Reduce Time On Your Next Audit

Here are some suggestions of what you can do to reduce the extra time new auditing standards may pose on your next audit.

1. Provide us with complete information on how your company operates, including industry, environment, regulatory and economic conditions. When we meet, we can review with you the exact information that we will need for our risk assessment.
2. Summarize the companyís objectives, strategies and related business risks.
3. Identify what the company does to measure and review financial performance. This should include names and frequency of reports generated by the company, ratios calculated by the company, use of forecasts and budgets, and whether the company has used outside benchmarks such as information from trade associations. Copies of these tools should also be provided.
4. Explain how the company selects and applies accounting principles. Documentation of this process would be helpful.
5. Provide us with detailed information and documentation of internal control. We have designed an internal control tool that we can use to discuss your specific internal controls. In addition, since we will be performing walk throughs of your internal controls, copies of documents should be available.
6. Designate one person to be responsible on a timely basis for:
   1. Reviewing misstatements discovered during our test procedures
   2. Discussing control deficiencies and whether they rise to the level of significant deficiencies or material weaknesses
   3. Approving the draft financial statements and notes.