Audit and Assurance

Assurance Service

It provides an opportunity to conduct a comprehensive and objective appraisal of the financial aspects of your organisation in which recommendations can be made to help improve efficiency and profitability.

By taking a holistic view of your business, we are able to work with you to highlight areas of risk, both current and in the future.

Our audit and assurance methodology involves detailed planning and communication with you and your staff. This way we can ensure that we identify any major considerations at an early stage.

Effective communication also means that we are able to deliver your audit on time taking into account your commitments and reporting requirements.

Audit

Statutory Audit

We advise a wide range of clients from start-ups to well established growing businesses, organisations subject to additional regulation such as charities, pension funds, Financial Services Authority regulated clients and UK and EU government agencies.

Our services include:

• statutory audit, in accordance with International Standards on Auditing
• production of statutory audit and assurance reports
• regulatory reports where appropriate

Our approach is designed to deliver a cost-effective service, which maximises the opportunities for constructive, supportive and timely advice. We take the time to understand your business and the environment in which it operates, which means that we focus on the issues that matter.

During the course of our audit we routinely review your compliance with UK GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practice) and provide practical guidance on regulatory matters such as tax and VAT regulations, requirements of UK law and the principles of good governance.

Inclusive in our approach is a thorough financial risk assessment. We combine these findings with our knowledge of other organisations similar to yours and benchmark your performance.

We place great emphasis on regular two-way communication throughout the year not just during the annual audit. Because our teams are partner led, you not only have access to the audit team but also direct regular access to your partner and other specialists across the firm.

Assurance Reviews

The increase of the audit threshold to £ 6.5 million meant that for many medium-sized businesses formal audit reports were no longer necessary. However, several organisations still require an independent assessment of their affairs as a tool for effective management, to assess risk or provide reassurance to key stakeholders.

In the main, such reports entail making enquiries of management and the directors, applying analytical accounting procedures to the financial statements and assessing whether the applicable accounting policies are appropriate to the circumstances and adequately disclosed.

It also includes some examination of evidence relevant to certain balances and disclosures in the financial statements where, after performing the above work, we have become aware of matters that might indicate a risk of material misstatement in the financial statements.

Assurance reports see accountants report in a negative form to the directors, rather than the positive verification seen in formal audit reports. A report may for example use wording like "nothing has come to our attention to refute the directors' confirmation that the financial statements provide a true and fair view".