Your finance team relies on technology every day. Accounting systems, automated workflows, data integrations, artificial intelligence, and reporting platforms all influence how financial information moves through your organization.
A December 2025 survey of finance and accounting leaders conducted by AICPA & CIMA found that 88% expect AI to be the most transformative technology trend affecting accounting and finance over the next 12 to 24 months. Yet only 8% said their organizations were very well prepared to manage the shift.
As more financial processes depend on technology, gaps in access, controls, or data integrity can affect reporting, compliance, and business decisions. You need to know whether the systems supporting your finance function operate within the right control environment.
Information Systems (IS) Assurance helps close that gap. IS Assurance connects financial and technology perspectives so your organization can evaluate whether technology-driven processes are secure, appropriately controlled, and capable of supporting accurate reporting.
What Does IS Assurance Do?
IS Assurance assesses the technology and controls that support financial reporting, operations, compliance, and risk management.
Information Technology (IT) support maintains your systems, manages applications, and resolves technical issues while the finance team focuses on accurate reporting, reliable data, and sound financial controls.
IS Assurance evaluates whether technology and related controls meet the financial, compliance, and business requirements. That role is distinct from day-to-day IT operations. For example, a system may be functioning correctly from a technical standpoint, but weaknesses could still occur with user access, system changes, or automated controls that affect reporting.
IS Assurance and Advisory Services combine accounting knowledge with technology expertise to help organizations address these interconnected risks.
Why Finance and IT Need a Stronger Connection
Finance and IT often evaluate the same systems for different reasons. Finance may need confidence that a report is complete and accurate, while IT may focus on whether the underlying application is available and functioning properly.
Questions Your Leadership Team Should Be Able to Answer
- Which systems feed information into financial reporting?
- Who can access or change financially significant information?
- How are system changes reviewed and approved?
- Are automated controls operating as expected?
- Can your team trace critical data back to its source?
- Are technology risks evaluated based on financial and operational impact?
Unclear answers may point to gaps between technical operations and financial oversight. A structured IS Assurance review can identify where responsibilities, controls, or processes need greater attention.
Validate the Technology Behind Financial Processes
Automation, AI, and system integrations can increase efficiency and give your team faster access to information. They also change how data enters systems, how transactions are processed, and where controls should operate. As reliance on AI increases, so does the need to evaluate the governance and guardrails that have been established to ensure that data flowing in and out of the AI process is accurate.
IS Assurance can evaluate the controls surrounding AI and automated financial processes to determine whether data is processed as intended and whether the resulting information can appropriately support financial reporting and business decisions. That evaluation becomes increasingly important as your organization relies on technology to perform work that once required more direct human involvement.
An Information Technology Audit can evaluate IT general controls, vendor management, business continuity, information security risk, artificial intelligence, and controls relevant to financial reporting.
Control Risk Where Finance and Technology Intersect
Technology can function as intended while weaknesses in access, governance, or oversight still create financial and operational exposure.
Focus on Controls That Support Accurate Reporting
Key areas for evaluation may include:
- User access and permissions
- System and application changes
- Automated financial processes
- Data integrity and governance
- Segregation of duties
- Third-party systems and vendors
- Business continuity
- Regulatory and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) control requirements
These issues can also carry consequences beyond technology. Inappropriate access can affect reporting, poorly controlled application changes can create errors, and weak vendor oversight can interrupt critical business processes.
Connecting technical concerns with their financial and operational impact gives your team a better basis for prioritizing remediation.
Build Trust in Systems, Data, and Reporting
Leadership decisions depend on trustworthy information. Auditors, customers, regulators, business partners, and other stakeholders may also require evidence that important controls work as intended.
Independent assurance adds objectivity by evaluating systems and controls separately from the teams responsible for operating or maintaining them. That outside perspective can help determine whether controls are appropriately designed, operate as expected and support applicable regulatory and reporting requirements.
Third-Party Assurance Services include System and Organization Controls (SOC) reporting, internal controls framework assessments, and other standards and compliance services that can help organizations demonstrate how they manage controls, transparency, and risk.
The right assurance approach should follow the business problem you need to solve rather than begin with a predetermined service.
Where to Start with IS Assurance
You do not need to evaluate every system at once. Start with the processes that have the greatest financial or compliance impact.
- Identify technology-dependent financial processes. Document the systems, integrations, and automated tools that support reporting or other critical finance activities.
- Clarify control ownership. Determine who is responsible for access, system changes, data quality, and other controls affecting reporting.
- Prioritize areas that need independent evaluation. Focus on processes where ownership is unclear, control failures have occurred, or stakeholders need stronger assurance.
These steps give finance and IT a shared view of the risks that matter most and help leadership determine the appropriate next step.
Give Finance and IT a Common Framework
Finance and IT bring different expertise to the same business processes.
Financial leaders identify which data must be accurate, which processes carry significant risk, and which compliance requirements apply. Technology leaders explain how systems process that data, where dependencies exist, and how controls protect it.
IS Assurance provides a common framework for those conversations. The framework is especially useful during a financial system implementation, the adoption of automation or AI, audit preparation, a response to a control finding, or the evaluation of a critical technology vendor.
A shared view of risk, control ownership, and business impact makes it easier to determine what needs attention and who should lead the response.
Bridge the Gap with RKL IS Assurance and Advisory
Many important financial processes now depend on technology. Your organization needs systems that support accurate reporting, appropriate controls, regulatory requirements, and sound decision-making. IS Assurance and Advisory services combine accounting insight with technology expertise to help you identify gaps and prioritize practical next steps based on your unique risks.
If you need greater confidence in your financial processes, connect with RKL’s IS Assurance and Advisory team for help in evaluating where finance and technology intersect, identifying areas that need attention, and establishing a clearer path forward.
