Professional services firm
BDO USA
BDO USA offers outsourced finance and accounting services and BDO IVA, a ChatGPT environment hosted in the client's own Azure; it audits public companies.
Function
- Ownership
- Not stated
Not stated as a facet value. BDO says it is an ESOP company (employee stock ownership plan), and its footer says BDO USA, P.C., a Virginia professional corporation, is the US member of BDO International Limited. The ownership enum has no employee-owned value, so none is inferred. BDO USA, P.A. shows one Form D and no periodic reports on EDGAR.
- Headquarters
- United StatesSourceBDO USA home page
- SEC reporting
- NoSourceEDGAR company searches and submission records for the audit and advisory firms (Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Grant Thornton, BDO USA, RSM US, Protiviti)
- Audit firm
- YesSourceInspection Data for U.S. Global Network Firms
- Website
- SourceBDO USA home page
- Subprocessor list
- Not stated
- Contract terms
- Not stated
Offering · Accelerator
BDO Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA)
BDO describes IVA as a secure, tailored ChatGPT environment hosted in the client's own Microsoft Azure, with data encrypted and stored there and access restricted even from BDO unless the client authorizes it. SourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
BDO says the data is never used to train AI models and that IVA works alongside Microsoft 365 Copilot, and separately says it helps clients identify AI use cases in finance and other functions. SourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
Where it fits
A general assistant deployed inside the client's own cloud tenancy; BDO lists finance among the functions where it helps find AI use cases. SourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
CoE analysis It does not act in finance systems on the description given, so its control questions are about data handling and use rather than posting.
What it does
- Offering type
- AcceleratorSourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
CoE classification: a firm-built assistant deployed in the client's tenancy. BDO does not say how IVA is sold.
- Workflow areas
- Not stated
Finance is named as one of several functions where BDO identifies use cases; no finance workflow is specified.
- Customer size
- Not stated
AI
- Kind of AI
- General-purpose assistantSourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
- Suggests or acts
- Not stated
- Availability
- Not stated
No availability statement.
- Models named
- SourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
- ChatGPT (BDO's wording; provider and Azure service not stated)
Control
- Who controls it
- Not stated
Not stated. IVA is hosted in the client's own Microsoft Azure, and BDO says the client has complete control of the data, with access restricted even from BDO unless the client authorizes it; which client function configures IVA is not stated.
Commercial
- Pricing model
- Not stated
- Public price
- Not stated
Evidence
- Independent outcomes
- None found in the sources read.
- Sources read
- Vendor-stated 2
- Independent market evidence 5
- Independently verified outcomes None read
- Pricing None read
- Known limitations None read
- Coverage
- Directory record
- Last verified
Delivery and lock-in
- Delivery model
- Not stated
Not stated in the sources read. BDO says IVA is hosted within the client's own Microsoft Azure; license, subscription and ownership terms are not stated.
- Run service offered
- Not stated
- Team qualifications published
- Not stated
Not stated in the sources read. The page refers only to BDO's AI consulting professionals, with no names, roles, credentials or team size.
- IP and post-engagement license
- Not stated
Not stated in the sources read.
- Savings claims (firm-stated)
- Not stated
Not stated in the sources read.
- Alliance partners
- SourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
- Microsoft
BDO describes a strategic relationship with Microsoft and its recognition as a Microsoft Frontier Partner on the AI solutions page that presents IVA.
Security and control
- Single sign-on
- Not covered in this record
- User provisioning
- Not covered in this record
- Role-based access
- Not covered in this record
- Administrator controls for AI
- Not covered in this record
- Audit logs
- Not covered in this record
- Certifications
- Not covered in this record
- Data retention
- Not covered in this record
- Data residency
- Not covered in this record
- Training on customer data
- Not covered in this record
AI features
As the vendor or firm describes them. Notes in small print record what the sources leave open.
BDO IVA
A secure, tailored ChatGPT environment in the client's Azure; data stays there and is not used to train models; works alongside Microsoft 365 Copilot.
- Kind
- General-purpose assistant
- Suggests or acts
- Not stated
- Who controls it
- Not stated
- Availability
- Not stated
Control: Not stated; data access is client-authorized.
SourceArtificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions & Consulting Services
Questions to ask
For this offering
- If BDO audits our financial statements, has our audit committee pre-approved this service, and how does BDO assess it against the SEC non-audit service categories (bookkeeping, financial information systems design and implementation, internal audit outsourcing, management functions) and, for ICFR-related work, PCAOB Rule 3525? Ask our audit committee and counsel to confirm.
- Which models and versions does IVA use, and who manages updates and content filtering in our tenant?
- What does BDO build or configure in our tenant, and what access does BDO keep after setup?
- How do we log and review finance staff use of IVA for work that feeds the financial statements?
- Is IVA sold as software, as a service, or within an engagement, and on what fee basis?
From the diligence question set
- DQ-31 Who, by name and role, will design, build, test and run the AI in our finance process, and what AI has each of those people personally put into production?
- DQ-32 How does your firm decide that someone is qualified to build or govern AI for financial reporting, and who outside the delivery team reviews model risk before anything goes live?
- DQ-33 When the engagement ends, what will we own and be able to run ourselves, and what will work only with your firm? On what terms are your accelerators licensed afterward, and what does it cost to leave a run service?
- DQ-35 Do you receive fees, rebates, resale margins or other incentives from the software you are recommending, and do you, or will you, audit our financial statements?