Biggest bottleneck or limiting factor in a small practice is time. Partners end up spending lot of time in monitoring and reviewing audit work. They hardly get any time to focus on marketing their services. If they decide to actively invest in building a solid middle management layer, they can take out time to actively market and grow their practice.

Evidencing the audit work is the most common area in which audit files fail to meet the Auditing Standards requirements. This is either through not completing the work set out at the planning stage of the audit, or failing to effectively record the work that has been undertaken. Reports by ACRA and ISCA consistently flag these issues as being of concern, especially among Small and Medium Sized Practitioners (SMPs).

It is essential that auditors are able to note and document evidence properly in their notes. A good quality audit starts with proper documentation of planning, risk assessment and internal controls. After risks have been identified and documented, it is essential to perform audit procedures to minimize these risks.