HLB Mann Judd elevates audit consistency, efficiency, and client experience with Platformed’s ASA 315-focused AI agent

Discover why HLB Mann Judd selected Platformed’s AI Agent to enhance ASA 315 audit quality, consistency, and efficiency.

The Client

The HLB Mann Judd Australasian Association consists of 11 independent member firms and two representative firms, located in major cities and regional business centres in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The firms' specialists provide advice and services to a large and diversified client base that includes growing businesses, governments, not for profits and individuals.

The Assignment

With increased regulatory complexity and growing client demand for technology-driven audit services, HLB Mann Judd identified the need to modernize its audit workflows - particularly around ASA 315 compliance and IT risk assessments.

ASA 315 significantly raises the bar for identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement through a deeper understanding of the client’s IT environment. For HLB Mann Judd firms, this meant:

• More structured and documented control assessments
• Greater consistency in risk classification
• More comprehensive evidence capture
• Ensuring non-specialist team members could deliver high-quality outcomes

Manual processes made it hard to scale, slow to execute, and introduced risk through inconsistency.

The Solution

As part of the global HLB Affinity network of technology providers, HLB Mann Judd implemented Platformed, an AI-powered audit agent designed specifically for risk-based IT General Controls (ITGC) testing for financial audits under frameworks like ASA 315. The tool automates key stages of the audit process, reducing manual effort, standardizing outputs, and enabling greater assurance over IT control environments.

How Platformed Supports ASA 315 Compliance

The ASA 315 audit workflow in Platformed enables audit firms to benefit from:

• Automated Control Assessment- Platformed’s AI agent assesses controls automatically with full evidence trail to data room sources
• Automated Risk Assessment - Platformed’s AI agent identifies and scores risks against standard or bespoke risk frameworks, providing a full narrative and evidence to support auditor review
• Stakeholder Collaboration - Auditors and managers can review, comment, amend and approve findings within the platform, maintaining a clear audit trail
• Exportable Reports - Standard and bespoke reports can be viewed, downloaded or shared via API to cover every use case from presenting results to clients to storing working papers
• Evidence Collection - Evidence can be collected via customizable questionnaires and via integrations with internal or external systems

By adopting Platformed, firms operating under the HLB Mann Judd association were able to shorten audit completion times, reduce administrative overhead, and unlock new revenue opportunities through the expansion of IT audit services - all while enhancing audit quality and team productivity.

Outcomes for HLB Mann Judd

The collaboration between HLB Mann Judd and Platformed yielded significant benefits:

• Improved consistency and quality - standardized responses and audit processes ensured high-quality outcomes and maintained trust with clients
• Scalability - the solutions provided a scalable framework to support HLB Mann Judd’s growth trajectory without proportionally increasing administrative overhead
• Time savings - substantial reduction in time spent on administrative tasks, freeing up resources for client-focused activities
• Enhanced client value - modernized IT audit processes led to quicker completion times for clients and the ability to offer additional IT audit services across multiple frameworks allowing HLB Mann Judd to service more of its clients’ needs under one roof

Jude Lau, Senior Partner at HLB Mann Judd, remarked:

“Audits are not just about compliance - they deliver real insight and confidence for our clients. By working with Platformed, we can standardize ITGC testing across our network and give our auditors the tools to deliver consistent, high-quality results. This partnership strengthens our statutory audit work under ASA 315 and creates a foundation to expand into broader IT assurance services in the future, offering clients more value from a single trusted provider. Our team recognized the value of Platformed straight away during the trial phase and were eager to adopt it. Since then, they’ve built a strong working relationship with the Platformed team.”

Platformed didn’t just help HLB Mann Judd firms do audits faster - it helped them do audits better. The association has benefitted from:

• Ability to increase its IT audit service line with minimal marginal cost
• Increased consistency across audit output
• Reduced risk of audit failure due to incomplete or inconsistent documentation