- Early identification of issues or opportunities and communication of those matters
to the audit committee and appropriate members of the company’s management - Timely and appropriate responses to specific needs:
- if the need is urgent, the response reflects the urgency
- bringing the right resources within the audit firm to bear and getting the
benefit of that firm’s whole knowledge base
- Quality of both written and oral reports and recommendations:
- Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the specific circumstances and the
overall business - Concise and understandable
- Sensitive to company’s culture and style
- Represent sound advice
- Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the specific circumstances and the
Assessing such factors during the initial selection process requires reviewing ac-
tual reports issued (names deleted where appropriate) by the audit firms and discus-
sions with clients of the firms. These discussions should include both existing and
former clients, as the latter may have some very enlightening and sometimes sur-
prising perspectives on the responsiveness and quality criteria.
(viii) Plans for Serving the Company. The starting point for providing professional
services to an international company is the preparation of an overall or strategic plan
for those services. Such a plan is imperative for effectively and efficiently serving a
worldwide company. Each final candidate in the selection process should prepare and
present their strategic plan to the company.
There are several aspects of such plans that the company’s evaluation should be
directed to:
- Does the plan reflect and respond to the expectations of the company as dis-
cussed earlier in this chapter? - Does the plan demonstrate an understanding of the company’s operations, in-
cluding business strategies and operating plans? - Does the plan reflect reasonable assessments of the relative levels of business
and audit risk associated with various company operations? - Are financial reporting and accounting areas involving a significant degree of
subjectivity identified? - Does the plan include a commitment of professional resources commensurate
with the services to be provided? - Are the preliminary decisions about the overall audit approach at the parent
company and significant subsidiaries or other operating units consistent with the
assessments of business and audit risk, control environment and information
systems environment? Are those decisions responsive to specific company ex-
pectations?
The depth of knowledge obtained by auditors during a proposal process will be
substantially less than after having provided significant services to the company.
Nevertheless, the strategic plan presented during the proposal should demonstrate
persuasively to the company that the audit firm is proceeding on a sound basis. Fur-
31 • 14 MANAGING THE AUDIT RELATIONSHIP IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT