Audit and Assurance

Whether a company is private or public, it is essential that all of its stakeholders have confidence in its financial report. Audited financial statements communicate meaningful information for quality decision making. Due to more stringent requirements instituted by the auditing profession in recent years, many long-standing audit procedures and methods have changed. Risk-based auditing gives us a more complete picture of your organisation, including how you operate, the risks you face, and how you are addressing those risks. The result is an in-depth understanding of your entire operation and greater assurance of the reliability of your financial statements.

OKL’s professionals approach their audit as more than a routine compliance activity. At OKL, they tailor their services to your needs and endeavour to provide you with constructive observations arising from our audit process.

If full auditing services are not required, we can provide review services on historical financial statements. A review consists of discussions with your management team and analytical procedures applied to the financial statements to determine if there are any material changes that need to be made for them to be in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles. It is less extensive than an audit and the resulting report provides limited assurance as to the appropriateness of the financial statements.

Agreed upon procedures focus on what you specifically want to look at. It is an engagement between your company and an accountant to issue a report of findings on specific procedures. This level of service does not have to encompass the entire financial statements. It also works well for testing compliance requirements with regulations, contracts, or internal policies and procedures. Unique to agreed-upon procedures is that you have to draw your own conclusions on the results of the tests to measure effectiveness.

Examples of agreed-upon-procedures engagements include:

a) internal rate of return calculations;
b) review of loan covenants;
c) cost/expense verification for third parties;
d) assurances on trade debtors and inventories that serve as collateral for a loan.

The business environment in the recent years has experienced an unprecedented series of issues, surprises, and negative events that have increased the focus on the adequacy of organisations’ governance, risk, and control activities.

Accelerating change has characterised the business landscape for many years and can be expected to continue. New competitors, technologies, and financial instruments; changing cost structures and regulations; increasingly integrated global economies; and other developments are creating new risks and opportunities for organizations to consider.

As these developments evolve, they will open new doors for internal audit to regain its historic influence as an independent adviser to management-in supporting top management’s goals, monitoring enterprise risk, and enhancing regulatory compliance efforts. The responsibilities of internal audit are expanding and, consequently, the required skill sets are changing and we have experienced professionals to assist you in creating and preserving value.

We can provide you with full capacity internal audit services or simply help out where needed for as long as necessary. We serve clients by providing full outsourcing, co-sourcing, and ad hoc staffing needs.

An effective system of internal control is vital to an organisation’s achievement of its business objectives and reduction of suprises along the way. The high-profile corporate scandals and failures we have witnessed in recent years are encouraging private companies to place a renewed emphasis on their internal controls. Addressing risk is a critical element in surviving today’s challenging economic environment.

Our internal control reviews provide management with reasonable assurance that your company’s policies and procedures are adequate and are being enforced in the areas of operations, financial reporting, and compliance with laws and regulations.

Our internal control services include:

Documenting your current processes including preparation of flowcharts to visually see the flow of information.
Development of policy manuals to formalize responsibilities.
Identify significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in internal control.
Recommendations on changes to internal control including follow-up flowcharts and manuals.