Outsourcing Audit Support Services – How Does It Work?

Outsourcing audit support services is becoming a strategic choice for many CPAs and accounting firms focused on enhancing efficiency and audit quality. This method not only reduces costs—often significantly—but also allows internal teams to dedicate more energy to client relationships and strategic planning. It involves engaging with external experts who specialize in comprehensive audit procedures and are equipped with advanced tools.

This approach allows your firm to manage more complex audits accurately while ensuring compliance with strict regulations. By incorporating the expertise of seasoned professionals, your firm can improve service quality, which is crucial for client retention and business growth. Moreover, outsourcing offers a scalable model that adjusts to your firm’s needs, proving invaluable during peak audit seasons or when managing larger, more intricate projects.

Choosing the right outsourcing partner is crucial and should be based on their reliability, transparency, and a robust understanding of U.S. accounting standards. This strategic move can transform how your firm handles audits, providing a clear advantage in a competitive market.

Audit services are crucial to any organization, given how it helps determine a business’ financial position and to analyze its functioning. Providing Audit services can be a significant task, particularly amidst busy audit seasons. As the talent shortage war gets more challenging, accounting firms are finding new ways to deliver quality audit solutions. Outsourcing is one of the most innovative business models that address the talent shortage and has been around for a long time. Accounting firms that do not have audit services in their repertoire partner with third-party providers for outsourced audit support services.

Accounting firms that offer external audit services to their clients often struggle to cope with the increasing workload. They also face other challenges, such as being short-staffed or a scarcity of skilled auditors to execute the tasks efficiently. Outsourcing is the best solution to fix these while ensuring data security and compliance. Audit support services refer to end-to-end execution and guidance to accounting practices via experienced and well-trained professional auditors.

What do Audit Support Services Cover?

Audit support services are essential for managing the rigorous demands of audit deadlines and ensuring the timely filing of your client’s financial statements—the cornerstone of any audit season. These services enable CPA firms to gain a deeper understanding of their client’s businesses and adhere to audit schedules while providing methodical support across all auditing areas.

This includes communicating with clients regarding audit inquiries, updating audit files in software, transitioning from traditional Excel-based audits to electronic files, reviewing financial statements, performing account verifications, ensuring compliance with accounting standards, and preparing error-reporting checklists.

Moreover, auditors examine documents related to a company’s risks, goals, and performance and assess the implementation of various strategies. By outsourcing, auditors can approach your client’s operations with an objective and unbiased perspective, enhancing the overall audit quality and insight.

Audit processes consist of the following steps:

• Gathering information on how a company is operating
• Monitoring & analyzing risk assessments and controls of an organization
• Reviewing the company’s compliance with local and federal laws & policies
• Verifying information, making recommendations for improvement, and providing insights on the same
• Following up on the organization’s progress

Ready to streamline your audits? Contact us today to explore how outsourced audit support services can elevate your audit efficiency.
CONTACT US

A practical audit function helps accounting firms scale efficiently, enhance their service portfolio, maintain their existing clients, and attract new ones effortlessly. Working with the right provider is key to your accounting firm reaping all the benefits of outsourcing audit services.

Aside from professional audit support competence, experience, and a low-cost engagement model, partnering with a successful audit support service provider can help your firm thrive. High-performance metrics and increasing turnaround time are the key characteristics of a successful outsourced audit support service provider.

Adding a dedicated team of certified and trained auditing professionals to your firm would undoubtedly bring increased efficiency and more business. Investing in outsourced audit support services is any day better than spending money on expensive overheads. The best outsourced audit support service providers meet strict accuracy requirements and provide services to your clients more quickly than what was possible with an in-house team. We recommend that your transition to outsourced auditing services be well-planned and supported by thorough research.

What are the primary benefits of outsourcing audit support services for CPA firms?

The main advantages include cost savings, increased efficiency, and the ability to handle more complex audits without expanding in-house staff. Outsourcing allows CPA firms to focus on core business areas while leaving specialized audit tasks to experts.

How does outsourcing audit support services impact the quality of audits?

Outsourcing can enhance audit quality by bringing in specialized knowledge and up-to-date practices that internal teams may lack. This leads to more thorough and insightful audits, which can boost a firm’s reputation and client satisfaction.

What should CPA firms consider when choosing an audit support service provider?

Key considerations include the provider’s expertise, their understanding of U.S. accounting standards, cost-effectiveness, and their ability to communicate effectively. Ensuring that the provider aligns with the firm’s values and can meet its specific needs is crucial.

How much do outsourced audit support services typically cost?

Costs vary widely depending on whether the service is on-site, onshore, nearshore, or offshore, with offshore being the most cost-effective. Prices can range from as little as $4.5 per hour to over $200 per hour based on the location and complexity of services required.

What types of audit support services can be outsourced?

CPA firms can outsource various services, including financial statement audits, compliance audits, internal audits, IRS audits, forensic audits, and sales tax audits. Each type of audit can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the firm and its clients.

WHY QXAS’ AUDIT SUPPORT SERVICES OUTSOURCING

We are equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and a highly trained & experienced team of professionals that make audits highly profitable. The QXAS audit support team is here to take the tedium of auditing, free up your time for new clients & strategic planning to help your firm scale!

Whether your clients are looking for a simple review or a full-scale audit, our dedicated team of certified and highly trained auditors can seamlessly collaborate with your firm. Our value-focused professionals are here to take your burden off time-consuming tasks, from risk assessments, planning support, financial statements, and all kinds of substantive audit procedures.

BUT WHY QXAS?

• Less tedium & more precision guaranteed with highly qualified auditors in place
• More than 12 years of experience in audit support services & accounting outsourcing
• India’s first GDPR-compliant accounts outsourcing company
• Listed under IAOP’s top 100 global outsourcing list
• 100% quality and security assured as we fully comply with ISO 27001 for information security and ISO 9001 for quality.