The audit process is rarely something that you or your team considers fun. No one looks at the thought of an audit—opening your books to people who you don’t know, letting them poke and prod through your documents, and waiting for answers—and thinks to themselves, “yes, please.” Like the dentist appointment you’ve been putting off, most business leaders dread this and consider the audit process a necessary evil.
But does it have to be horrible? Audits provide a lot more value than simply ensuring that everything stacks up—many companies can get a lot of value out of an audit. From a simple fix to tips on improving your whole business, auditors deliver insights that can help you thrive—if you know what to look for and know how to prepare.
Six Ways to Improve Audit Readiness and Lower Your Costs
As strenuous as the audit is perceived — and often proves — to be, there are a number of steps businesses can take to relieve some of that stress and positively impact the audit. What steps are they? How can they help you extract value? And how can they help you reduce the cost of the entire process? A new guide from controllers Council Sponsor FloQast looks to answer all this and more.
In their guide, 6 Ways to Improve Your Audit Readiness (And Lower Your Costs), authors offer a variety of tips on how you can ease the pain, exploring the following in much more detail:
- How Can You Develop a Healthy Relationship with the Audit Team? Developing a clear flow of communication with the audit engagement team might be the most important factor in determining audit readiness. How should you approach meetings?
- How Can You Reduce the All or Nothing Stress of the Audit? The more work that can get done over the course of the year, the fewer sleepless nights you’ll spend preparing.
- How Can You Prepare Your Auditor for an Easier Life? A happy auditor is an engaged auditor. Luckily, with a few simple steps to document your past year, you can reduce the workload for everyone.
- How Can You Ensure Up to Date Information the First Time? One of the most frustrating parts of the audit is receiving wrong or out-of-date support documents from their PBC list. What steps can you take to provide reliable and complete documentation the first time?
- How Can You Keep Auditors in the Loop in Real Time? One of the most inefficient, time-consuming obstacles you can run into as an auditor is when you find yourself reperforming an audit workpaper because the balances have changed and no longer tie to the most-recent trial balance. Don’t let this happen.
- How Can You Tackle Internal Processes to Ensure External Cohesion? Another inefficient, time-consuming issue many audit teams face is showing up on-site before the books are finalized and reviewed. Closing the books faster can make life easier for everyone.
Free Guide: Six Ways to Improve Audit Readiness and Lower Your Costs
If you’re looking to find the answers to any of those questions, you can’t miss the latest guide from FloQast. If you’re looking to avoid issues like client and audit team miscommunication, haphazard PBC lists, fluctuating trial balances, and more, you can’t miss out. Click here to download 6 Ways to Improve Your Audit Readiness (And Lower Your Costs).
