Accounts, Audit & Assurance
Accounts
Year end accounts are important. Not just because they have to be filed by all limited companies and LLPs but because they make a difference. Accounts are available for public inspection. Suppliers and customers will look at them. They therefore need to be accurate and well presented. Whether your preference is to disclose the minimum information allowed, which is often the preference for SMEs not wishing to give competitors knowledge of the business, or you wish to use the accounts to showcase the business, with full disclosure and a comprehensive directors report, we will advise and deliver accordingly.
Audit & Assurance
When looking at a balance sheet, an audit can be a valuable asset. You won’t see it disclosed between debtors and stock, but it’s often just as important to a user of the accounts. A Mercer & Hole audit is a stamp of quality attesting to the accuracy and validity of the information contained within a set of accounts.
But an audit is more than that. The process itself, when properly planned and executed, will address business risks and weaknesses and suggest improvements which will be beneficial to the organisation and help protect shareholder’s interests.
The key to this is good communication between the auditor and the client. This enables us to design an efficient programme of work, focus on risk areas and highlight the crucial issues. In turn this will reduce the cost of the work and produce a ‘no surprises’ result, with our clients kept fully up to date with our findings as the work progresses.
Specialist Audits
We have specialist teams that deal with:
- Pension Schemes
- Charities
- FSA Regulated Organisations
- Professional Practices
- Assurance Reports
Assurance Reports
Increasingly common, these can be designed to suit a specific requirement. They can be on the accounts as a whole, where an audit is not a requirement, or on a particular aspect of the business (stock, financial controls etc). They can be addressed to the company, the shareholders or a specific interested party.
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)
As part of our commitment to provide international services to UK companies and foreign organisations, Mercer & Hole has registered under the US’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The PCAOB is a US private sector, non profit-organisation, created by Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002, to oversee the auditors of public companies in the US.
As a result of this registration Mercer & Hole can now act not only for subsidiaries of private US companies but also for subsidiaries of listed US companies, even when the UK company is a ‘substantial’ part of the group.
For information regarding our work under the PCAOB, please contact Gary Farnes or Andy Crook.
For further information on our services please contact one of our team or look at our SME Plus Blog for articles and discussion.
