Auditing is legislation-driven, which means there are very few businesses that voluntarily initiate one without being required to! Companies are required to undertake an audit when they meet certain criteria as regards turnover, gross assets and an average number of employees. If they are a UK subsidiary of a global firm, then these same criteria apply to the worldwide group.
If your company has been asked to set up its first audit, there are two main advantages to coming to a medium-sized company like ours rather than one of the better-known national or multinational firms.
Service and price
It will probably be no surprise that the cost of using a local auditing firm will be less than the fees charged by companies headquartered in London. But because we can do the work cheaper does not mean our service levels will be lower – quite the opposite in fact, and we pride ourselves on our high customer service levels.
The other main advantage for our clients is that we are local. This means that geographically we are easily accessible, enabling us to have quick, ad hoc meetings that answer questions and resolve issues before they have a chance to become a problem. The ease of being able to meet whenever needed ensures a much better level of client support.
Continuity
You are much more likely to see the same faces for every audit, offering greater continuity. Whilst audit teams are always headed up by a partner and a manager, the bulk of the onsite work is undertaken by our trainees. We take on school leavers who train with us for seven years before they qualify. This means there is a very high likelihood they will undertake audits for the same clients throughout their training. When they get to know your company better, they will not need to spend time learning about you and the way your company works, enabling them to get on with the work more quickly and efficiently.
The large companies tend to exclusively employ graduate trainees on a three year training period, with long periods of study time away from the office. It is usually impractical to send the same trainees to do the same company’s audit on a regular basis, meaning there is little continuity and new audit staff will need to spend time getting to know their clients on almost every audit.
In large accountancy firms, the partner and manager allocated to the account also tend to be more remote, meaning the client doesn’t get the opportunity to build up relationships with their accountants that are as close and supportive as we have with ours.
If you’d like to talk to one our accountants to discuss your auditing needs, contact us to make an appointment.
