Arnold Hill & Co are a firm of experienced Chartered Accountants based in London, providing a variety of tailored statutory, regulatory, and discretionary audit services to clients in a range of industries. Our audit team take a customer-centred, hands-on approach to each business relationship, tailoring our audit procedures to the specific financial and operational circumstances of your business. Each audit report provides an extremely high level of financial credibility and assurance – as well as reviewing the legal and regulatory compliance in the required areas.

Our Audit Services

Arnold Hill & Co are registered with and are regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW). Our external audits are compliant with the Finance Reporting Council (FRC) Statutory Regulations and provide a trusted, independent validation of your financial accounts that is useful in a variety of circumstances:

  • Verify legal compliance with company and financial law
  • Identify material errors and accounting mistakes
  • Review compliance with accounting best practices and standards
  • Identify areas for improvement
  • Add increased value and credibility to the business
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Sectors We Work With:

Our customers include public and private limited companies in London and across the UK, drawn from a wide variety of sectors, including:

• Financial Service providers
• Private Equity
• Wholesaling and Retail
• Property Management / Investment
• Professional Services
• Publishing
• Charities
• Pension Schemes
• Trade Associations
• Tenants' Associations
• FCA Regulated businesses

  • profits Financial Service providers
  • shield-variant-with-white-and-black-borders Private Equity
  • statistics Wholesaling and Retail
  • profit Property Management / Investment
  • calculator Professional Services
  • google-docs Publishing
  • family-silhouette Charities
  • google-docs Pension Schemes
  • transaction Trade Associations
  • family-silhouette Tenants' Associations
  • laptop FCA Regulated businesses

When Do You Require An Audit?

This depends on your sector and the size of your business, as well as your individual circumstances.

Statutory Audit

Many UK businesses are obliged by the Companies Act (2006) to undertake an annual Statutory Audit of their accounts for the previous financial year, to ensure financial probity and transparency. 

These include:

  • Active Public Limited Companies (PLCs)
  • Insurance companies
  • Banks and lenders
  • Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) investment firms
  • Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) management companies
  • Subsidiary Companies (unless it qualifies for an exemption, as described below)
  • Special register bodies
  • Pensions or labour relations bodies
  • Funder of a master trust pensions schemes

Your business will require an audit of their annual accounts if two or more of the following criteria apply:

1) Gross annual turnover > £10.2 million

2) Assets valued > £5.1 million

3) 50 or more employees

Audit Exemptions

• Companies below the audit threshold on two or more criteria may claim an audit exemption as a small company (Section 477, Companies Act). However, you may still be obliged to conduct an audit if requested by your shareholders, or if it is specified in the company’s Articles of Association.

Registered charities with a gross annual turnover of less than £1 million in the past financial year can also claim an exemption (unless both gross income exceeds £250,000 and gross assets exceed £3.26 million).

Subsidiary companies may qualify for an exemption if the parent company provides a guarantee covering the company’s outstanding liabilities for the past financial year.

Please give one of our accountants a call for clarification of your company's statutory audit obligations.

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Discretionary Audit & Assurance Reviews

In some circumstances, you may choose to undergo a ‘discretionary audit’, or assurance review, even if you are not obliged to conduct one by law.

Many lenders, investors, and purchasers (in cases of mergers or business sales) request an assurance review or audit in order to be confident of a business’ financial standing.

We provide tailored audits and reviews that cover your full financial accounts if required, or that address specific areas of concern. This gives you the flexibility to address areas of operational risk in detail and provide assurance to internal or external stakeholders and investors.

Regulatory Audit

Some businesses require an independent audit to demonstrate compliance with specific areas of law or professional codes of conduct and industry regulations. Such reviews may be necessary for organisations receiving government funding, for example, or when applying for professional accreditation or membership of a regulatory body.

As with all our auditing services, our procedures are customised to your operational and regulatory environment and provide an objective and independent overview of your accounts to support your compliance.

Find Out More

To find out more about our professional auditing services, or to discuss your requirements with one of our team, please call 020 7306 9100 today, or click here to send us a message.

Do you need a team of specialists to focus on your accounting and tax needs? Arnold Hill & Co are a team dedicated to getting things right.

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Every incorporated company in the UK (and certain UK charities) must have their financial statements audited annually. That’s unless the business or charity in question falls within several exemptions which can remove that requirement.