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Audit support and due diligence for UAE businesses.
We prepare your company for audit, assemble the file, and deal with the auditor's questions so your team is not pulled off its work for three weeks. Separately, we carry out financial due diligence when you are buying, selling or investing in a business.
What we do and what we do not do
A statutory audit opinion in the UAE must be signed by an audit firm registered with the Ministry of Economy. Finaxil does not sign statutory audit opinions. What we do is prepare your company for that audit, assemble and reconcile the file, handle the auditor's queries, and carry out independent reviews and transaction due diligence, which are separate engagements from a statutory audit. Where you need a registered auditor, we will tell you and work alongside them.
What is included
Two distinct services.
Audit support is an ongoing or annual engagement. Due diligence is project work tied to a transaction. They use similar skills and are often needed by the same clients at different times.
Audit preparation
Schedules, reconciliations and supporting documentation assembled and agreed to the ledger before the auditor arrives.
Auditor liaison
We take the auditor's question list and answer it directly, referring to you only where a commercial decision is needed.
Internal review
An independent look at your controls, reconciliations and processes, carried out before an external party finds the same issues.
Financial due diligence
Quality of earnings, working capital analysis and verification of the numbers behind a transaction you are considering.
Vendor due diligence
The same analysis prepared from the seller's side, so problems are found and addressed before a buyer raises them.
Post-transaction review
Verification of completion accounts and earn-out calculations where the deal terms depend on them.
Audit readiness
Most audit pain is created months before the auditor arrives.
An audit that runs badly is almost never caused by the auditor. It is caused by records that were not maintained in a way anybody could verify later. The fix is in how the books are kept through the year, not in how hard everyone works in the final fortnight.
Bank, intercompany and control account reconciliations that were deferred through the year all become due at once, usually while the auditor is waiting.
Transactions posted without an invoice, a contract or an approval behind them. Every one becomes a query, and enough of them become a qualification.
Where the prior year was not audited, or was audited by someone whose file cannot be obtained, the opening position has to be reconstructed.
Balances and transactions with connected entities need identification and disclosure. They are frequently recorded as ordinary trading items and found later.
Income recognised in the wrong period is one of the most common adjustments. It matters more now, because the Corporate Tax computation starts from accounting profit.
Due diligence
The numbers in an information memorandum are the seller's numbers.
Financial due diligence exists to establish whether the earnings you are buying are real, repeatable and transferable. It is a different exercise from an audit, with a different purpose and usually a tighter timetable.
Which part of reported profit is sustainable and which comes from one-off items, related party pricing, owner remuneration below market, or accounting choices that will not survive a change of control.
What level of working capital the business actually needs to operate at its current size. This usually becomes a negotiated term of the deal.
Borrowings are obvious. Unfunded gratuity liabilities, deferred consideration, overdue payables and unrecorded commitments often are not.
How much of the revenue depends on relationships that may not survive the transaction, and whether any contracts contain change of control provisions.
Unfiled returns, incorrect VAT treatment, Corporate Tax registration gaps and transfer pricing positions that would not withstand review. These become the buyer's problem after completion.
How the engagement runs
Different paths for the two services.
Scope agreed
For audit support, the year end and auditor are confirmed. For due diligence, the target, the timetable and the areas of focus are agreed.
Information request
A single structured list of what we need, rather than repeated ad hoc requests that disrupt your team.
Fieldwork
Reconciliations prepared and agreed, or in a transaction, the target's numbers tested against source records.
Findings raised early
Anything material is raised as we find it. Nobody benefits from discovering a problem for the first time in a final report.
Report or file delivered
A clean audit file handed to the auditor, or a due diligence report setting out findings and their implications for price and terms.
Follow through
Auditor queries answered to conclusion, or in a transaction, support through negotiation of the points our work has raised.
Who this suits
Where this service fits.
Companies facing their first audit
Free zone licences increasingly require audited statements for renewal, and many companies reach that requirement without records prepared for it.
Businesses with repeat audit findings
Where the same issues recur each year, the cause is usually a process problem that the annual audit is not designed to fix.
Buyers and investors
Anyone acquiring a stake in a UAE business who needs the reported numbers independently tested before committing.
Related services
What clients usually combine this with.
Enquiry
Get a quote
Tell us what you need and we will come back with the scope and a fixed fee. No obligation.
- A reply within one business day
- A named person, not a call centre
- Your details are used only to answer this enquiry
Prefer to talk now? WhatsApp or call +971 56 283 1312
Talk to us before the auditor arrives.
The earlier audit preparation starts, the less it costs and the fewer surprises it produces. If you are considering a transaction, the same applies.
Important
Finaxil Consultancy LLC provides audit preparation, advisory and due diligence services. Statutory audit opinions in the UAE are issued by audit firms registered with the Ministry of Economy, and Finaxil does not issue them. This page is general information and not advice on your circumstances.
Common questions
Questions we are asked most often.
Is an audit mandatory for companies in the UAE?
It depends on your licence and jurisdiction. Mainland companies are generally required to prepare audited financial statements, and a growing number of free zones require them as a condition of licence renewal.
Separately, audited statements are often needed in practice for bank facilities, for investors, and to support a Corporate Tax return even where no rule compels an audit directly.
Does Finaxil issue audit reports?
No. A statutory audit opinion in the UAE must be signed by an audit firm registered with the Ministry of Economy, and we are not acting in that capacity.
We prepare your company for audit, assemble the file, and handle the auditor's queries. We also carry out internal reviews and transaction due diligence, which are separate types of engagement from a statutory audit.
How long before the year end should audit preparation start?
For a company with well-maintained books, two to four weeks before fieldwork is usually sufficient. Where reconciliations have not been kept current through the year, it takes considerably longer.
If the previous year was difficult, the right time to start is at the beginning of the current year rather than at its end, because most of the fix is in how the books are kept month to month.
What is the difference between an audit and due diligence?
An audit gives an opinion on whether financial statements present fairly, in accordance with a reporting framework, for a period that has ended. It is backward looking and its scope is set by auditing standards.
Due diligence asks whether the earnings are real, repeatable and transferable to a new owner. Its scope is set by the buyer, it is forward looking in intent, and it covers matters an audit would not, such as customer concentration and change of control risk.
How long does financial due diligence take?
Typically three to six weeks, though it depends heavily on the quality of the target's records and how responsive they are to information requests.
Where the target has unaudited accounts or incomplete records, the timetable extends. That in itself is a finding worth weighing before committing to a deal timetable.