About the company
Maxwell Locke & Ritter (ML&R), ranked #119 on the Inside Public Accounting list of top 400 CPA firms, delivers tax, audit, and advisory services with the strategic vision clients need to navigate today’s marketplace.
Partner Lesley Hargraves leads in the firm’s financial statement assurance and advisory practice, bringing experience from Ernst & Young and extensive expertise in complex revenue and equity transactions. She also guided ML&R’s client implementation of ASC 606, reflecting the firm’s commitment to pairing technical precision with forward-looking advice.
The Audit Bottleneck: Broken Workflows, Frustrated Clients, Overloaded Teams
Audits stall when critical information arrives late, incomplete or in the wrong format, leaving clients frustrated and auditors buried in manual work.
Audit teams everywhere face the same challenge. The information they need to begin engagements almost never arrives on time, in full, or in the right format, delaying timely and meaningful work from the very start. What should be a straightforward request for data turns into a frustrating cycle of requests, follow-ups and rework.
For clients, the audit process feels disruptive. They’re asked to pull information that goes beyond their daily responsibilities, creating extra work on top of already full schedules. As Lesley Hargraves, Audit Partner at ML&R, explains: “We're asking our clients to provide information that goes beyond their usual day-to-day work, to get us the information we need.”
For auditors, the disruption comes back in another form: missing or messy data. Some clients send only part of what was requested, others export reports without cleaning or organizing the data, and still others deliver information piecemeal across multiple files. Each of these missteps shifts the manual workload back onto the audit team.
Instead of focusing on risk areas or applying professional judgment, auditors end up buried in low-value tasks like reformatting journal entries, stitching together spreadsheets, and rechecking balances. Projects slow down, clients grow frustrated, and auditors lose valuable time to busywork rather than the insights that matter.
Why ML&R Turned to Crunchafi
Like most audit teams, ML&R’s auditors often had to ask clients to go above and beyond their normal day-to-day work just to pull the information needed to support an audit. That constant back-and-forth slowed down projects and put extra strain on both clients and staff. The firm wanted a way to reduce that burden, streamline data collection, and give their team more time to focus on complex audit areas and industry-specific challenges.
The answer came from within their own firm. ML&R’s Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) team was already using Crunchafi Data Extraction and called it “life-changing.” With the Crunchafi Data Extraction, TAS had scaled its service line, improved efficiency, and spent far less time chasing down client data. The audit team saw an opportunity to bring those same benefits to their side of the business.
As an added benefit, Crunchafi Data Extraction connects securely to client accounting systems and automatically delivers trial balances, general ledgers, AR/AP, and other data into a standardized Excel workbook. For Hargraves and her team, the value was immediate: “My team and I are experts in Excel. Crunchafi keeps us out of our clients’ systems but gives us the data we need in the format we’re great at.”
Instead of wrestling with multiple accounting platforms or waiting on incomplete reports, the audit team now starts with a clean, audit-ready file in the software they know best. That not only improves efficiency but also reduces the amount of time they need to disrupt their clients. In fact, ML&R even highlights Crunchafi Data Extraction to potential clients during their proposal process positioning it as a differentiator that ensures smoother, less disruptive audits.
Time Savings for Audit Teams
Crunchafi Data Extraction cut down hours of manual prep and reduced the number of client requests.
- Fewer Requests to Clients
Hargraves explains, “Crunchafi lessens the amount of requests that we have for our clients. Instead of emailing for dozens of reports, we already have what we need on day one.”
- Smarter, Faster Questions
With the right data upfront, teams no longer spend time chasing the basics. “Crunchafi Data Extraction keeps our projects rolling. The upfront data collection lets us ask clients smarter questions and solve problems faster.”
- Focus on High-Value Areas
The biggest impact? Auditors can concentrate on judgment areas instead of routine testing. “We can really spend our time focused on the complex areas and challenges they face in their industries, rather than having to get through journal entry testing or cash testing.”
This shift allows ML&R to deliver audits faster, with less friction, while keeping staff focused on meaningful work.
A Better Experience for Clients
The time savings and smoother experience aren’t only internal, they’re felt by clients too.
"This is an investment we’ve made in technology to make the audit as easy as possible for our clients." Hargraves explains. " A few clicks from them and we have everything we need."
Clients benefit from:
- Fewer disruptions to their daily work
- Greater transparency in the audit process
- Confidence that auditors aren’t digging around inside their accounting systems
The result is a smoother client experience with less frustration and more trust.
Turning Technology into a Sales Advantage
For ML&R, Crunchafi isn’t just an internal benefit, it’s also a selling point.
" Our clients and prospects expect us to stay current with technology. " Hargraves notes. "I can reassure them that we are keeping up and using it in smart ways to make the process as easy as we can."
By showing prospective clients how technology reduces audit pain, ML&R differentiates itself from firms that still rely on manual methods.
The Bottom Line
Crunchafi Data Extraction has transformed how ML&R runs audits:
- Less time spent chasing and formatting data
- More time spent on complex areas
- Happier clients with fewer requests
- A competitive edge in winning new business
As Hargraves puts it:
"I definitely recommend Crunchafi Data Extraction. For me, it starts with their great client service and their ability to understand the problems that we’re facing."
For audit firms, Crunchafi is more than a tool. It’s a way to save time, improve client relationships, and future-proof the audit process.
