Performing Audits: Your Place, or Ours?

 By: Greg Cargin, CPA, Partner|  email

 You may have noticed in the past few years that your annual audit seems to take longer than it once did. Changes in accounting and auditing standards, increased disclosure requirements, and the unprecedented growth of our clients are causing us to spend more time planning, documenting, and completing our audit procedures than ever before.

One afternoon, a member of my staff asked why we went to see our client that day. At first, I was surprised by the question, but quickly wondered the same thing. We had done what we were accustomed to; we packed up our computers and parked ourselves in the client’s boardroom. Over the next 6 hours, the client continued to email information, reports and files as needed, periodically popping in to make sure the items in the emails were what we wanted. The client had also provided us with access to their system so we were able to get our own reports and printouts as needed. We really needed very little face to face interaction with the client that day.

I wondered, can we be more efficient when working with our clients? Can we successfully accomplish many of the same audits tasks by the exchange of information electronically? Many data processing systems allow for outside access and it is becoming more common for employees to work from home using technology; can it be possible for us, as auditors, to do more work in our office?

For many clients, this may not be preferred, or even possible, but it may be time for all of us to have conversations about ways we can use our time more wisely. Being able to complete a larger percentage of planning, testing, documenting and research from our office versus yours can save travel time and expenses, costs of the audit that continue to rise annually. It also allows us to spend less time driving and more time working for you. We also get the personal benefit of additional opportunities to spend more evenings with our families.

As we continue to strive for ways to provide better service and value to our clients as costs continue to increase, please feel free to discuss with us alternatives to what we have done in the past. Open communication is not only the key to successful relationship, but also provides for a more successful audit.