Audit and assurance

We have knowledge and experience of delivering audit and assurance when an organisation needs one.

  • audit of the financial statements of companies, societies and charities where required by law or by the members
  • grant audits where required by the funders
  • independent examination of charity accounts
  • reporting accountants under Section 85 Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014

When audits are required by law

  • A registered charity or charitable group has income of over £1m
  • A charity registered in Scotland has income over £500k
  • A charitable community benefit society has income over £250k
  • A registered society that is a subsidiary, or owns a subsidiary
  • A registered society which, in its previous year of account, either had assets of over £5.1m or income of over £10.2m
  • A registered society has not passed the requisite resolution in general meeting to disapply the requirement to have an audit
  • A company of which two of the following are true: turnover is over £10.2m; assets are over £5.1m; employees number 50 or more
  • Specific entities, for example Credit Unions and Registered Providers of social housing

Other times when an audit may be required

  • funders request it
  • the rules or memorandum and articles stipulate it
  • a society has significant outside investors who request it

Our approach to auditing

An audit of financial statements is carried out in accordance with the International Standards on Auditing (UK). We aim to carry out a relatively painless and good value audit for our clients. We can be efficient because we have low overheads and because we are specialists in this area; we will not need to spend significant time acclimatising ourselves to your needs or regulatory requirements. In an audit we familiarise ourselves deeply with your systems and activities, and are often able to feed back valuable advice regarding governance, financial controls, and VAT compliance. Clients who were reluctant to have an audit because of the cost have subsequently been reluctant to stop being audited (when thresholds change for example) because they recognise the value.