Originally posted in Thomson Reuters’ announcement — adapted for Validis.com
As the audit profession moves toward AI-driven methodologies, one truth keeps resurfacing: without high-quality, standardized data, nothing works.
That’s why Thomson Reuters’ latest ecosystem announcement matters — not just because of the technology partnerships, but because it signals a decisive shift in how firms will operationalize audit automation in the coming years.
And at the centre of that shift is the one thing the industry has struggled with for decades: getting clean, complete, audit-ready financial data from clients.
This is exactly the problem Validis solves — and why Thomson Reuters selected us to power the data foundation of its Audit Intelligence suite.
Trusted Methodology Meets Modern Data Infrastructure
Audit leaders are trying to modernize without compromising quality, documentation, or compliance. Their challenge isn’t lack of tools — it’s lack of trustworthy data flowing into those tools.
Thomson Reuters made a deliberate decision to keep PPC methodology at the centre of its AI vision. But methodology alone can’t drive automation. It needs fuel — structured, complete, consistently formatted financial data.
That’s where Validis comes in.
Our role in the ecosystem is simple but essential:
Deliver the clean, standardized data required for AI-powered risk assessment, analytics, and automated documentation to work exactly as intended.
Automation Only Works When the Data Works
The Thomson Reuters partner ecosystem spans Trullion, Audit Sight, Crunchafi, Fieldguide, Validis, and Valid8 Financial — each automating a different part of the audit.
Here’s where Validis sits in that mix:
Validis → Audit Intelligence Analyze
Validis securely ingests the client’s trial balance, GL, and subledgers and standardizes them instantly. Audit Intelligence then applies machine learning and PPC-aligned logic to:
- Identify high-risk areas
- Segment populations by risk
- Reduce manual test selection
- Flag anomalies early
- Automatically generate documentation
This is the critical link: AI is only as intelligent as the data behind it.
And financial data, without standardization, is messy. Non-comparable. Error-prone. Time-consuming to clean.
Validis fixes that.
A Quick Tour of the Ecosystem — and Why Data Is the Common Thread
Trullion: AI-native financial statement review
Methodology-aware automation means every step links cleanly back to PPC guidance. But that alignment only works when the underlying data is structured and complete.
Audit Sight: Substantive analytics with fewer manual steps
Audit Sight’s automation can eliminate procedures — if it receives the complete, standardized datasets required to verify transactions at scale.
Crunchafi: Lease accounting automation
Lease calculations are notoriously complex. Crunchafi accelerates the work, but still depends on high-quality data flowing in at the start of the engagement.
Fieldguide: Bringing PPC methodology into agentic AI
Fieldguide’s connected environment surfaces insight side-by-side with evidence — but even the best AI agents need reliable data to reason over.
Valid8 Financial: Evidence matching and transaction tracing
Automating document matching only works when the underlying transaction data reconciles properly — again, a data-quality challenge.
Across every component of the ecosystem, data is the one dependency. And Validis is the piece that ensures the entire system runs on gold-standard inputs.
Why This Partnership Matters for Audit Firms
You don’t have to adopt every tool in the ecosystem.
You don’t have to overhaul your entire methodology.
You don’t even have to change the way your teams approach risk assessment — unless you want to.
What you do need is data that:
- arrives early
- is complete
- is standardized
- is consistent across all clients
- supports the technology investments you’re already making
And when you have that, everything else becomes possible:
- Dynamic audit programs
- Smaller sample sizes
- Fewer manual steps
- Better risk targeting
- Clearer documentation trails
- More rewarding work for your teams
- A better client experience
This is what Validis enables today — not in some future roadmap.
The Audit Profession’s Next 3–5 Years Will Be Defined by Data
Thomson Reuters sees a future where PPC methodology is the most automated audit methodology in the market.
We agree — and we would add this:
It will also be the most data-dependent methodology firms have ever worked with.
The firms that win in this new environment will be the ones who solve the data problem first.
Validis is already powering that shift for many of the world’s leading firms — including 3 of the Big 4, 18 of the Top 25, and nearly 100 firms of all sizes.
If your firm is aiming for AI-enabled audits, automated procedures, and smarter risk assessment…
this is where the journey starts.
We get financial data. You get better audits.
Want to see how Validis fits into your audit workflow?
Chat with our team to explore what standardized, audit-ready data can unlock for your practice.
