| Tue, 04/03/2012 - 6:30pm | |
| Tamara Potter | Would anyone care to share information about the length of time of an audit for a sub-specialty contractor? We prepare the audit confirmation letters and all financial documents up to but not including the audited financial statements. Our audit is running about 150 hours per year and takes about 2 1/2 months. |
| Mon, 04/09/2012 - 7:28pm | #1 |
| Tamara Potter | From the responses it sounds like I need to hold my CPA accountable to a quicker timeline for the audit. Next year he can do a visit in November and return in January to be complete by February. Thanks for all the comments. |
| Mon, 04/09/2012 - 4:06pm | #2 |
| Steven Shipp | Tamara, our audit, corporate tax returns, individual returns are all completed by 3/15, calendar year end, total hours 455. |
| Mon, 04/09/2012 - 9:05am | #3 |
| Jack Biven | We establish with our auditors every year a schedule for completion of all the necessary steps to complete the audit. We find this establishes an acceptable time line and keeps us both accountable. |
| Fri, 04/06/2012 - 8:08am | #4 |
| John Madsen | Tamara - I am a CPA performing audits and reviews. The length of time depends on a number of factors. 1) if there are significant issues they have to address, 2) whether the books are in good condition (minimal adjustments) or not, 3) the auditor having conflicting priorities (other engagements). In the future I recommend getting agreement with them up front that it needs to be completed by a certain date. With the current year, you need to call and ask it be completed asap. If they do not, or cannot respond, consider whether you want to have someone else perform the engagement next year. Please call me if you would like further insight. John Madsen 713-661-3456 |
| Fri, 04/06/2012 - 7:44am | #5 |
| Gerard Sullivan | Tamara, I am a CPA in public practice with a large contractor client base. We perform a lot of audits, as well as reviews. 150 hours is not unusual, depending on the circumstances. Modern day auditing comes with significantly more documentation requirements, testing, etc. than it used to. But even given the issues on the auditor's end, it should never take 2 1/2 months to produce a product. We have performed some large audits and delivered financials early in February. It's just a matter of cooperation between our firm and the client, planning, and even some preliminary year end audit testing when you can. |
| Thu, 04/05/2012 - 8:11am | #6 |
| Kathleen Tomaska | We're a specialty contractor and our audit for a calendar year end is completed by February 15th. We have multiple legal entities and profit centers that are consolidated. We prepare all schedules through the annual report including footnotes. The auditors are in our office one week for prelim in the fall and two weeks in late January. |
| Wed, 04/04/2012 - 5:44pm | #7 |
| Ron Heemstra | I think that could vary a lot based on the complexity of your company. Ours takes over 300 hours. We have an 8/31 year-end and don't get the final report until late November/early December. We have several operating companies (electrical construction, controls, instrumentation and engineering) to consolidate and work in nearly 40 states. We have automated many of the schedules we prepare and the auditors are only inhouse a day or two (everything else is handled electronically). I might suggest going out for bids periodically just to check for reasonableness on price and hours. |
| Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:21am | #8 |
| Gregory Hauswald | Tamara, I would suggest to you based upon the information you provided that your gut feeling that maybe it is taking to long to complete the audit is accurate. We received our audited statements by the end of January and our tax returns were completed by the end of Feb for 12/31 year end. There may be extenuating circumstances to your situation, but it still seems to be a lengthy time period. Feel free to contact me at 317-241-9281 if you want to discuss in more detail. |