2 Ways To Make An Audit As Painless As Possible

Audit preparation is one of the most useful business resources at your disposal, mostly because it can help you identify any business processes that may be being affected by fraudulent activity. An auditor's job is to look at all of your revenue and paperwork in order to ensure that the numbers that you are publishing and reporting to the rest of the company are completely accurate. Listed below are two tips that can help you make an audit as smoothly as possible.

Keep An Open Mind

One of the biggest problems that can make the audit difficult for both you and the auditor is that many people dislike annual audits because they feel like they are being accused of doing something wrong. While it is true that the auditor will be quite thorough in his or her investigations, he or she should not be treated as an enemy.

In fact, you should be taking advantage of an auditor's presence as he or she will help you to ferret out any unlawful activity in your department (if it exists) so that you can feel completely confident in the numbers that you are reporting. In addition, an auditor can also help you improve by recommending changes to reporting processes and the software that you use in order to make it harder for fraud to actually occur.

Consult With Auditor Prior To The Audit

Another way to make an audit go smoothly is to actually speak with the auditor ahead of time in order to determine what areas he or she is intending to audit on what days. This is very important as it can ensure that the audit goes quickly since you will be able to make sure that any individuals that are knowledgeable or responsible for those areas are actually in the office and available on those days. If those individuals are not available, you could end up forcing the auditor to come back another day or cause the auditor to speak to someone else that may not be able to represent the department as well as the person in charge of it. 

Consulting with auditor ahead of time is also a great idea because it means that you can dig out and have all of the information that the auditor needs as soon as he or she arrives. This is helpful because the auditor may wish to see data or records that you normally do not use often, so it can take some time to get that information together.

Dealing with a business audit does not have to be a frightening or stressful experience, especially once you realize that the auditors are actually on your side and want to confirm that your revenue and expense reports are accurate. Approaching the audit with an open mind and consulting with the auditor ahead of time can help the audit go more smoothly and quickly.