This is a comment I made to an AFR journalist, it was printed in the AFR a few weeks ago, after which I was asked what I meant.
My response is,
Audit is very risky, especially if you are only doing it on a part time fashion.
The time pressures associated with audit work and deadlines, means it can be difficult to fit it around other compliance work.
Audit is price sensitive, so unless you are confident you can negotiate profitable fees, you would be better off doing other work.
To successfully undertake audit work you need audit software and data mining resources, these fixed costs require considerable audit fees.
Staying up to date technically is extremely time consuming, so if you are trying to cover tax, superannuation company law, etc, as well as accounting standards and audit regulations, there is too much non chargeable time, unless you have considerable audit fees.
Staffing can be difficult, you need to obtain, train and retain good audit staff. Not easy.
Undertaking audit fees can increase your PI Insurance premiums and mean more frequent Quality Control reviews, so again, substantial fees are needed to support this.
That is my suggestion, do you have a response?
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