Prepared files, fewer PBC loops, a calmer audit
Statutory audits move quickly once prepared-by-client (PBC) files are complete. Fine Books supports finance teams, reporting accountants and practices that need extra capacity with analytical procedures, substantive work and tests of details and controls on material financial-statement line items (FSLIs). We are not your auditor — we get the evidence room ready so the auditor can test, not reconstruct.
How we deliver this service for practices and companies
Perform the analytical procedure
Period-on-period and budget analytics on material FSLIs: revenue, margins, payroll, overheads and working capital. Unusual movements are investigated and evidenced before the auditor asks.
Perform the substantive procedure
Support for substantive testing: samples, confirmations, cut-off, subsequent cash and agreement to contracts or bank. We assemble the pack to the auditor’s request list where you instruct us to.
Tests of details and controls for material FSLI items
Walkthroughs, control descriptions and detailed testing on the balances that drive the opinion. Material revenue, inventory, debtors, creditors and related-party FSLIs get the attention they need.
Assurance support without crossing the independence line
Audit quality depends on evidence the auditor can rely on, prepared by the entity. Fine Books sits on the client side of that line: reconciliations, analytics, samples and control notes. Your auditor stays independent; your team stops living in the PBC spreadsheet for three months.
PBC trackers mapped to the audit request list
Working papers an external auditor can follow
Focus on material FSLIs, not noise
Clear split: we support; the auditor opines
How we work with your accountant
We sit on the production side of the line. Statutory filings, audit opinions and regulated advice stay with the professionals you appoint. We keep the ledger, packs and evidence organised so they can work faster.
No. Fine Books provides bookkeeping, reporting and audit-support services. The independent auditor (or reporting accountant) remains appointed by the company. Independence rules mean we do not issue the audit opinion.
Ideally before year-end close, so analytics and recs are done in the same rhythm as the accounts. We also run catch-up PBC for companies already in fieldwork and drowning in follow-ups.
A financial-statement line item — for example revenue, trade receivables or inventory. Auditors design procedures around what is material. We organise evidence the same way, so testing is efficient.
Clean, timely PBC almost always reduces auditor hours spent on basic reconstruction. Fee outcomes still depend on your auditor’s scope, risk and timetable — but a messy file is the expensive option.