Hi - would appreciate it if any readers could give an indication as to the fees they usually look to charge for completing a solicitors annual SRA report - the client in question is a sole practitioner with two general client accounts - one pounds sterling and one US dollars. He deals with shipping claims and handles circa fifteen cases a year. Relatively large amounts involved and circa 150 transactions a year going through both client accounts. All manual records. Any guidance would be appreciated. Many thanks.
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how long is a piece of string.
All depends on the level of testing undertaken and the quality of the systems used.
Some testing is required irrespective of size / number of clients whilst other testing is activity geared.
Also remember that SRA rules are very detailed and the number of areas where breaches can occur mean that you need to be undertake comprehensive testing.
Finally, remember this is a high value service to the solicitor - without a report the solicitor can't trade!
Pm me to discuss further.
not enough
I'm a general practitioner but like a lot of others I'm not a registered auditor. This means that there a lot less potential competitors for you and those that are left are medium sized firms. From which it follows that you probably have room to charge more.
Agreed
As zeo says.....it can be a premium service and your competition is only from other qualified auditors so it's a good area to work in, once you've learnt the rules and have become proficient. With potentially only 15 cases then it could be relatively quick even with 100% case testing! Base your fees on your daily rate equivalent and you shouldn't go too far wrong. Perhaps 2 days at the clients office testing and checking reconciliations etc, then another 2 days putting your report, checklist and file together plus some planning time to include bank letters and paid cheque testing, so 4 days total? Depends on the clients records and how quickly you can understand the procedures and rules, you'll probably have to write some of your time off in year 1 as you will be slow and unfamiliar with things. If you're doing the office accounts too then you'll already be familiar with some of their systems and know what to expect.
Edit: crossed with Red Leader
You are looking for an amount, so
We are registered auditors, but don't actually carry out any SAR work. We were asked to quote for SAR by a sole practitioner solicitor in general practice and with manual records. This was last year (2012).
The records were not tidy and the current accountant charged £11,000 for the accounts and SAR (the whole year's work). We were thinking of contracting out the SAR work, and a firm specialising in auditing quoted us £4,000 to do it. We quoted £3,000 for everything else. Anyway a local medium sized firm quoted less than this and got the work.
This is in the northern part of the UK.
3-4 days work
We usually budget around 22.5 to 28 hours for the preparer (senior staff cahrge out rate) plus 2-3 hours review. In the firm I work at in the North East this is around £1,500 - £2,000.