The prepared-by-client list for an audit
How an audit team builds a prepared-by-client list and sends it so each item stays linked to the working paper that needs it, then tracks what is missing.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The prepared-by-client list is usually a spreadsheet with a hundred rows, sent to the financial manager a month before fieldwork, and returned half-complete on the first morning with a folder of files named "scan" and a number. The team then spends the first days of the audit working out which file answers which row, which row feeds which working paper, and what is still missing.
The list itself is not the problem. The problem is that it lives apart from the working papers that need the documents, so nobody can see at a glance which paper is waiting for what. This article sets out how to build a list that works, and how to send it in Achekam so that each request stays attached to the work it supports.
What a good PBC list looks like
A good request is specific enough that the client cannot misunderstand it and the team cannot misfile the answer. Compare "debtors" with "aged receivables listing at year end, by customer, agreeing to the trial balance, in Excel". Each item should say:
- What: the document or schedule, named as the client knows it.
- Period or date: the year end, the year, or the months after year end.
- Format: Excel for schedules the team will test, PDF for signed documents.
- Who: the person at the client who will provide it.
- When: a due date, earlier for items needed at planning.
- Why: which audit area needs it, so the client understands priorities.
Keep the list proportionate. Every item the team asks for and then does not use costs the client time and the firm goodwill.
A client's schedule is not evidence on its own. Information produced by the entity has to be checked for accuracy and completeness before the team relies on it. ACCA's article on examining evidence explains the difference between audit procedures and audit evidence and how to decide which evidence is relevant in different circumstances, which is a good discipline to apply to each row before it goes on the list.
Raising requests from the work item
In Achekam, each work item lists the procedures to perform and the documents required for them. That list of required documents is the natural source of the PBC items for that area. A step is marked done only with a written response and its documents, or set aside with a reason, so the documents are not optional extras; they are what closes the step.
Requests to the client can be raised directly from the work item, with the same form used elsewhere, and every request is tracked in the one RFI console under RFI & Client Requests, whichever screen it was raised from. Raising the receivables request from the receivables work item keeps the link between the document and the procedure that needs it, without anyone maintaining that link by hand.
A practical approach:
- Generate or open the engagement's work items.
- For each area, review the documents required and remove anything not needed this year.
- Raise one request per area, or per client contact, from the work item.
- Send early requests for planning items first, and fieldwork requests a few weeks before fieldwork.
Dates and owners
Group requests by the person who will answer them. The financial manager, the payroll administrator and the managing director each receive their own request, with only their items, rather than one long list where each looks for their part.
Achekam sends automatic reminders every 3 days by default, up to 5 per request, and reminders can be switched off. For a client that responds well to a personal call, consider switching them off for that request and calling instead. For most, the defaults are a reasonable rhythm that spares the senior from chasing.
Accepting or rejecting what arrives
The client answers from the request page, uploading files or whole folders and answering questions, and what they send is filed in the client's vault folder. Executable file types are blocked, files are limited to 100 MB each by default, and files are virus-scanned only where the server operator has configured ClamAV; otherwise structural checks run and the record says which.
Staff accept or reject each item the client sent, and can return the request saying what is still missing. Reject promptly and say exactly why: "This listing is at 28 February; we need it at the year end, 31 March" gets a corrected file; "wrong" gets a phone call. Uploads as audit evidence are discussed further in client uploads as audit evidence.
Tracking what is still missing
Two views together show the state of the file. The RFI console shows which requests are outstanding, by client and by request. The Working Paper Control Centre shows the engagement's papers as an index with progress by status, and can group them by preparer, reviewer, risk or statement line.
At the weekly team meeting, take the papers that are not progressing and look at their outstanding requests. Usually the reason is a document; sometimes the document arrived and nobody accepted it. Either way, the conversation is about specific items, not about the client being "slow".
A worked example in words: for a distributor's audit, the senior raises the inventory request from the inventory work item a month before the count, asking the warehouse manager for the count instructions and the final stock sheets. The financial manager gets a separate request for the receivables and payables listings. The warehouse manager uploads the count instructions on time; the stock sheets arrive after fieldwork starts, as a folder of scans. The senior accepts the instructions, rejects the first stock-sheet upload because two pages are missing, and returns the request naming the pages. They arrive the next day, and the inventory paper moves to review.
Before the next audit
Take last year's PBC spreadsheet for one client and compare it with the documents the team actually used. Remove what was not used, sharpen what was misunderstood, and raise this year's requests from the work items. How a client opens a request without any login is explained in requesting client documents without a portal login.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
