The Audit

How many times have you heard “I cant speak now” or “Call me in two weeks I am really busy the auditors are here”

Every company has an audit at least once a year. The audit is seen as a time consuming exercise for the staff involved in preparing the information needed for the auditors. Staff dread the auditors visit as they have to obtain huge amounts of documentation, needed by the auditors, in order to sign off that all is okay within the company.

If not managed properly, financial audits can be overly stressful and time-consuming. However, there are ways to alleviate stress and improve the audit process. One tried-and-true method is collaboration.?

After surveying 142 companies a common thread emerged whereby staff and directors within the companies were looking for a 3rd party platform that auditors could access by way of a login and password and could extract any information needed from the company’s ERP system such as invoices and proof of deliveries or purchase orders and related supplier invoices, in order to conduct the audit.

The above would eliminate the time consuming and costly act of taking staff away from their duties to do the mundane task of physically compiling piles of documentation for the auditors to wade through.

The use of a 3rd party platform could be used for both external and internal auditors and would save hundreds of man hours both on the auditors side and that of the company. This could translate to less expensive audit fees and to more productive and happier staff.

?Quality control in companies and the audit environment are important areas of focus for directors within a company and their audit practitioners. As well as compliance with Auditing Standards, Ethical Standards, Quality Control Standards. Audit quality is influenced by the culture within your company or the culture within your firm of auditors and the attitudes and behaviour of every person involved in the audit.

At times it may seem like audit efficiency and quality sit at opposite sides of a spectrum, with an inability to be efficient and do a quality audit at the same time. Now is the time to collaborate and not only give your staff access to 3rd party platforms but also give auditors access to bring about an efficiency and quality culture within your company.

| System1A | Weekly Blog | May 2022 (Author: JJ)