Asking an audit software vendor for two or three references and then asking each one "are you happy with it" produces a polite, nearly useless yes almost every time; the questions worth asking instead are specific to a moment the reference firm actually remembers — what the first season on the platform was like, what support looked like during a real busy-season problem, what feature they expected that turned out not to exist or not to work as described, and whether they'd choose this vendor again knowing what they know now — because specific questions about specific moments surface honest detail that a general satisfaction question doesn't.
First: ask for the right references, not just any references
- Ask for a reference from a firm of comparable size and client mix, not just whichever client is most willing to say nice things.
- Ask for a reference that adopted the product more than one full audit season ago — a reference still in its honeymoon first three months hasn't yet seen a real busy season on the system.
- Ask the vendor to facilitate a direct, unmonitored call or at least a call without a vendor representative present — a reference call with the salesperson listening in produces a more guarded answer.
Questions that surface a specific, honest answer
- 01"What was the hardest part of your first season on this platform?"Every real adoption has a hardest part. A reference who says there wasn't one either had an unusually smooth run or isn't being candid — either way, probe further.
- 02"Tell me about a time you contacted support during a real deadline crunch — what happened?"This asks for a specific memory, not a general rating, and tends to produce a more concrete and honest answer.
- 03"Was there a feature you expected based on the sales conversation that turned out not to work the way you expected?"Almost every adopting firm has at least one of these. A reference who can't name one may not have pushed the product very hard yet.
- 04"If you were deciding again today, with what you know now, would you pick the same vendor?"A hesitant or qualified yes here is more informative than an enthusiastic one, and worth following up on directly.
- 05"How did this change what your junior staff actually do day to day?"Answers here reveal whether the software genuinely changed the workflow or sits alongside the old one without being fully adopted.
Questions specific to comparing against the firm's own situation
- "How does your client mix compare to ours, and did that change how well this fit?" — a reference whose clients look nothing like the firm's own may not transfer.
- "What would you tell a firm our size to do differently during the rollout that you didn't do?" — this often surfaces practical rollout advice worth more than the product review itself.
Common practice, not a requirement
A reference call is most useful when it runs 20-30 minutes and covers two or three specific moments in depth, rather than ten questions answered in a sentence each. Pick the four or five questions above that matter most to this firm's own concerns and go deep on those.
A vendor who can produce only one reference, or who hedges when asked for a reference from a firm that adopted more than a year ago, is giving a useful signal about how many genuinely satisfied long-term customers actually exist.
This is practical guidance written for audit teams, not an authoritative statement of any standard or statute. Standards, forms and timelines change. Check the current text issued by the ICAI and the relevant authority before relying on anything here in an audit file.
Related resources
- Technology, data & AI in auditRFP questions for an audit automation vendor: a template to sendA document a firm can send to three vendors at once and get back answers that are actually comparable, not three different sales decks.
- Technology, data & AI in auditA side-by-side comparison framework for 3 audit automation vendorsThree demos on three different days leave a firm with three separate impressions, not a comparison. A shared scoring sheet fixes that.
- Technology, data & AI in auditEvaluating an audit software vendor's roadmap claims"It's coming in the next release" has been true and false in equal measure across this industry. Here's how to tell which one you're hearing.
- Technology, data & AI in auditEvaluating an audit software vendor's uptime and support SLAA 99.9% uptime number means little if the outage happens on March 30th. Here's the SLA language that actually matters when it's tested.
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