Auditor Fees

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luain

Registered User
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I run a small limited manufacturing business with a turnover of €1million. I keep a tidy set of accounts, do my own payroll ( 5 people), avoid ringing for financial advice etc all to avoid any excuse to be charged anymore by my auditor than is necessary, for this I am charged €3,000 pa is this good value?
 
Just to clarify, while you mention auditor, are the accounts audited or are you availing of audit-exemption? If you are having audited accounts prepared then that represents good value.
 
Even without an audit this would represent good value. With a company of that size the level of care and diligence needed would be high. Even if I was getting a TB I would charge this much for accounts preparation, CT1 and B1. Might throw in the form 11 for the owner director if it was not too complicated. Without a TB the price could be anything depending on how good the source books were.
 
Simply Joe, it seems I'm simpler! What is TB? Also to clarify with Graham07 they are audited accounts but what's audit-exemption?
 
luain said:
Simply Joe, it seems I'm simpler! What is TB? Also to clarify with Graham07 they are audited accounts but what's audit-exemption?
Click to expand...

Sorry. A TB is a Trial Balance. Which basically means your bookkeeping records are proper double entry records. From the TB the accounts can be easier to prepare. Audit Exemption is where the company has availed of the exemption from the necessity of appointing an auditor to audit the accounts (effectively check that the accounts are properly prepared from the books and that the listed assets, liabilities and profits are 'correct'). Audit exemption is granted to companies that satisfy the requirements - turnover, balance sheet totals and number of employees. See the CRO site for these and other conditions.
 
have similar sized company t/o wise and do all my own filing (p30s/VAT/P60s). run income/expenses through sage and get charged 2,600 for annual audit, corp tax and some director paperwork/tax work included.
 
Thanks all for the info, I'll call off the dogs. It's just hard to see the value of 3k when you're trying to shave costs.
 
Hi Luin

What I would suggest if you want to reduce your accountants fees is to give him a friendly call and say that the fees are too high for you. What can YOU do to help him REDUCE THE TIME he spends every year on the audit/accounts.

You might find that all you need to do is spend a little bit of extra time each year putting the books and records into a format that he wants and you will see the fee reduced. Lots of times client says "well I gave you everything done up on a spread sheet etc etc etc" but because it is not in a way that the accountant needs it to be, he then has to do work to convert it to be so. This is not the accountants fault or the clients fault. it is just the need for effective communication between both of you.

Contrary to what has been posted in other threads, no accountant ever wants to charge a client a fee that he wont be willing or able to pay. if you ring him and have the discussion you might find he is more then happy to reduce the fee if you can reduce the time he spends.

Hope this helps and good luck

DB
 
I also think the fee charged is fair. No one can give a 100% correct answer unless they saw the state of your records and whats to be done. Every job is different.
 
Thanks Dbran for your input, pure common sense! Just to say to Papervalue your point is fair but what frustrates me is that my auditor puts up his fees year on year by 4-5% for the last 12 years ( not this year though) and I get no value for this. That's what prompted me to start this thread.
 
Hi Lulin

The 5% increase every year would not be unreasonable and is to be expected as staff do tend to want favourable pay reviews every year. (Not now though )

Hope this helps

DB
 

Inflation year on year over the last 12 years would have really meant that he was just maintaining his fees so no real increase there. Inflation is currently very low, hence no change this year. I think he is being very reasonable.

If you want better value, then as was suggested see what you can do to help achieve any reduction. What about audit exemption, do you qualify for that, it would certainly reduce risk and work on the auditor side and should reduce fees. ( see www.cro.ie for audit exemption rules )
 
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