ITW standardizes audit results across its global office with Excel Agents

Key Highlights

• Time for fundamental work: Excel Agents save the audit team time on sample testing, so auditors can focus on higher-risk areas.
  
  
• Standardized documentation: Snipped evidence lives in one workbook, making review simpler and results more consistent across the global office.
  
  
• Fast adoption: On-site training from the DataSnipper team accelerated the first month of implementation across audits.

Challenge: Compiling support for sample testing 

The audit team at Illinois Tool Works (ITW) tests samples across revenue, fixed assets, purchase order approvals, revenue recognition, and matching. Each test requires auditors to compile supporting documents, and reviewers then check that support.

The team set three goals: improve efficiency, standardize audit documentation, and make the work easier for reviewers to follow. They also wanted auditors to spend more time on higher-risk areas.

ITW needed to cut the time spent compiling support while keeping documentation consistent across the global office and keeping auditors in charge of the judgment calls.

"Excel Agents have saved our team a lot of time. They gave us room to be more productive in the field and to reallocate resources to higher-risk areas, and they helped us standardize our audit documentation and results across our global office."

Larry Kulman

Audit Director, Illinois Tool Works

Solution: Standardized agents for common audit tests 

ITW rolled out DataSnipper Excel Agents across its business unit audits. The team started with sample testing: revenue testing, fixed asset testing, PO approvals, revenue recognition, and matching.

They built an agent library with standardized agents for common testing use cases, so auditors have a starting point and adapt it to their own audits. 

Q: What was your first impression when you first saw DataSnipper? 

A: We were really excited to roll it out! It is a good opportunity for our team to be more productive in the field, and reallocate resources to more higher risk areas. 

Q: How was the process of implementing DataSnipper? 

A: It has gone really well. It was seamless. The DataSnipper team came on site to train our auditors, which made the first month quick across our audits. 

Q: What changed in your documentation? 

A: Auditors can snip everything and keep it in one workbook. That makes review easy and cuts the time we spend compiling support. It also simplified the reviewer’s job.

Q: Which procedures do the agents cover? 

A: We began with sample testing. We have agents for revenue testing and fixed asset testing, and for PO approvals, revenue recognition, and matching. 

Q: How do you use AI responsibly with DataSnipper? 

A: We keep a human in the loop. Auditors verify and challenge the output and check that the results match what they expect. They use their own judgment and stay professionally skeptical. 

During Connect New York, they also saw the first demo of Alwin, our new agentic automation platform for audit and finance. 

Q: What was your first impression of Alwin? 

A: It looked great! It enables running multiple agents in the cloud without slowing down the CPU. We think this will let our team operate more efficiently. We also like the transparency of seeing what colleagues are working on and following the workflow, which enhances collaboration.

Looking ahead: Expanding their testing areas 

ITW plans to expand the number of use cases for Excel Agents and are excited about Alwin. The team will extend them beyond business unit audits to corporate SOX testing. They are also exploring the Financial Statement Suite and a possible expansion to the external reporting team’s 10-K review process. 

With sample testing running on shared agents and evidence kept in one workbook, the audit team has a repeatable approach to bring to SOX testing and external reporting. As adoption grows, more of their audit work can run on the same standardized agents.