James Todd & Co, a firm of Chartered Accountants offering comprehensive support for established businesses, has expanded its audit team, providing expert guidance for companies and organisations that require professional assistance complying with statutory audit requirements.
In the UK, statutory audits are a legal requirement for certain companies and organisations and provide an independent overview of the accuracy of the organisation's published financial statements, offering assurances and insights for stakeholders, investors and other parties.
The Scope and Diversity of Statutory Audit Procedures
Many companies and organisations assume that their only obligatory audit processes relate to those linked to companies of a particular size. Filing an audit report verified by an independent, appropriately qualified auditor is a necessity for registered companies or groups that exceed the thresholds by which a business is considered small:
- Turnover over £10.2 million per annum, gross assets of £5.1 million and above, or a workforce of 50 or more employees.
- Meeting any of the above criteria in the first year of trading or for two or more consecutive financial periods.
However, these requirements differ for charities and non-profit organisations, which must comply with statutory audit obligations where annual income is £1 million or above each year, net profits meet or exceed £250,000, or where gross assets are more than £3.26 million.
Other organisations may also be subject to a statutory audit due to the provisions and requirements in their governing documentation, or often because financiers, leadership or directors require a complete audit process to be conducted annually – irrespective of requirements enforced by the Companies Act.
Organisations that trade in specific sectors or industries, including businesses in financial services, banking, electronic money transactions or insurance must organise a statutory audit once per annum, alongside public companies and their subsidiaries.
Accessing Specialist Statutory Audit Services
Oliver Read, FCCA ACA, Director at James Todd & Co, clarifies that expanding their statutory audit services is timely and necessary. Read says, ‘While audit thresholds for limited companies were last updated in January 2016, a surprising number of organisations, including non-profit and charitable groups, need to be made aware of the requirements, or have been subject to ineffective audit processes.
Well-publicised cases in 2023 linked to the audits of Carillion and Patisserie Valerie resulted in multi-million pound legal challenges, primarily due to negligence or insufficient audit testing that led to shareholders and investors making decisions based on incorrect information.
As an independent specialist, we routinely speak with clients who are unclear about how, when or where to conduct an in-depth audit or how to ensure that audit outcomes and reports are well communicated and support the organisation's scalability potential.
Many entities view audits as a necessary task that is undertaken reluctantly. Still, we are committed to educating local, national and international business clients about the value, importance and key need for statutory, internal and regulatory audits. These collaborative processes can highlight areas for improvement and opportunities to create market-leading benchmarks to demonstrate best practices in the relevant trading space.
It is also imperative that all companies of any size or trading experience pay close attention to scenarios where statutory audit requirements may change, or where the areas of the entity subject to testing and analysis must be varied, to ensure all stakeholders have crystal clear clarity about the real-world performance of the organisation.’
The Background of the James Todd & Co Statutory Audit Team
James Todd & Co is well placed to deliver statutory audit services, with a wealth of experience collated over the last 30 years, bringing together knowledge, accreditations, skills and specialisms – offering streamlined, professional audit services across the scope of client requirements:
- Operating on a local, national and international scale, the firm is able to provide in-person and virtual services, with the capacity to conduct on-premises audits and consult with clients in their preferred location.
- Dealing with a wide variety of different market sectors including specialist areas such as charities and the not-for-profit sector.
- With an ever-expanding team of 40+ staff including six directors.
The practice provides complete accounting audit services, including statutory, internal and regulatory audits, ensuring companies and organisations have certainty over their operational effectiveness and governance, take a proactive approach to risk management, and fully comply with all legal and regulatory obligations.
Read more about James Todd & Co - James Todd & Co Chartered Accountants Awarded Xero Platinum Partner Status
About James Todd & Co
James Todd & Co. have been providing accounting services for more than 30 years across Chichester, Fareham, and Lavant for Sussex and Hampshire businesses. Their clients trust them to provide bookkeeping, financial auditing and compliance, management accounting and financial advisory services.
Media Contact:
Angie Daniels
James Todd & Co
01243 776938
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Source Company: https://www.jamestoddandco.co.uk/
