Confidently Dealing with Audit Requirements for SMEs
Auditors prioritize reliable records, consistent processes, and evidence that supports reported numbers. They assess controls proportional to your size, ensuring transactions are authorized, recorded timely, and reconciled. Share your experiences so others can learn from the signals auditors highlighted.
The Audit Landscape SMEs Actually Face
Design a lean chart of accounts
Keep your chart of accounts concise but descriptive, aligning categories with how your business actually operates. Fewer, clearer accounts reduce misclassification, speed up reconciliations, and simplify audit sampling. Comment with your toughest account to categorize, and we will offer suggestions.
Documentation that proves what happened
Retain invoices, contracts, approvals, and delivery evidence for every material transaction. Link documents to entries inside your accounting system. Create a monthly folder structure by vendor and customer. Subscribe to receive a naming convention template that keeps files unmissably traceable.
Request the Provided-By-Client list early and tag each item to an owner, source, and due date. Deliver evidence in the requested format. Ask for examples when unclear. Post your toughest PBC item below, and we will crowd-answer how to assemble it efficiently.
Working Smoothly With Your Auditors
Hold a short kickoff to confirm scope, materiality, timeline, and communication channels. Walk auditors through your processes and system landscape. Clarify who signs representations. Subscribe to receive a kickoff agenda template that keeps the engagement on schedule and predictable.
Working Smoothly With Your Auditors
Tools, Timelines, and Templates That Help
Choose systems that log edits, retain attachments, and integrate bank feeds. Turn on user-level permissions and two-factor authentication. Tell us which feature saved you during an audit, and subscribe for a settings checklist many auditors appreciate immediately.
Tools, Timelines, and Templates That Help
Map planning, interim testing, and final fieldwork. Schedule inventory counts before peak season, and lock key staff calendars. Share your busiest month, and we will suggest a custom cadence that still keeps the audit moving without overwhelming your operations.
Tools, Timelines, and Templates That Help
Maintain standardized reconciliations, policy memos, and variance analyses. Save last year’s examples and update with current figures. Comment if you want a starter pack; subscribers receive editable templates that match common audit requests for SMEs across industries.