Assurance desk
An audit your bank, your board and your free zone will all accept.
Statutory and special purpose audits signed by UAE-approved auditors, with findings written so a board can act on them rather than file them. If your licence renewal needs audited accounts, this is the desk that produces them.
- Standard
- IFRS
- Signed by
- UAE-approved auditors
- Typical turnaround
- 3–5 weeks
- Accepted by
- Banks, free zones, boards
Who this is for
If someone external is asking to see your numbers.
Most UAE audits are triggered by somebody else: a free zone authority at renewal, a bank before a facility, a partner before an investment. Each of them wants something slightly different from the file.
Ask what your licence needs- Free zone companies whose renewal requires audited accounts
- Mainland LLCs with an audit clause in the memorandum
- Businesses applying for a bank facility or credit line
- Groups consolidating subsidiaries across the GCC
- Companies preparing for a sale, merger or new investor
- Entities that need a first audit after years without one
How the audit runs
Four stages, no surprises in the last one
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Plan
Scoping and planning
We agree what is being audited, for whom, and to which standard, then send a single document request rather than a drip of emails.
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Test
Fieldwork and testing
Balances, controls and transactions tested against the evidence, with queries raised as we go so nothing lands on you at the end.
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Report
Draft and clearance
A draft opinion and management letter you see before anyone else does, with time to respond to every finding.
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Sign
Signed and filed
The signed report issued in the format your free zone, bank or registrar actually accepts, filed where it needs to go.
Scope of work
What the engagement covers
One fee, agreed before we start. If the scope changes because the records turn out to be in worse shape than expected, we tell you before the work is done, not after.
- Statutory audit under IFRS
- Special purpose and limited scope audits
- Agreed-upon procedures engagements
- Free zone and licence renewal reporting
- Stock counts and fixed asset verification
- Management letter with prioritised findings
- Prior-year restatement where opening balances are wrong
- Audit readiness review before the first audit
Inside this line
What sits under Audit & Assurance
8 services on this desk. Most engagements use two or three of them.
Review & Assurance Engagements
Limited assurance where a full audit is not needed
Ask about this
Before we arrive
A document request sent once, not in instalments
The most common complaint about auditors is the drip of requests. We scope the engagement first, then send one list, and we tell you which items are needed to start and which can follow.
Fieldwork that pauses for documents costs weeks, and on a fixed fee those weeks come out of the quality of the review rather than the invoice.
Typical turnaround 3 to 5 weeks from a complete file
The management letter
Findings a board can act on
An opinion satisfies the registrar. The management letter is the part that is worth reading: what we found, how much it matters, and what it would take to close it.
We rank findings rather than listing them, so the first three are the ones to fix this year. A letter that treats a missing signature and a control failure as equals gets filed unread.
Before fieldwork
The document request, in one list
We send this once rather than in instalments. Everything on it is needed; nothing on it is a formality.
- Trial balance and general ledger for the year
- Bank statements and confirmations
- Fixed asset register with additions and disposals
- Inventory count sheets at year end
- Major contracts, leases and loan agreements
- Prior-year financial statements and adjustments
Where it goes wrong
Three things we are asked to fix most
Not theory. These are the ones that arrive as a problem rather than a question.
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01
Starting with the records unready
Fieldwork that pauses for documents costs weeks, and the fee usually follows the time.
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02
Opening balances nobody checked
A first audit often finds the problem in the year before the one being audited.
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03
Treating the management letter as filing
The findings are the part a board can act on. Filed unread, the same ones return next year.
Questions we get weekly
Audit, answered plainly.
It depends on the authority, and the requirement has tightened in several zones. Some ask for audited accounts at every renewal, some only above a revenue threshold, and some not at all. Send us the licence and we will tell you which of those you are, at no charge.
Yes, but the bookkeeping has to be brought current first, and that is separate work with a separate fee. We will quote both so you can see the split rather than discovering it halfway through.
For most private UAE companies, yes, and it usually saves duplicated work because the same figures feed both. Where an independence issue arises, typically listed entities or regulated financial businesses, we will say so and keep the two engagements apart.
Three to five weeks for a straightforward set of books, from the day the document request is fully answered. The variable is almost never our side, it is how quickly the requested records arrive.
Related
Usually engaged alongside
Talk to the assurance desk
Send us your licence and last set of accounts.
We will tell you whether an audit is required, what it will cost, and what state your records need to be in before it starts. Thirty minutes, no charge.