What Makes for a Successful Audit?
Successful auditing begins by properly planning ahead and emphasizing making the process simple for everyone involved. Additionally, management provides consistent support throughout, leading to changes in direction or other corrective action taken. AG is our brand name. Audit Services Singapore are an award-winning group of mid-tier accounting firms, headquartered in Singapore with an office in Malaysia.
It’s time to get your hands dirty! Audit season is rapidly approaching – this time of year typically proves the busiest for professionals in the business world.
As auditors, we’ve observed that proper preparation and organization can make all the difference in successfully conducting an audit and can:
- Audit adjustments and unexpected surprises must be minimized.
- Do you wish to reduce your audit fees in the future?
- Take advantage of the audit process and reap its rewards.
What is the PBC checklist for audits?
An PBC checklist is a comprehensive list of documents, spreadsheets and schedules that auditors should review prior to beginning their engagement.
No matter if this is your first or twenty-year experience working with this auditor, the last thing you’d want is for them to surprise you with questions they ask of you.
Before beginning to work, ensure all requirements are understood and agreed upon. Don’t assume you know why or what prompted a request unless you ask.
When in doubt, ask the auditor for clarification and don’t be shy to question why something seems unnecessary or inappropriate. Doing this will save both parties considerable time in the future.
Assign Work Appropriately
Any reconciliations/roll-forwards/supporting schedules should be assigned to those responsible for that GL account/group of accounts.
Be certain that all support tasks were completed during the year-end closure process, so make sure everyone understands this fact.
What you must avoid at all costs is having your work overlooked or worse, having multiple workers working on the same project.
Establish a Digital Data Room
Utilizing digital data rooms allows users to share PBC files or utilize the PBC audited by you.
Additionally, it is crucial that everyone adheres to the same naming conventions for files in order to facilitate their easy discovery.
Constant email exchange can be a recipe for disaster when it comes to keeping important items from getting misplaced or lost amid the daily chaos.
Create a shared calendar with others to track the dates you need to use for events.
Every successful project begins with the support of the team working on it, and a calendar can be an excellent tool to keep track of deadline dates for all items so as to increase involvement and accountability among colleagues.
Prior to beginning work on a project, be sure to review the calendar with all team members and add an extra buffer in case it takes longer than anticipated.
Communicate
All employees should be informed and understand which audit requests are the top priorities for accountants and finance specialists at this time of the year, unless additional demands become urgent.
Outside requests for time-sensitive and regulatory due diligence, such as internal or board related requests, may take precedence.
It is essential to be mindful when managing commitments and time, as both closing the year and conducting an audit require a significant amount of work for any accounting or finance company.
Set everyone up for success and help manage expectations by keeping other commitments to a minimum.
Stay current with daily staff news by providing daily updates to staff members.
Be sure to send regular updates to your team so they are informed of the progress made.
If the company is running behind schedule, both the Controller and often CFO must be able to resolve bottlenecks and obstacles.
Do a briefing immediately following your investigation, followed by an in-depth postmortem.
Once the audit is completed, conduct a post mortem review with both auditors and your team (ideally separately) to identify areas for improvement or adjustments for the coming year.
A post mortem examination may indicate the need for documents supporting them to be stored more securely, thus making them more readily accessible.
This could include automating PBC reports or formalizing auditable processes.