Protecting your assets
Internal Audit / Forensic Audit Services in Singapore
Why is internal audit important to your company?
Here at Whitesleeves, we provide reliable outsourced internal audit engagement. As organisations and the world they operate in become more complex, internal audit is gaining a steadily higher profile in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors for the evaluations and insight they provide about how well risks are being managed within the organisation. We help to identify the area which is more likely to cause error/risk and report it to the management for improvement actions.
Evaluating controls and advising managers at all levels
Internal audit’s role in evaluating the management of risk is wide ranging because everyone from the reception to the boardroom is involved in some form of internal control. The internal auditor’s work includes assessing the risk management culture and tone of the organisation at one level through to evaluating and reporting on the effectiveness of the implementation of management policies at another.
Analyzing operations and reviewing procedures
Internal Auditing is a catalyst for improving an organization’s effectiveness and efficiency by providing insight and recommendations based on analyses and assessments of operations and procedures. By objectively reviewing your organization’s operations and procedures, you can receive assurance that you are doing what your policies and procedures say you are doing, and that these processes are adequate in mitigating your industry risks. In turn, allowing your organization to be dependent on process, rather than people.
Objectivity, integrity and independence
You can’t audit your own work without having a definite conflict of interest. Internal auditors provide third person perspective into a company's procedure to minimize self reviewing threats while suggesting market's best practice from its wide array of business. As our internal auditors are not related to the company as an employee, we are able to provide our work with much needed integrity and independence reporting.
External Audit / Audited Report
Why is external audit important to your company?
As a business owner, it is vital to your business health that you conduct an external audit frequently, preferably yearly, to assess if your company is operating at optimal level. An internal audit is conducted by an in-house staff to assess the loopholes in the company. However often they might have self vested interest in the company or they lack the proper independence to spot flaws. An external audit, strives to mitigate these risk. External auditors ALWAYS have no connections to the entity audited. Singapore law does not enable business owners to audit their own companies.
Highlights areas of vulnerability or weak spots
In light of increasing regulation, employing an external auditor serves to strengthen company practice within the remit of government compliance. It is the job of an external auditor to identify areas of non-compliance, as well as any issues with fraud or abuse unknown to the business owner within the organisation. An external auditor is likely to dig deeper to unearth these vulnerabilities because they are removed from the business and can cast a fresh and objective eye over it.
Analyzing operations and reviewing procedures
The importance of independence in auditing also includes the fact that internal accountant can’t effectively critique your company’s internal processes because they are part of your company. External auditors, however, can observe operations with a steely eyed gaze and determine in which areas your business is wasting time and money. External auditors often critique accounting practices and general operations, and develop an action plan for you to reduce waste and implement strategies for greater efficiency.
Boost confidence of investors and business owners
External auditors provide important and valuable insight into the information that exists within an organisation. Their findings and audit processes give businesses the confidence and reassurance that their information and the way they conduct business is suitably kosher. It is best to provide investors with an audited report to indicate a truly independent and unbiased financial figures.
When is Audited Report Necessary ?
Qualification Criteria
The current approach adopted by ACRA is called 'Small Company Concept' which will determine exemption from statutory audit. Notably, a company no longer needs to be an exempt private company to be exempted from audit. If a company fulfills the following criteria, they might be exempted as well.
A company qualifies as a small company if:
(a) it is a private company in the financial year in question; AND
(b) it meets at least 2 of 3 following criteria for immediate past two consecutive financial years:
total annual revenue ≤ $10m;
total assets ≤ $10m;
no. of employees ≤ 50.
For a company which is part of a group:
(a) the company must qualify as a small company; and
(b) entire group must be a “small group”
to qualify to the audit exemption.
For a group to be a small group, it must meet at least 2 of the 3 quantitative criteria on a consolidated basis for the immediate past two consecutive financial years.
Where a company has qualified as a small company, it continues to be a small company for subsequent financial years until it is disqualified. A small company is disqualified if:
(a) it ceases to be a private company at any time during a financial year; or
(b) it does not meet at least 2 of the 3 the quantitative criteria for the immediate past two consecutive financial years.
Where a group has qualified as a small group, it continues to be a small group for subsequent financial years until it does not meet at least 2 of the 3 the quantitative criteria for the immediate past two consecutive financial years.