Getting ready for your financial year-end requires time, hard work, and undivided attention. It is time to prepare all your financial records for tax filing and if your company is externally audited, your auditors will often require that you provide them with an audit file. Often, the financial year-end is a doubly busy time of year, as it may be the end of the calendar year for many businesses. Adequate planning can help you ensure that your year-end tasks are timeously completed, avoiding last-minute stresses or, worse still, not being prepared for the external audit.

If found that you are running out of time to get your year-end administration in order, an independent audit firm could be appointed to compile your audit file, thereby ensuring that your business meets the external audit deadlines.

MMS Group specialises in auditing, financial management as well as several related services, for small to medium sized businesses in South Africa.  It is our experience as external auditors that clients often find it difficult to adequately prepare their audit files for our external engagements, resulting in audit fee overruns and additional costs.  We frequently encounter problems in audit preparation for:

• Recognition and measurement principles for financial instruments, in particular the technical interpretations thereof
• Non-productive interest considerations
• Consideration of the useful lives or realizable values of tangible fixed assets
• Correct calculation and recording of depreciation on fixed assets
• Fixed asset control account to general ledger reconciliations
• Companies Act requirements with regards to distributions (whether in the form of debit loan granted to a group entity or dividend to shareholders) not adhered to (including filing correct resolutions to give effect thereto).
• Impact analyses of IFRS 9 and IFRS 15
• Valuation of trade receivables
• Supporting documentation for foreign suppliers (including insufficient evidence for goods-in-transit, where applicable)
• Income and deferred tax computations
• Accounting for foreign exchange gains/losses and determination of year end revaluations
• Sales to VAT reconciliations
• Input VAT reconciliations
• Leave pay provision computations
• Bonus provision computations
• Calculation and recording of interest on loan accounts