AUDIT AND ASSURANCE SERVICES
Providing assurance on your financial statements is more than a routine historical compliance activity. At Markhams, we will take time to understand your organisation, help you stay abreast of the changing legislative and reporting environment, and provide insight into potential improvements in your internal controls.
At Markhams we will:
• Work closely with you to determine the services required
• Use a risk-assessment process to focus our approach
• Communicate with you through all phases of the assignment
Our audit and assurance team has access to the training and technology required to allow us to deliver efficient and effective financial reporting assurance work. Our flat team structure, organisational size and the proactive involvement of senior team members, enables us to deliver a cost-efficient and professional service.
Specialist assurance services offered by our team includes:
• Audit of financial statements
At Markhams, we are experienced in delivering financial statement audits to New Zealand organisations across a range of industries and sectors.
Our experience includes:
- Local owner-managed businesses looking to provide the readers of financial statements (shareholders, bankers) with assurance
- Foreign owned businesses requiring an audit under the Companies Act
- Issuers
- Not for profit entities
Audits needn’t always be a ”tick the box” compliance exercise. Not if it's tailored so it works for you. We believe that an audit should seek to go beyond the numbers so as to uncover opportunities for improvement in controls and obtain a higher quality of information to assist with more effective day-to-day decisions.
Many companies in New Zealand are required to have an audit under statute. If you are not sure if you require an audit, click here.
Many joint venture companies also choose to have an audit to provide shareholders with comfort that the financial statements are accurate, and to ensure that the disclosures made in those financial statements are complete.
In addition, many not for profit entities require an audit under their trust deed or funding arrangements. For more information on our audit services for the not for profit sector, click here.
• Review engagements
Review engagements provide a lower level of assurance than an audit. A review engagement is a standardised level of assurance that can prove useful in obtaining funding, bank finance, or simply providing shareholders with comfort. As the level of work performed is substantially less than an audit, a review can be a cost effective alternative for those companies or not for profit groups that are not legally required to have an audit.
• Due diligence services
Obtaining comfort around the financial performance of a potential business acquisition can be an extensive task for even the most experienced business people. Many purchasers and financiers seek external assistance in this matter to ensure that all facets of the acquisition are considered prior to making an unconditional offer. For more information on these services, click here.
• Financial reporting consulting
The move to reporting under NZ IFRS has left many companies reporting a substantially increased quantity of information. If you have publicly available financial statements, we recommend that the contents of these be reviewed to ensure that the quality of disclosure and range of content provided is appropriate for your circumstances and is fully compliant with the ever-changing requirements of NZ IFRS.
• Special purpose engagements
We are often engaged to provide assurance on internal controls or financial information that is tailor-made to a client’s circumstances.
The range of services we are able to provide is broad and includes:
- Internal control reviews
- Completion and post completion account reviews
- Litigation and dispute resolution support
- Specific item audits – for example stock or debtors
- Real Estate Trust Account Audits
