Audit and assurance services. Books that stand up to scrutiny.

Audit and assurance services are the work of testing and evidencing financial information so that a third party can rely on it. Accountaire performs internal audit, audit preparation, review and compilation engagements, SOC 1 and SOC 2 readiness, and due-diligence support. The statutory audit opinion itself is signed by a separately licensed audit firm.

Audit and assurance work falls into two camps. Statutory audit, required for larger SMEs and regulated entities, is performed by an independent licensed audit firm. Internal audit, audit preparation and assurance reviews can be performed by us, and we work alongside your external auditor when one is required.

Our assurance scope covers internal audit (reviewing your own controls and processes), audit preparation (getting your books, schedules and workpapers ready for a clean external audit), review and compilation engagements (a lighter-touch sign-off for bank loans or shareholder reporting), and SOC readiness (preparing your service-organisation controls for SOC 1 or SOC 2 examination).

For VC-backed companies and growth-stage businesses, we prepare for the operational scrutiny that comes with fundraising and acquisition: clean workpapers, defensible accounting policies, complete supporting documentation. By the time a quality-of-earnings team or due-diligence accountant walks in, there's nothing to find that surprises you.

Where statutory audit is required (UK turnover above £15m or a balance sheet total above £7.5m for periods beginning on or after 6 April 2025, US public companies, regulated entities) we partner with a network of licensed audit firms and prepare you to make their work efficient, which keeps your audit fees down.

Whether a UK company needs an audit at all is decided by size criteria in the Companies Act 2006, and the criteria have been uplifted more than once, so check the current test on the Companies House audit exemption guidance before assuming you are exempt. Exemption is also lost regardless of size if shareholders holding 10 percent or more demand an audit, if the company is part of a group that fails the test, or if it is regulated. A subsidiary can be exempt where the parent guarantees its liabilities, which is a filing, not a decision made quietly in a board meeting.

Audit preparation is measurable work with a measurable payoff, because audit firms bill fieldwork hours. The lead schedules that make the difference are the ones an auditor would otherwise build from scratch:

• Fixed asset register agreed to the general ledger, with additions traced to invoices.
• Aged receivables with a bad debt provision that has a stated basis rather than a round number.
• Stock valuation on a documented cost basis, written down to net realisable value where relevant.
• Revenue cut-off testing across the year end, both directions.
• Accruals and provisions with the supporting calculation attached, not just the number.
• Related party transactions listed, including director loan movements.
• A written accounting policy note for anything judgemental, agreed before the auditor arrives rather than argued during fieldwork.

SOC readiness follows a different track. SOC 1 covers controls relevant to a client's financial reporting, SOC 2 covers the trust services criteria, and both are examinations reported on by a CPA firm under the AICPA SOC framework. A Type I report is a point in time, a Type II covers an observation window, usually three to twelve months, which is why the readiness work has to finish before the window opens rather than before the report is wanted. Most of the businesses that ask us for this are SaaS companies being pushed by an enterprise buyer.

The other common trigger is a transaction. For VC-backed startups heading into a raise or a sale, buyer-side diligence tests the same things every time: revenue recognition policy, the quality of the working capital baseline, and whether the statutory records match what the model says. Clean statutory registers and board minutes matter here as much as the ledger. Underneath all of it sits a disciplined close, which is why this work pairs with monthly management accounts and reconciled cloud bookkeeping. Engagement fees are quoted per scope; ongoing retainers are on the fixed-fee pricing page. Assurance is one entry in our full range of accounting services, which sets out how the rest of the work fits around it.