Audit = yearly headache and unnecessary expense? Welcome to the ASL approach

For most accountants and business owners, the thought of the yearly audit or independent review is associated with stress and apprehension. In most cases, audits and independent reviews are compulsory in terms of legislation, and thus the costs involved are, for most, seen to be unnecessary or even avoidable expenses with no necessary value being added to the company.

At ASL, we believe that clients form the most important cornerstone of our existence.

Although assurance services are highly regulated, leaving us with limited opportunity for adjusting our service delivery, we are committed to continuously evaluating our approach to ensure we add the maximum value for our clients whilst always raising the bar.

Through careful analysis of our clients’ needs, we have identified certain elements which we place tremendous emphasis on from a strategic level in order to allow us to render a client-centric service and set us apart;

• Relationships; While stressing the importance of remaining independent, we focus on building long-term relationships with our clients, understanding their business. Each client is allocated a designated staff member, together with a manager and director being easily accessible.
• Continuity; We structure our department to ensure continuity, resulting in improved audit efficiency, increased chances to identify areas to add value and saves time for clients having to work with a completely new team each year.
• Efficiency; We emphasise the importance of thorough planning and scheduling and doing so in advance, deadlines are also collaborated with clients. Proper planning prevents poor performance.
• Digital era; As more clients are switching to the cloud-based service, and systems and processes are being digitalised, ASL strives to be at the forefront of this changing environment. We are constantly reevaluating our audit approach, resulting in more effective work and less costly audits. Already where clients make use of Xero, we can save costs and have less queries clients need to address while having to operate their daily tasks.
• Reflection; We reflect on the results after the completion of the engagement: what worked well, what can be improved, what should be approached differently in the following year as well as to incorporate client feedback.

In conclusion, we aim to change the general perspective of assurance services to that of a key element of corporate governance, adding value without compromising quality.