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Small firms not getting value from their audit

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16th Mar 2007
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Over half of the UK's small firms are not getting the best value from their audits, research from KPMG has found.

In a survey of 200 SMEs, 56% of respondents said that they viewed their audit as a largely mechanical process that didn’t change from one year to the next.

However, 40% said that the process highlighted recommendations and learning opportunities about the business as a whole.

Less than half of companies admitted to meeting with their auditor outside of their audit season, though almost two thirds claimed to recognise that the strength of the relationship they had with their auditor was directly related to the value they can derive from the process.

"A strong and open relationship between a company and its auditor is vital if the audit is to produce the sort of far-reaching benefits it is capable of producing," said Richard Bennison, head of audit at KPMG.

He said the research suggested that small and medium sized companies fell into two roughly equal camps, those that are getting real value, and those that are not.

"Companies need to ask themselves which half they are in, and whether they need to take action accordingly," he added.

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