How much does a corporate audit cost?
Answers:
Normally a corporate audit is based on hourly billing rates for the staff that is assigned to the audit. The rate for the audit partner is higher than the rate for a staff member with little experience. It may be possible to arrange a flat fee, but it is unlikely that the fee is based on a percentage of something.
You should also realize that a normal audit is not designed to uncover fraud or embezzlement. It is designed to examine the financial reports of the corporation and express an opinion on them. If the company suspects fraud, it should inform the auditor that the purpose of the audit is to uncover any wrongdoing that may be taking place. Then the auditor will design the audit to look for defalcations, fraud, embezzlement, and illegal or improper entries int he accounting records.
How much the audit will cost depends on the size of the corporation, which in turn determines the amount of time spent on the audit. For a very small company, it may amount to several thousand dollars, for a large company, the cost may be well over $1 million. A small company audit may take a lot of time if the books are a mess. A larger company audit may take less time because the books are well kept.
Serge M's answer is pretty comprehensive. The only other point that I would add is that the cost of the audit will also depend on if you have a Big 4 firm versus a firm such as BDO Seidman conducting the audit. To get an idea of how much a Big 4 firm such as EY, KPMG, PWC, or D&T charge their clients in audit fees, you can take a look at the Proxy Statement of any publicly traded company as this information is required to be disclosed.
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