Common Audit Pain Points According to Auditors and How Velixo Solves Them Easily
When we hosted the From Close to Confidence panel, I wanted to hear how auditors, advisors, and finance leaders experience audits when things go well, and the reasons for when they don’t.
What stood out to me was how consistent our panelists’ answers were, even though they’re from different sides of audit.
- Jim Norton, CPA, Senior Product Manager at Velixo and former auditor and CFO
- Jake Morris, CPA, Partner, Client Accounting & Advisory Services at Whitley Penn
- Mark Tessar, CPA, CIA, Audit Senior Manager at GRF CPAs & Advisors
- Heather Tausig, CPA, FPAC, Director of Finance at Firewire Surfboards
The conversation reflected clearly that audit pain usually has very little to do with accounting complexity. Usually, it always comes to how reports are built, and whether they can survive being looked at repeatedly.
Below are the main pain points that panelists agreed on, along with how Velixo can helps finance teams address and eliminate each one.
Pain #1: Reports Have to Be Rebuilt for Audit
Many teams have reports that work for internal review, but when auditors ask for support, those reports are not usable. Data has to be exported again and spreadsheets get rebuilt. That means small differences that come up have to be chased down.
Mark Tessar talked about how, from an auditor’s perspective, this is one of the first things that slows an audit down. If support only exists once the audit starts, it suggests the reporting process itself is not repeatable.
How Velixo Helps
Velixo helps teams build reports and supporting schedules ONCE, that can be reused. Because they pull from live ERP data, the same files can be refreshed for close, for review, and for audit.
Instead of rebuilding under pressure, teams open an existing report and refresh it. Auditors see familiar formats, and the conversation moves forward instead of backward.
Pain #2: Inconsistent Reporting Creates Doubt
Jake Morris comes from the advisory side and he described:
When the same report looks different each month, or logic changes depending on who prepared it, auditors spend their time trying to understand the report instead of reviewing it. Inconsistency creates doubt even if the numbers are right.
How Velixo Helps
With Velixo, report structures and logic stay consistent period over period. The layout does not change just because the data does.
That consistency matters more than teams realize. Auditors can recognize reports quickly, review them faster, and spend less time asking clarifying questions.
Pain #3: Excel Spreadsheets Turn into Risk
Excel came up repeatedly during the panel. Many auditors love the familiarity and flexibility of Excel and even request reports to be exported in Excel format.
The one agreement is that Excel is NOT the problem. The problem is what happens when it’s used as a collection of static exports and manual adjustments.
Jim Norton talked about how heavy copy and paste, hard-coded numbers, and disconnected files make it difficult for auditors to trace numbers back to the source.
How Velixo Helps
Velixo keeps Excel as the interface with its flexibility and connects it directly to your live ERP data.
Reports can be refreshed in one-click with live numbers, calculations stay consistent, and auditors can clearly drilldown to where the numbers are coming from directly from the ERP. That reliability and traceability remove a lot of unnecessary tension from audits.
Pain #4: Reconciliations Prove the Math, Not the Story
Heather Tausig spoke about this from the finance operator’s seat, and it was very relatable with the audience.
Reconciliations often tie perfectly but still trigger questions. When a reconciliation requires side explanations to make sense, it slows everything down. Because auditors want to understand what changed, how, and why.
She emphasized that reconciliations should explain the balance, not prove it.
How Velixo Helps
Velixo supports reconciliation templates that are designed to explain balances and movements using consistent logic, live data, and data drilldown to the source.
Because those reconciliations can be refreshed every period, they become reusable explanations instead of one-off files built for audit.
Pain #5: Audit Support Feels Separate from Close
When audit support feels like a separate project layered on top of close, teams end up doing the same work twice. Mark noted that auditors pick up on this almost immediately.
When schedules only exist during audit, it signals that reporting is reactive rather than part of normal operations.
How Velixo Helps
Velixo bridges that gap by making audit-ready reporting part of the monthly close.
The same reports used internally can be reused for audit without modification. That reduces rework, shortens audit timelines, and makes the process more predictable for everyone involved.
Final Takeaway
Confidence does not come from pushing harder during audit season. It comes from reporting environments that hold up when they are reviewed, questioned, and reused.
When reporting is built to last: Close feels routine, audit requests feel familiar, teams spend less time explaining and more time reviewing.
Velixo helps your team shift from close to confidence.
Want to Hear the Full Conversation?
If these pain points sound familiar, we’re here to help!
Watch the full webinar and get a downloadable audit readiness guide and checklist for your team: From Close to Confidence: Designing an Audit-Ready Finance Operation.