Sending statements to another firm for review
How a firm sends a frozen set of statements to another firm for an ISRE 2400 review or an audit, and what Achekam leaves the firms to verify.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Plenty of accounting firms prepare a client's annual financial statements and then need somebody else to review or audit them. Sometimes the firm is not registered to do the assurance work. Sometimes it is, but having written the statements it cannot also give an independent view on them. Either way, the hand-over is where things slip: the reviewer works on a PDF from one week, the client changes a note the next, and nobody can say which version the report was signed on.
Achekam handles this through an exchange between firms, built around one idea: the reviewer works on a version that cannot change underneath them. This article covers how that works, how client questions are handled during the review, and what Achekam leaves to the firms to verify.
Freeze first, then send
A firm can send a frozen set of statements to another firm on Achekam, or to an outside practitioner by e-mailed link, for an independent review under ISRE 2400 (Revised) or for an audit. This is done from the Financials Studio, under Independent Review & Audit Exchange.
Freezing is the point. The reviewer's signed report is bound to the version that was sent. If the preparing firm needs to change something after the review has started, the change belongs in a new version, and the report that eventually comes back is tied to whichever version the reviewer actually reviewed.
On the preparing side, the usual sign-off roles still apply to the set itself. Each set of statements names a preparer, a reviewer and an engagement partner, only a user with a partner role can sign, and the person recorded as preparer or reviewer cannot issue it. When the set is issued, Achekam stores the final PDF with a fingerprint and locks that version.
Another firm on Achekam, or a practitioner by link
There are two kinds of recipient.
- A firm already on Achekam. The reviewing firm receives the frozen set in its own workspace and does its work there.
- An outside practitioner. A reviewer who does not use Achekam receives an e-mailed link to the frozen set, without needing an account.
The choice usually follows the relationship rather than the software. Many small practices have a long-standing arrangement with one reviewing firm; if that firm is on Achekam, the exchange stays within the platform. If not, the link route lets the arrangement continue unchanged.
Questions to the client during the review
An ISRE 2400 review is built on inquiry and analytical procedures, so the reviewer will have questions, and many of them are for the client rather than the preparing firm. Requests to clients can be raised from an assurance review room with the same form used everywhere else in Achekam, and all requests are tracked in one RFI console, whichever screen they were raised from.
That keeps the client's answers and documents with the rest of its requests instead of in a separate e-mail thread.
What Achekam does not check about the reviewer
This is the part to get right in your engagement letters. Achekam records who the reviewer is; it does not establish that the reviewer is entitled to sign.
In South Africa, an audit report through the exchange needs a partner whom the listing firm records as an IRBA registered auditor, and Achekam does not check that with IRBA. The "IRBA" badge on Partner Review & Signing is a label only: for a South African firm, Achekam checks the signer's partner role, not IRBA registration.
In Nigeria, since 1 April 2026 an audit or assurance firm must be on the FRC's National Audit and Assurance Firms Register, and an engagement by an unlisted firm is invalid; entities must verify the firm and the signing professional before appointment and throughout. The FRC announced the register on its website.
In Kenya, a statutory auditor, or each partner of an audit firm, must hold an ICPAK practising certificate and a valid annual licence under s.772 of the Companies Act 2015.
Whichever country you are in, verifying the reviewer's registration is your firm's job and the client's, done before appointment and kept on file.
Checklist for the preparing firm
- Agree in writing with the client which engagement it needs, review or audit, and why (the statute, a shareholder agreement, a lender).
- Agree in writing with the reviewing firm what it will do, by when, and who signs.
- Verify the reviewer's registration with the relevant body and keep the evidence.
- Finish your own review stages before freezing; a frozen set should be one you are prepared to stand behind.
- Send the frozen set through the exchange, to a firm on Achekam or by link.
- Route client questions through the RFI console so they sit with the client's other requests.
- Confirm that the reviewer's signed report is bound to the version you expect, then issue.
How this fits with other sign-off routes
An independent review by another firm is not the same as having another firm compile the statements or act as accounting officer. In that arrangement the outside officer releases the version that is issued, rather than reporting on yours; see when another firm's officer compiles or signs. If the work coming back is an audit, the reviewing firm's own planning, including materiality and its approval, happens in its workspace, not yours.
The first thing to do
Look at the engagements you currently send out for review or audit and list, for each, who the reviewer is and when their registration was last verified. Where that date is blank, fix it before the next set is frozen and sent.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
