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Audit and Assurance
Audit and assurance services in Ghana.
Elixir Audits is a firm licensed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana and classified at Category A. We issue statutory audit opinions under the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992), run internal audit functions for boards and audit committees, and investigate when the numbers stop making sense.
Request an audit proposal See what is includedA statutory audit is an independent opinion on whether your financial statements give a true and fair view. In Ghana it is required under the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) before accounts are issued, and it is the document your bank, your regulator and your investors will ask for first.
What you actually receive
Three things. An audit report carrying our opinion, which is the document that goes to the Registrar, the Ghana Revenue Authority and anyone financing you. A set of financial statements prepared under IFRS or IFRS for SMEs, depending on which framework applies to you. And a management letter setting out the control weaknesses we found and what we suggest doing about them.
The third one is the one most boards file and forget. It is usually the most useful document you receive all year, because it is the only place where somebody independent tells you where the money is leaking.
Two things that hold on every audit
First, the partner who wins the work stays on it. You will not meet one team at the proposal stage and a different one in the field, and you will not spend the first week of fieldwork explaining your business to somebody who has never seen it.
Second, we plan around your deadline rather than ours. If you have a board meeting on a fixed date, a facility review, or a donor reporting cycle, that is the constraint we work back from. Audits that slip do so almost never because of the auditor's capacity. They slip because nobody agreed a document deadline at the start.
What slows an audit down
The variable is almost never the audit team. It is how quickly the schedules, bank confirmations, stock counts and supporting documents arrive. A client with a clean trial balance, a reconciled bank position and a fixed asset register that agrees to the ledger is usually finished in about three weeks, depending on scope and complexity. Where the documents are assembled after fieldwork opens, the timetable stretches and so does the fee.
That is why we issue a document request list at planning and hold a readiness call before fieldwork opens. It is also why we publish an audit readiness checklist that you can work through before you even appoint an auditor.
The statute that requires the audit and sets what has to be filed
Typical fieldwork to signed opinion for a clean mid-sized company
Our ICAG classification band, which is currently set by reference to firm revenue
Scope
Four kinds of assurance, one team
Most clients start with the statutory audit and add the others as the business grows or as the board asks harder questions.
Statutory audit
The annual audit required before financial statements are issued, filed with the Office of the Registrar of Companies or submitted to the Ghana Revenue Authority. Planned around your reporting deadline, conducted under International Standards on Auditing, and signed by a partner who was in the fieldwork.
Internal audit
An outsourced or co-sourced internal audit function reporting to your board or audit committee. Risk-based annual plan, agreed with the committee, then fieldwork and findings written so that somebody can act on them. Where you already have an internal audit team, we supplement it on the areas it does not have depth in.
Forensic audit and investigations
Where fraud, misappropriation or a serious control failure is suspected. Evidence gathered and documented to a standard that holds up in a disciplinary process, an insurance claim or a court. Handled discreetly, and scoped so that the investigation itself does not tip off the people it concerns.
Expenditure verification and grant audits
Agreed-upon procedures for donor-funded and EU-funded programmes, and grant audits for NGOs and projects operating in Ghana and the sub-region. Reported in the funder's own template, on the funder's timetable.
Process
What actually happens, week by week
An audit is a project with a critical path. Here is ours, so you can see where your team's time is needed and where it is not.
Acceptance and clearance
We check independence, run our own client acceptance procedures and, where you are changing auditors, write to the outgoing firm for professional clearance. This is routine and it is our job, not yours.
Week 0, about one weekPlanning and risk assessment
We meet management, walk through the business, identify where the risk of material misstatement actually sits, and set materiality. You receive the document request list and an agreed fieldwork date at the end of this.
Week 1Readiness call
A short call to confirm the requested documents exist and are reconciled. If they are not, we move the fieldwork date rather than starting and stalling. This one habit saves more time than anything else we do.
Before fieldworkFieldwork
Testing, third-party confirmations, stock attendance where relevant, and substantive procedures on the balances that carry risk. We raise queries as they arise rather than saving them for a list at the end.
Two to three weeksCompletion and review
Partner review, subsequent events, going concern assessment, and the final clearance meeting with management. Anything that could change the opinion is raised here, never at signing.
One weekOpinion and management letter
We sign the opinion and issue the management letter with findings ranked by exposure, each with a suggested owner and a suggested date. Then we sit with you and go through it.
On completionEngagement
Fees, timing and who does the work
Fee basis
Fixed, quoted in advanceSet on scope, complexity, risk and the senior time required. Quoted in the proposal before any work starts, and held unless the scope changes.Who does the work
A partner and a managerNamed in the proposal and on the engagement from planning to signing.Timeline
Three to five weeksFrom the start of fieldwork to a signed opinion, for a mid-sized company with reconciled records. Longer for group audits and first-year engagements.Sectors
Where our audit experience is deepest
Savings and loans, rural and community banks, microfinance and fintech, with Bank of Ghana prudential reporting.
Downstream marketing, liquidity provision and services, including levy and margin reconciliations.
Grant audits and expenditure verification for EU and multilateral funders, in the funder's template.
Private hospitals, diagnostics and HMOs, with NHIS receivables and claims reconciliation.
Stock and costing, distributor networks and working capital under pressure.
Revenue recognition, deferred income and cross-border service charges.
Cost audits, contractor compliance and reporting to sector regulators.
Contract accounting, retentions and subcontractor withholding.
Act 992
Does your company actually have to be audited?
Under the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992), annual financial statements must be audited before they are issued, circulated or published. A narrow exemption exists for qualifying small private companies, but it is lost the moment somebody with leverage asks for audited accounts.
- Any company with an external shareholder or an investor agreement
- Companies regulated by the Bank of Ghana, the NIC, the SEC or the NPA
- Companies with borrowings, or applying for a facility
- Businesses with foreign participation registered under the GIPA Act
- NGOs and projects with donor or grant funding conditions
- Companies bidding for public sector or large corporate contracts
- Any company whose constitution or shareholders' agreement requires it
Questions
Questions we are asked before the proposal
Does my company have to be audited in Ghana?
How long does a statutory audit take?
What does an audit cost?
Can you audit us if another firm did last year?
What is the difference between statutory audit and internal audit?
Will the audit find fraud?
Are you licensed to audit regulated entities?
What if the audit finds something that changes the opinion?
Next step
Send us last year's accounts and this year's deadline.
That is enough for a proposal. You will have scope, a named team, a timetable and a fixed fee back within one working day.
Under Audit and Assurance
Statutory audit under the Companies Act 2019
The independent opinion required before your financial statements can be issued, filed or circulated. Conducted under International Standards on Auditing by a partner who stays on the engagement from planning to signing.
Internal audit, outsourced or co-sourced
An outsourced or co-sourced internal audit function reporting to your board or audit committee. Risk-based annual plan, fieldwork, and findings ranked by exposure with an owner and a date against each.
Forensic audit and investigations
Where fraud, misappropriation or a serious control failure is suspected. Evidence gathered and documented to a standard that holds up in a disciplinary process, an insurance claim or in court, and scoped so the investigation does not tip off the people it concerns.
NGO and donor-funded grant audits
Grant audits, expenditure verification and agreed-upon procedures for international NGOs, local implementing partners and donor-funded programmes operating in Ghana and the sub-region. Reported in the template your funder actually requires.