Assurance that satisfies the regulator and informs the board.
An audit should do two things: close the compliance requirement, and tell you something you didn't already know about your own business. We deliver both, on a timetable you can plan around.
Overview
Audited financial statements are required across much of the UAE: by free-zone authorities at licence renewal, by banks supporting facilities, by investors in diligence, and by the Corporate Tax regime for entities relying on the free-zone 0% position.
Audits go wrong for predictable reasons: records that aren't ready, reconciliations that don't reconcile, and a scramble that starts weeks after it should have. We plan the engagement backwards from your deadline and tell you early what we'll need.
Beyond the statutory requirement, our internal audit and controls work is where clients usually find the value: the process gaps, the revenue leakage, the approval that nobody was actually giving.
What's included
Every engagement is scoped to what you actually need. This is the full range we cover:
Who this is for
Free-zone entities at licence renewal, companies with bank facilities or investors, groups requiring consolidation, and boards wanting independent assurance over controls.
A Qualifying Free Zone Person is required to maintain audited financial statements. If the audit isn't done, the qualifying position it supports is at risk. That makes the audit a tax matter, not just a licensing one.
How the engagement runs
- Planning. We agree scope, materiality and timetable, and issue a requirements list early enough for you to act on it.
- Fieldwork. Testing performed with minimal disruption, with findings raised as they arise rather than saved for the end.
- Reporting. A clean audit report plus a management letter that names the control gaps and what to do about them.
- Follow-through. We revisit prior-year recommendations so the same findings don't reappear next cycle.
Engagement types
| Engagement | Typically required by |
|---|---|
| Statutory audit | Free-zone authorities, mainland licensing, shareholders |
| Internal audit | Boards, audit committees, group management |
| Agreed-upon procedures | Banks, investors, specific stakeholders |
| Due diligence review | Acquirers, investors, lenders |
| Controls review | Management, risk committees |
Audit & Assurance, answered.
The questions we're asked most often on this service.
For most UAE companies, yes. Mainland companies are generally required to have their accounts audited, and many free zones require audited financial statements before they will renew a licence. If you are claiming the 0% rate as a Qualifying Free Zone Person, audited statements are one of the conditions of qualifying. Even where no rule compels it, banks reviewing facilities and buyers running diligence will ask. We will confirm your specific obligation well before your year end.
Fieldwork is typically two to four weeks for a business of ordinary complexity, with the signed opinion following shortly after. What actually decides the timeline is the state of the records when we start. Books that are current and reconciled move quickly. Books that need rebuilding first do not. We agree the timetable in advance and work to it, so you can plan your licence renewal and filing dates around a date rather than a hope.
No, and any firm that tells you otherwise is worth a second look. Independence rules mean the same team cannot audit financial statements it prepared, because the auditor would be reviewing its own work. Where a client wants both services from us, we separate them properly and set out the boundary in writing before you engage us. If that separation is not workable for your situation, we will say so and help you appoint an independent auditor instead.
A written report issued alongside the audit opinion setting out the weaknesses we found in your controls, processes and records, and what to do about each one. The opinion tells your regulator and your bank that the numbers are sound. The management letter tells you where the business is exposed: a reconciliation nobody performs, an approval nobody enforces, a cut-off that keeps slipping. For most owners it is the more useful of the two documents, and it is the part of an audit that should tell you something you did not already know.
Find out where you stand.
It takes less than 30 minutes.
A call to review your obligations across tax, VAT, audit and reporting. We flag anything at risk and give you a clear next step. If you don't need us, we'll tell you that too.