Sounds ODD? If you are paying your CPA firm to Audit or Review annual financial statements, you probably have a fiscal year that ends at a calendar quarter or a calendar year end. If this is the case, you are competing with all of your accountant’s clients for his/ her time and attention. Further, the audit verifications that go to your bank, key accounts, and suppliers all come to them in stacks, causing delays, as your auditor cannot move forward without them. Waiting for the final report is frustrating and you surely grow tired of your banker asking “when will the audit be completed?”
There is a solution that can lower your audit cost and allow it to be completed much faster than ever before. More and more smart business people are changing their fiscal year end to an odd period such as February 28th, August 31st or October 31st. Many clients have reported they were able to negotiate as much as a 35% reduction in the cost of an audit. Similar to how a construction contractor will virtually break even during the slow months to keep their workers employed, CPA’s have extreme busy tax and audit seasons and are often overstaffed during these odd periods. Naturally, your bank, key creditors, and customers are all less busy during these times as well, so they can turn around the requested audit verifications much more quickly.
This is a win-win for everyone. You will have a one-time period that is less than 12 months, but you will quickly overcome that, and enjoy less expensive costs and a faster pace for many years to come.