Services · CFO & advisory
Accounting health check
A fixed-scope review of your books, reconciliations, controls, compliance and reporting, with a written report that ranks every issue and sets out how to fix it.
An independent view of your books
Most finance problems are visible long before they become expensive: a suspense account that keeps growing, a bank reconciliation carrying old unexplained items, a sales tax return that does not agree to the ledger. They persist because nobody has had the time to step back and look.
A health check is that step back. A Pi accountant reviews your records against a scope fixed in advance, and a partner reviews the findings before you see them. It suits owners who have inherited books from someone else, companies that have changed bookkeeper or system, businesses facing an audit, a lender or a sale, and anyone who no longer trusts their numbers.
Where you keep your accounting in-house, we can also write the policies your team works to and review its work every month.
What the review examines
Five areas, each tested against your records rather than taken on trust.
| Area | What we look at |
|---|---|
| Books and ledgers | The chart of accounts, consistency of coding, suspense and clearing accounts, journals posted without support, and whether closed periods are locked. |
| Reconciliations | Bank, card and wallet accounts, receivable and payable ledgers against their control accounts, intercompany balances, and the age of reconciling items. |
| Controls | Who can add suppliers, change bank details, approve payments and post journals, and whether anyone reviews what they do. |
| Compliance | Whether tax returns and payroll filings agree to the ledger, withholding obligations are met, registrations are current and filings are up to date. |
| Reporting | Whether management accounts arrive on time, agree to the ledger and include the accruals, prepayments and depreciation that make them reliable. |
What you receive
A written report reviewed by a partner, and a meeting to take you through it.
- Every issue ranked by risk, from what needs attention now to what can wait
- The likely cause of each issue, not only its symptom
- A fix list setting out what to do, in what order and by whom
- Confirmation of what is sound, so effort goes where it is needed
- A walkthrough of the findings with the partner
If you would like us to make the fixes, we scope that work separately, in a written proposal, once you have seen the findings.
How a health check runs
The scope is fixed before we start, so you know exactly what will be reviewed.
Scope
We agree the entities, period and areas to be covered, and confirm them in a written proposal.
Access
You give us view access to your accounting software and upload statements and returns through the encrypted client portal.
Review
We test each area against your records, raising questions with you or your bookkeeper as we go.
Report
You receive the partner-reviewed report and fix list, and we take you through the findings.
Policies and supervision
Two services for businesses that keep their accounting in-house and want it held to a professional standard.
Accounting policies manual
A written manual setting out how your business recognises revenue, values inventory, capitalises and depreciates fixed assets, allows for receivables that may not be collected, accrues expenses and translates foreign currency, illustrated with your own transactions.
It is written for the framework you report under, such as US GAAP, IFRS or IFRS for SMEs. We can prepare a new manual or review the one you have.
Review and supervision
Each month a Pi accountant reviews your bookkeeper's work: reconciliations, journals, coding, accruals and the close. A partner reviews the findings, and your team receives written review points with the corrections required.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the work; we make sure it is right.
Questions
How is a health check different from an audit?
An audit ends in an independent opinion on your financial statements, follows auditing standards and is often required by law. A health check is a diagnostic for management: it gives no opinion, but it shows where the problems are and how to fix them, often before an auditor finds them. See audit and assurance.
Can you fix the issues you find?
Yes, if you would like us to. Clean-up work is scoped once you have seen the findings, so you can decide whether your own team, Pi or both should carry it out. See account reconciliations and bookkeeping.
When is supervision better than full outsourcing?
When you want to keep a bookkeeper who knows the business, but have no qualified accountant checking the work. If you would rather hand the work over entirely, see accounting outsourcing.
Is a health check useful before an audit or a sale?
Yes. It finds the issues an auditor or a buyer's advisers would raise, while there is still time to deal with them. For a review timed to your audit, see audit support; for a sale, see transaction advisory.
Speak with a partner
Every enquiry is read by a partner and answered within one business day. Meetings are held at our offices, at yours, or by video.