If you wonder how to reduce audit fees, you have landed on the right page. In this article, we are going to discuss the ways to lower the expenses incurred during the audit of a company.
Business owners pay millions of dollars each year in lieu of audit fees. This leads to increasing the overall expenses of running a business. However, the audit shouldn’t be so expensive and time-consuming.
In order to learn the ways to reduce audit fees, just continue reading!
7 tips to Reduce Audit Fees
The expenses incurred during an audit of a company are referred to as uncontrollable. Hence, businesses don’t focus on controlling the time and expense linked with audits.
However, this isn’t the case in reality. In fact, there are certain ways to improve the efficiency of an audit and reduce expenses.
Here are the top 7 tips to reduce audit fees.
1. Team Selection is Critical
Make sure to choose the right team with relevant industry experience and required expertise. Therefore, ask the auditor about their previous experience in the industry.
If the audit team lacks the required experience, it will take more time than expected. This would lead to increasing the overall cost of the audit.
Do consider meeting the manager or director of the audit firm in person. It will help you understand how experienced their audit team is. By choosing the right auditors, you can lower the audit fees.
2. Prepare Ahead
An audit is referred to as a long, stressful, and expensive procedure. However, by simply preparing ahead, you can cool things down a bit. Although companies aren’t in a position to change the key aspects of the audit, they can minimize the time consumed by the audit team.
You can achieve this goal by staying organized and proactive. Keep in mind to prepare things ahead of time. It can turn out to be a cost-saving strategy, which is going to benefit your company in the long run.
In addition, you can lower the stress level that is usually experienced when your company is being audited. Hence, make sure to keep your financial statements ready beforehand. This is your first step towards reducing the audit fees.
In fact, you don’t need to wait for the financial year to end with a view to creating the financial statements. You can make this ready before the audit visit. In general, businesses go for an audit of their company at the end of a calendar year.
As a result, auditors are extremely busy during this time of the year. Hence, they charge a lot more, as they need to work overtime. Furthermore, discuss the time and deadlines of the audit in advance.
3. Ensure Good Communication with the Audit Team
Good communication serves as a tool to increase the pace of your company’s audit. Hence, make such arrangements to foster positive and flawless communication between the finance department and the audit team.
This will not only improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the audit but also reduce the time consumed. Timely communication can help you avoid extensive delays, which reduces audit fees.
4. Rely on Up-to-Date Accounting Tools
No doubt, manual bookkeeping takes a lot of time and effort when performing the audit. Hence, it is recommended to use accounting softwares that are up-to-date and accurate.
Apart from assisting you in managing the accounts of your company, it will also minimize the auditor’s workload. This, in turn, also reduces the audit fee.
5. Thoroughly Prepare the Documentation
If you ask how to reduce audit fees, thorough preparation of necessary documentation is the key. Organized reporting is a viable way to reduce the workload of the auditors.
Auditors consume most of their time looking for relevant records to collaborate with the financial statement of a company. To reduce the time taken for this purpose, it is essential to prepare and organize the documentation in a streamlined manner.
As a result, the time consumed for audits is also reduced. By doing so, you can significantly minimize the overall cost of your company’s audit.
6. Improve Internal Monitoring
Through key improvements in the internal control mechanism, you can lower the time, effort, and cost of external audits. Recruiting knowledgeable individuals allows you to reduce audit fees.
Contrary to paying hefty fees to the audit team, you can hire qualified and experienced employees. This is so, as audit firms charge a lot more than you pay to the employees of your accounting section.
You can ensure better management through an improved monitoring system. By working in collaboration with your team, the external audit team can easily perform the necessary procedures.
If you have a team of professionals with auditing experience, the external audit team will be in a position to complete the audit in less time. This reduces the expenses of your company’s external audit.
7. Timely Respond to Auditor Queries
In order to complete the audit within a given time, the audit team needs your quick response regarding relevant queries. This is the area where an auditor relies on the information that you need to provide when demanded.
This means an auditor can’t move ahead until you provide the answers to the existing audit queries. So, quick answers to the question asked by your auditor can boost the performance of an auditor.
As a result, you can avoid lengthy delays and lower audit fees.
Final Thoughts
By going through the above content, you now have a clear understanding of how to reduce audit fees. Audits must be considered as an investment that can secure the future of a company or business.
This is a way to seek a third-party perspective regarding the financial aspects of your business. You can deal with the difficult areas of your organization’s activities and operations by conducting an effective audit.
So, if you have prepared yourself for the audit, it would be possible to minimize the time and expenses associated with an external audit.
For your convenience, Yhtan & Associates can assist you with auditing and assurance services in Malaysia. We provide a range of accounting and audit services at affordable rates.