The benefits of a Caldwell Penn audit

  • Straightforward & hassle-free
  • Identify growth opportunities
  • Tailored approach
  • Experienced auditors

Understand how Audit and Assurance work can benefit your company

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Audit2
Audit2

Why should I undertake an audit?

It's a statutory requirement for many businesses

  • A company audit is a statutory obligation for many businesses; however it is often seen as a necessary evil.
  • It can help to improve your company's internal controls and systems.
  • We try to make the audit process as straightforward as possible so that it serves as an opportunity to fully review and understand your business and identify any areas of weakness. We can then help you work out a plan to address these weak areas and recognise opportunities for growth.
  • The main reasons why you will be required by law to have a statutory audit are:
    • You are a PLC or a banking, insurance or finance company (or a subsidiary of one of these)
    • The size of your business is over the audit threshold (turnover, total assets and number of employees)
    • Your company is part of a larger group
    • You are required by your professional or trade organisation to have your financial records audited
    • Your shareholders do not agree to opting out of the audit 
  • As an audit can provide useful feedback about how your business is operating, companies can have an audit undertaken, even if it is not a statutory requirement. Alternatively, we can undertake an assurance review to provide limited assurance on some aspect of the financial statements. 
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Audit3

How are audits conducted?

At Caldwell Penn, audits are straightforward and hassle-free

  • Our experienced audit team will tailor its approach to your company, ensuring the work is relevant and focused.
  • We will guide you through the process – starting with us obtaining a detailed understanding of the company's business and accounting systems – so that we can ensure our work is specific to your business.
  • After completing a thorough review of the financial statements, we will undertake our risk assessment, which will enable us to prioritise testing in the key risk areas.
  • Audit testing can take various forms including analytical work, enquiries, system walkthroughs to transaction testing; testing is conducted on a sample basis, with larger samples undertaken in the higher risk areas.
  • As part of the audit, we consider whether the information contained within the company’s financial statements shows a true and fair view of the company’s position.
  • We can offer our audit service alongside the preparation of your financial statements, or as a stand-alone service.
  • In addition to our stringent internal controls, our audit department is regulated by the ICAEW and we are subject to regular reviews. 
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Audit4

What is the end result of an audit?

Shareholder peace of mind that your financial records are reliable

  • Once we have completed our audit work we issue our audit report.
  • Providing we haven’t identified any significant issues, our report will be unqualified. An unqualified audit report provides full assurance that the financial statements show a true and fair view of the company’s financial position.
  • An unqualified audit report can provide increased credibility to the accounts for its users and a history of financial statements with unqualified audit reports can be important if you ever wish to sell the company.
  • Occasionally we need to qualify our audit report; this could be because we could not obtain all of the information that we needed to in one area or because the evidence that we obtained was in disagreement to the financial statements.
  • An audit provides a perfect opportunity to assess the quality of information you use to make critical decisions, to evaluate your organisation’s overall financial performance, and to help you solve financial challenges.
  • The business knowledge we gain through our audit work can also enable us to provide proactive business advice on many matters and specific, constructive recommendations. 


Frequently asked questions

What is an audit?
Do I need to have an audit of my financial statements?
Can a company have an audit even if it doesn’t legally require one?
What does an audit involve?
What is materiality?
Are there different types of audit reports?
My company is small company but I’ve been told I need an audit because my company has an overseas parent company, is this true?
Is there any other piece of work which can provide me (or the shareholders) some comfort over the accounts without having an audit?
What is an assurance review?
How much does an audit or assurance review cost?

COPYRIGHT © 2021 CALDWELL PENN LIMITED   |   Company Reg Number: 03872209   |   ICAEW - Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales: C005061064