times in a single engagement. That confusion starts the cycle of rework and is an additional threat to engagement realization, especially during the busy season, when everyone is stretched thin.

Files and documents contained in the Provided by Client (PBC) portal are often inaccurate. Unfortunately, the confusion, frustration, and doubling back to see where the errors occurred in the documents given is all too familiar to most audit firms, which makes the busy season even more stressful. This is called the Rework Cycle and it can eat up much of the audit firm’s valuable time, threatening the budget and the deadline for completing the engagement. It starts with inaccurate or incomplete client data, and cascades into second requests, and delayed email threads.

Attendees in the webinar consisted of partners, senior associates, managers, and IT. Attendees were asked  several questions concerning process and workflows during an engagement. One poll asked “How much of your document review today is a manual check for completeness before it reaches the engagement team?” Of the respondents polled, over 86% selected that they did all manual checking or inconsistent manual checking.

Another poll asked how much of their time goes to chasing down or clarifying requests rather than reviewing what’s already complete. Thirty seven percent of respondents said they lose 25% or more of their time to chasing down or clarifying requests.

Where the Client Readiness Gap Starts

There are many definitions of miscommunication in the interactions with clients. These communication breakdowns include:

• Misaligned expectations
• Not describing requests with enough detail
• Fragmented workflows because teams are transmitting information through different channels.

As a result, more than 70% of engagements fail to be completed on time and on budget. The confusion that starts at the request process stage traces back to what Suralink calls the Client Readiness Gap. The request process becomes harder when the client isn’t ready or when systems aren’t centralized or organized. Unfortunately, a difficult request process can be a deal breaker for the client.

Suralink found that 78% of clients would consider switching to a different audit firm due to a difficult request process. What that means is that this problem is not just about efficiency, it’s also about client retention.

How can the Client Readiness Gap be fixed and the request process be improved to make the busy season easier?  Suralink surveyed clients and found that the top two answers had to do with communication and both are fixable. First, reduce the back-and-forth communication, and second, prioritize clearer communication. Suralink then asked clients what matters to them when responding to a firm’s requests. Their responses were:

• Clear, and easy-to-understand instructions
• Easy document upload and organization
• Access to prior-year submissions

Ten Behavioral and Procedural Steps to Improve the Client Experience

Making sure to hit the things that matter most to clients can be done through a quality portal and formalizing the engagement process. In addition there are other process and behavioral improvements that can be made to build the engagement around the client experience and improve the firm’s efficiency.

Suggested behavioural and procedural process improvements to elevate the client experience include:

1. Clarifying expectations at the start by defining client needs, priorities, workflows, and constraints at the outset.
2. Set deadlines and automate reminders by communicating timelines early with system-generated nudges.
3. Respond quickly to clarification requests by committing to answering client inquiries in 24 hours
4. Communicate through only one channel. Use your portal to centralize all communication.
5. Ask about internal workflows at kickoff. Things will go smoother if you understand the bottlenecks and how clients best manage requests internally.
6. Minimize requests and follow ups by batching them to avoid any unnecessary check-ins.
7. Standardize how requests are made and reduce confusion by using consistent processes and descriptions across teams.
8. Track the data and monitor where delays occur, then adapt your approach and adjust workflows accordingly.
9. Make historical records easily accessible. Give clients direct access to prior-year submissions.
10. Introduce automation to reduce the manual work done by teams. Use AI to review documents before they reach the team.

The Good News

Replacing fragmented technology solutions with tech that works for clients and improves workflow processes will go a long way to hone and improve the client experience. The good news is that tech exists that will go beyond a simple flag or status to give firms visibility into the problems and action steps to take to fix them.

Smart firms are already using AI agents to improve their engagements and client experience. “Suralink's Document Prescreen Agent improves client satisfaction by reducing the number of duplicate requests the client receives for the same item that's already been provided,” wrote David B., Audit Principal at Haskell & White LLP.

Using AI technology will give audit firms and their clients a more seamless experience for every engagement.