Part of doing business in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates will be the requirement for audited financial statements. Most businesses will already have an audit conducted due to requirements of the shareholders. What may surprise you is that most of the jurisdictions where companies are registered in the UAE will require your business is audited. Your company may also have it enshrined in its constituent documents that an audit is required every year.
An audit can be a stressful and disrupting time for any business, be it large or small. Your finance team and upper management will be distracted by the external auditors and this level of distraction and ultimately the effect of this distraction has on the business, will depend upon how Ready for Audit your business is.
How do you ensure that the audit of your company goes as smoothly as possible and minimize the time that it takes for the audit to take place?
Preparation is the key. For best results, this preparation happens throughout the year, rather than just prior to the auditors arriving. Ensuring that your accounts are regularly reviewed and updated is a good start. There are many end of year procedures that need to be performed but employing these procedures throughout the year can make this process less cumbersome and will also demonstrate to your auditor that there is more taking place than simply recording transactions. Performing interim inventory counts, reviewing bad and doubtful debts, providing for future costs are all good examples of end of year procedures that can be carried out periodically.
How much value do you think can be added to your business for every day that you don’t have the auditors in your office? How many times have you asked yourself, what on earth are the auditors doing that is taking so long?
At TLB Business Advisory Services, our staff are well versed with the rigors of audit and what makes an audit go smoothly. For the best part, our staff have a background working in Audit firms or have prepared for audits in large organisations. Our considerable auditing experience will ensure that we work with you to provide the information to the auditor in a form that will greatly reduce the disruption to staff and anticipate the requirements of the auditors, thereby ensuring a smoother and less time consuming experience. A good audit will also provide greater comfort to the auditor and in most cases, may reduce the procedures that they need to undertake to provide that unqualified audit report.
To find out more on how our Ready for Audit Services can be tailored to deliver benefits to your business, contact us at gidday@tlb.ae or 04 3609477.