Audit Support — Auditor

"Prep for audit."

When to use

• An audit is scheduled — "fieldwork starts August 3, get us ready".
• The request list landed — "here's the auditor's PBC, organize and track it".
• Samples arrived — "they picked 25 invoices, do we have support for each?".
• Findings need answers — "draft management responses to these three findings".
• Balances must be provable — "build tie-outs for cash, AR, and fixed assets".

Workflow

1. Scope the audit. Period, framework, first-year vs recurring, and the areas that matter — load the TB or statements with code and rank areas by balance and activity, never by guesswork.
2. Build the PBC list by area (cash, AR/revenue, inventory, fixed assets, AP/accruals, debt, equity, payroll, tax): each item gets description, owner, expected format, due date, status. Merge with the auditor's own list when one exists — their naming wins.
3. Draft walkthrough narratives for revenue, purchases, and payroll: trigger event → documents created → systems touched → approvals → how it hits the GL, with control points tagged inline (e.g., [C1: 2-way match]). One page per cycle, specific to this company — no boilerplate.
4. Match samples to support. For each sampled item, list required documents (invoice, PO/contract, delivery or acceptance evidence, payment proof), check what exists, and mark complete / partial (naming the gap) / absent. Find the gaps before the auditor does.
5. Build tie-out schedules per tested area: GL balance → subledger or supporting schedule → financial statement line, computed in code, with differences explained or proven zero.
6. Run the open-items tracker: item, area, requested by, owner, due date, status, blocker — sorted by due date, overdue flagged.
7. Draft finding responses: restate the finding neutrally, give root cause, management response, and remediation with a named owner and target date. Factual and specific — no defensiveness, no over-promising.
8. Package. Write PBC-<period>.md (or .xlsx), the walkthroughs, tie-outs, and tracker; refresh the tracker as items close.

Output format

# Audit Readiness — <entity> — FY<year>

## PBC list
| # | Area | Item | Owner | Format | Due | Status |
|---|------|------|-------|--------|-----|--------|
| 1 | Cash | Bank statements + recs, all accounts, 12 months | <name> | PDF/XLSX | <date> | open |

## Walkthrough — <cycle>
<trigger> → <documents> → <systems> → <approvals> → <GL posting>
Controls: [C1] <control> — owner <name>; [C2] ...

## Sample support — <area>
| Sample | Required docs | Present | Status (complete/partial/absent) |
|--------|---------------|---------|----------------------------------|

## Tie-out — <area>
GL <balance> → subledger <balance> → statements <balance> | diff: 0.00 ✓ (or explained)

## Open items
| Item | Area | Owner | Due | Status | Blocker |
|------|------|-------|-----|--------|---------|

## Finding response — <ref>
Finding: <restated neutrally> | Root cause: <...>
Response: <...> | Remediation: <action> — <owner>, by <date>

Quality bar

• Every PBC item carries owner, format, and due date — no orphan requests.
• Walkthroughs name this company's actual systems and control points, not boilerplate.
• Every sample marked complete / partial (gap named) / absent — gaps found before the auditor.
• Tie-outs computed from data and agree to both GL and statements, or the difference is explained.
• Tracker sorted by due date, every item owned, overdue flagged.
• Finding responses commit to named owners and dates — nothing vague.

Example

Invocation: "Fieldwork starts Aug 3 — build the PBC and get cash and AR provable." Produced: PBC-FY2026.md with 54 items across 9 areas, owners and due dates set to land by Jul 28; revenue, purchases, and payroll walkthroughs with tagged controls; cash and AR tie-outs proven to 0.00; a tracker with 6 open items, 2 overdue and flagged with blockers.

Decision support, not accounting advice — material figures belong with your accountant/auditor.