I — Assurance
Audit & Assurance
a) External Auditing — Statutory & Non-Statutory
External audit is the independent evaluation of a company's financial statements by a qualified independent third party: the external auditor.
An audit is a legal requirement for many entities, and essentially determines whether an entity is providing a true and fair view of its financial performance and position. As auditors of your company, we arrange to make the audit as efficient as possible — and we offer constructive feedback on your internal systems and processes, making future audits more efficient in turn.
Audit is the best level of assurance an entity can obtain over its financial statements. For this reason, many organisations choose to be audited voluntarily, in order to:
- Lend credibility to financial statements in the eyes of tax authorities, finance providers and other business partners seeking credit references — credibility that is also crucial if you ever wish to sell the company or take it to the stock market
- Deter or discover fraud
- Fix operating inefficiencies, improve overall productivity and increase profit margins
b) Financial Statements Review
This type of assurance provides comfort in knowing that an independent accountant has reviewed the financial information the organisation provides.
External audits and reviews of financial statements are two distinct services. Review procedures are in general limited to analytical procedures, inquiry of management, and obtaining management representations on the completeness of the information provided.
As a rule, an audit is more complex and time-consuming but provides reasonable assurance, whereas a review provides limited assurance. It is therefore imperative that each organisation chooses the level of assurance it requires based on its needs. Engaging a local certified public accountant to carry out a review also brings valuable recommendations for improvement regarding any internal control deficiencies identified.
c) Internal Auditing
Internal audit is a process of objective assurance and consulting, designed to add value and improve an organisation's operations by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.
Our internal audit service delivers assurance to the Board through the Audit Committee — and adds value to the entire organisation, bringing ideas and innovation to Executives and the Board of Directors, helping companies achieve their aspirations.
We design and deliver appropriate internal audit functions for all sizes of business: from conducting a thorough assessment of risk across the organisation, to designing strategic internal audit programmes, to reporting findings to management, the board and other stakeholders. We do not only identify issues — we work with management to implement tailored solutions and put the appropriate controls in place.
Our internal auditing services are summarised as follows:
- The preparation of internal reports for management purposes
- The evaluation of the design, implementation and operating effectiveness of internal procedures and processes
- The preparation and documentation of tailored internal procedures in line with laws and regulations
- The design and implementation of internal audit programmes
- The conduct of special ad-hoc anti-fraud and control environment investigations
- The provision of ongoing internal audit support
