Audit

Statutory audit

Your Company will need an audit if it (or the group of companies that it is part of) exceeds the small company threshold. To qualify it will need to have exceeded two of these three conditions:

£6.5million turnover (for accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2016 the threshold has increased to £10.2m)
£3.26million gross assets (for accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2016 the threshold has increased to £5.1m)
50 staff members (no change and remains at 50 staff members)

There are other regulations that may enforce an audit such as your industry’s regulatory body.

Internal audit

We often tell our clients “you have got to have a system” which is especially true if you are seeking to grow the business, maintain quality, and make the business less dependent on a handful of key staff or owners.

Obviously it would be nice to not to have to police the system and trust your staff, but in any organisation there are often mavericks that cut corners, reduce quality and potentially cause significant problems.

Many of our clients use our services to highlight bad practice which as well as identifying problems can often simply act as a deterrent in the first place. An internal audit can be tailored specifically for you and can include whatever you feel needs to be looked at including:

Review your systems to see if there are improvements to efficiency that can be made
Review of overheads to see where savings might be achieved
Review of working practices to reduce the risk of fraud
Review of processes to ensure staff are following the correct systems

Grant Audits – Independent Accountant’s Report

In order to be issued with some grants, an Independent Accounts Report (IAR) is required. As independent Registered Auditors we can prepare a cost-effective report required by grant funders such as Innovate UK.

What is an Independent Accountants Report (IAR)?

Grant funding bodies like to have assurance that the grant is providing the right expenditure in accounts with the terms. As your Independent Accountant we will perform a reasonableness check on the expenses spent by your business to check it is in line with the terms of the grant and report these findings back to the grant funding body.

We will check things such as:

Labour
Overheads
Travel
Materials
VAT is excluded from all costs

When is an Independent Accountants Report required?

This largely depends on the funding body, however, it will usually be during the first quarter and at the end of the grant period, and if required, at annual intervals during.

We have extensive experience in providing Independent Accountants’ Reports for various grants, including Innovate UK.

Please get in touch now for a quote. Email enquiries@a4g-llp.co.uk or call 01474 853 856.

Stock take reviews

Stock and work in progress can be the most subjective figure in a set of accounts and therefore is one of the areas that HM Revenue & Customs often enquire into. If it’s not correct, it can result in misleading profit and loss accounts being supplied to management and incorrect strategic decisions being made as a result.

As part of our review we make sure your stock take considers all the key valuation aspects and therefore gives a fair valuation that would support your management accounts. We also attend stock takes to make sure they are going as planned and nothing gets double counted or missed.

Specialist assignment audits

Pension scheme audits

As trustees it is your responsibility to ensure that the scheme is properly managed on behalf of the members and you will want to use trusted advisers who are accustomed to the industry.

We deal with both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes of all sizes and often find that the trustees want the scheme to be audited by someone who is totally independent from the main company’s auditors. We can also produce accounts in recognised statutory formats and many of our clients use both these services.

Find out more on our dedicated pension scheme audit website here.

Clubs

We deal with a lot of clubs such as golf, football and rugby clubs where emotions can often run high. As a result, many clubs recognise that an independent audit brings objectivity as well ensuring accounts are accurate and that staff are following the correct procedures.

Whilst a club could opt to have a fully statutory audit, we often find that best value is obtained from what we call an “assurance audit” This is because we can focus on the areas that you see as high risk and ensure that they are running as planned.

Client money audits

These are not just part of our work they are required by a number of other industry and regulatory bodies as well. Such audits help to make sure that your clients view you as a safe place to keep their money.

Various regulatory bodies require you to complete an audit each year to satisfy the terms of being a member. One such example is an ARLA audit which is specifically related to members who deal with residential landlords. The main focus of this audit is to ensure that the client money being held is used appropriately.

Due diligence

When buying or selling a business, before the due diligence process, we sit down with our clients to assess their concerns, the tax implications and the different options available to them.

Due diligence work then focuses on that areas that you perceive to be high risk. We work closely with you reporting back our findings as we go. Any kind of mergers and acquisition is extremely time-sensitive and issues need to be resolved immediately.

Once the due diligence process is complete our audit team will pass the result to your principal adviser who will discuss with you the areas which may lead to price negotiations or other considerations.