2020 has brought in some tough decisions for businesses. Practitioners and clients are struggling to arrange physical stock takes. Companies will feel this strongly in December year-ends, and everyone knows that December is one significant month to be remembered for year ends, apart from March. Auditors must have concrete evidence to support their findings at the end of each year. This might eliminate the qualification factor. Here are some actions that might help out the auditors:
- Make sure your clients have their records put together in a sequence throughout the relevant period, especially at the end of each year. This helps the auditor have all the evidence supporting the client’s cumulative knowledge.
- It’s always a good idea to onboard the client’s staff on a video call to make sure that you have all the video evidence supporting your audit. This must have a date/time stamp on the evidence. You decide whether you want to keep the video live or pre-recorded.
- You can change the accounting reference date to extend the financial year-end of the company. This helps the auditor arrange a stock takes within months, as the situation will potentially improve and that the staff and travel restrictions will ease up.
COVID has equally affected big and small businesses. Instead of highlighting more and more problems, it’s important to list down solutions of all these problems. The COVID season is not going to get over anytime soon, so it’s important to get along with it and make sure you’re keeping up with problems and coming up with solutions accordingly. Rest is a forgotten story. It’s all about recordkeeping and making sure your up to date with all of them. Having a yearly record always helps out, so make sure you have everything placed in order.
