What are the various techniques to ensure a successful annual audit?

Auditing may be considered a difficult process by the business owners because it is one of the most important fundamental processes that must be conducted by qualified professionals and the best Auditors in Dubai. As per the timeline stated company performs the business in accordance with the required principles, laws, and regulations as stated.

The best audit firms in Dubai must always keep the records of all the transactions from the beginning itself and it must be up to date. This is the most important thing that should be kept in mind before getting ready for an audit, because of this the auditors can be provided with more accurate records that will make it easy for auditors to verify.

A minor step from business owners may reduce the workload for auditors and they may be able to give the audit report within a short span of time. An audit report is an important document that is used for various purposes such as communicating it to the investors, shareholders, licensing authorities and so on.

Following are the ways through which a firm can ensure that the audit process goes on smoothly includes :

1. Vouching:

• When the internal audit firms in Dubai verify documentary evidence and accounting transactions are known as vouching. It is an important part of the Auditing process.
• In this process, the main responsibility of the firm is to maintain its documents properly. It should be maintained in proper sequence, duplication of documents is properly marked, proper documents files are maintained.
• Any missing documents promote investigation.

2. Confirmation:

• A technique that is used by an auditor to validate the correctness of a transaction is known as confirmation.
• In this process, the major responsibility is to provide accurate information asked by auditors.
• For example, Auditors should help debtors to get those confirmations if he issues a confirmation certificate for balances directly from debtors.

3. Reconciliation:

• It is a technique that is used to know the difference in the balances.
• In this the major responsibility of the firm is to provide appropriate reasons to the client why the differences are existing in the books, if they fail to give them the proper reasoning then there will be further investigations.
• All the failures from the client’s side will be noted down.

4. Inquiry:

• The process of inquiry is conducted to collect in-depth information about transactions.
• Here the Firm’s responsibility is the same as specified above like if the auditor feels as per the outcome of various procedures that in-depth inquiry is needed then he may proceed with that.

5. Observations:

• Through Observations, the auditor gets an idea about the procedure of an organization and about the reliability of the process.

Some other key features :

1. PBC :

•  In order to conduct the audit smoothly during an audit process, the auditor may provide the firm with a timeline and a list of items and documents required by them.
• These items are generally known as PBC (Provided by the Client) in business audit terms.
• It is the prime duty and responsibility of the firm to provide such documents and items on time.
•  The firm also must ensure that these records and documents are error-free and should be accurate.
•  The Auditors must not be put in that position where they have to find the records themselves and that may result in wastage of their time and effort.

2. Cooperate with the auditor:

• During the inspection process, Sometimes the auditor may find some errors or discrepancies.
• It may happen due to the absence of required reports and documents and also because of the incomplete documents provided by the firm.
•  In such cases, the firm must understand that the auditors are in need of such documents and they must provide them.
•  If the firm is unable to provide such data or if it is impossible to gather such a document, they must communicate to the auditor without any hesitation.
• During the audit process, the firm must be transparent and they must disclose every aspect to the auditor so that the auditors can assess the situation and apply alternate options to evaluate the data and documents.

3.    Ask for assistance from the auditors:

•  Calling the auditors and asking for their assistance in advance during the year regarding the treatments of different transactions will help the firm to maintain proper reports and statements of all the transactions made.

4. Try to perform reconciliations frequently:

• It is advisable to perform the reconciliations of the documents on a monthly or quarterly basis that may allow the firm to identify, investigate and resolve the reconciling items on a regular basis.
• Otherwise, the firm may not have enough time to handle and resolve the issues before the audit at the end of the year.

To make the audit smoother some other solutions include the following:

• To discuss the timelines and the expectations, the scheduling of meetings with the internal team of Accounting and Auditing Firms in Dubai.
• To maintain continuous communication with the auditing firm to discuss different treatments of various transactions and other significant events during the year.
• To obtain the list of information from the accountants that will be required of the staff.
• To ensure whether the information regarding VAT return filing and Economic substance filing is ready if it is applicable.
• Once the audit begins to relax, it is required to be conducted once a year on a regular basis and it is unavoidable, hence the firms must not consider it as a problem instead it is the evaluation of the performance of the firm.

Therefore, These are the various techniques to ensure a successful annual audit in a firm.