As well as producing some working papers, such as the analytical reviews, for their own purposes to provide assurance over the figures in the financial statements, the PCT wished to minimise the level of PCT staff input required during the audit process and to facilitate the speed of the audit by minimising the time taken to locate invoices selected for testing.
The PCT provided working papers to support the financial statements submitted for audit that were very clear, submitted prior to the audit start date. Responses to audit queries were also very timely.
The working papers included an analytical review with high level explanations for all variances in the first instance. All subsequent explanations provided in response to more detailed audit queries were clear and the variances well explained. The PCT also produced its own a predictive AR for payroll expenditure.
The complete set of working papers was provided prior to the start of the audit. This consisted of a CD containing folders referring to key sections of the accounts, including all of the notes.
For certain lines in the notes, the PCT provided a trail from the accounts balance to the GL transaction listing and a network hyperlink against each transaction which took the auditor to the supporting invoices scanned into the PCT's financial systems.