Audit and assurance for UK branches of overseas companies

We provide audit services to UK branches and UK subsidiaries of overseas companies. We do this well because we partner with audit firms in other countries. This makes for more efficient audits.

Our audit clients are usually UK subsidiaries of overseas companies

Our audit clients tend to be UK subsidiaries or UK branches of overseas companies. This is important because to conduct these types of audits efficiently the auditor needs some special skills. For example, the auditor needs:

• to be able to speak the language of the overseas company
• to understand the accounting and tax rules of the overseas country
• a presence in the overseas country

These skills mean that it’s often very difficult for small local companies to undertake international audits. For this reason, these types of audits are usually carried out by large, international audit firms. Our approach provides an economic and effective alternative to this.

Our approach to audit

Imagine an Italian haute couture company that opens a shop in Mayfair. Most of the administration work for the London shop is done in Italy by the Italian head office. A traditional audit would involve documents going back and forth between the Italian head office and the London based auditor. This is usually time-consuming, expensive and inefficient. It’s also very frustrating, particularly if the audit team doesn’t speak Italian. We wouldn’t work this way (although we do speak Italian). Instead, we would do the audit through our UK / Italian joint venture audit partnership. Our UK team would do the UK bit and our Italian team the Italian bit. This saves time and effort and makes for a more efficient audit. This approach has many advantages. For example, this approach:

• allows for controls to be tested in Italy
• utilises JV staff that are located in both the UK and Italy
• utilises JV staff that are experts in both the UK and Italy