Four factors to consider when choosing an Auditor

Running a business comes with certain important responsibilities. One of those is ensuring your audited financial statements are on track for either a statutory filing requirement or for other purposes as required by the business.

Finding a suitable auditor can be extremely challenging in the current economic and regulatory environment, especially if you don’t know where to start. We’ve put together four key factors to consider when looking for a suitable auditor.

The person

Just like choosing any other business relationship, an auditor needs to be a good fit for your business requirements. One of the first things you can do is to conduct your own screening process. This would entail considering factors like your Audit Partner’s competence, expertise, and experience but also his or her depth of understanding of your industry and business. Strength on these factors will ultimately enable your auditor in delivery of an efficient and high quality audit. A deeper understanding of your industry shall also enable the auditor in adding value to your business through insights shared throughout the audit process.

The firm

It’s not just the person conducting the audit you need to look into; it’s also the firm they represent. There are a large number of audit firms in the marketplace, but one way to distinguish the best from the good is to look for and assess their ways of working. For example, a highly commercial firm with a strong sense of regulatory requirements and quality standards, where Audit Partners are organised and available to discuss any key matters with you around your preference and availability, can be one of the most critical factors in your decision-making. This will also reflect in the strength and duration of the firm’s existing relationship, and you can establish this by the number of years an auditing firm has worked with particular clients. You can always request the firm to share testimonials/references to understand their existing working relationships. We believe that, as a firm, we offer a huge amount of value for our clients throughout an audit. We have a lot of long standing relationships in various industries.

The price

Speaking of value for money, fees are another critical aspect to consider. The rule goes “you get what you pay for”, but at Gerald Edelman, we do things slightly differently. Where some businesses offer a fixed fee, we tailor our auditing fees to each client, meaning we don’t approach audit as a one-size-fits-all. With us, you not only get an experienced auditor offering quality service, but you may also receive focused advice within the remits of the Revised Ethical Standard aimed at building a lasting partnership between your business and ours.

The approach

Lastly, the best auditor is a not only a capable individual at a suitable firm charging you a fair price for work performed, but also someone who has the ability to bring together the right skills-set and tools essential to deliver your audit in timeframes agreed. This requires balancing between adequate human resources and technology, the latter capable to analyse the business information, enabling a risk focused audit approach. Such an approach is likely to drive efficiency and quality to the audit process but would also assist you developing an even better understanding of your business risks, internal processes, and controls. This would prompt you to make key business decisions in a timely manner.

Do your own research

Finding the right auditor can be a daunting process, but investing in the time to carry out your own research and assessment, keeping in view the four key factors explained above would hopefully assist you in landing towards a long lasting and successful business relationship with the auditors.