Audited financial statements are required for many UAE businesses, through free zone authority conditions, licence requirements, bank facilities or shareholder agreements. Qualifying Free Zone Person status carries the requirement too. If this is your first audit, the work you do beforehand determines both the timeline and the fee.
What the auditor is actually asking for
Not a shoebox, and not a login. An indexed file with a schedule supporting each material balance, cross-referenced to evidence:
- Bank reconciliations for every account, with statements and confirmations
- Receivables listing with ageing, and evidence of subsequent receipts
- Payables listing with ageing, and supplier statements
- Fixed asset register with additions, disposals and depreciation workings
- Inventory count sheets and valuation basis, where you hold stock
- Accruals and prepayments schedules showing how each figure was derived
- Payroll summary including leave and end-of-service provisions
- Related party transactions and balances, listed by counterparty
- Contracts, leases and loan agreements
The reconciliation nobody prepares
Auditors will compare your VAT returns to revenue in your ledgers. If those numbers do not agree and there is no schedule explaining why, the question becomes a finding. Prepare that reconciliation yourself, with differences explained, before anyone asks.
Start earlier than feels necessary
Fieldwork stalls when documents arrive late, and a stalled audit gets rescheduled behind other clients. Beginning two to three months before year end, so opening balances and known problem areas are settled in advance, is the difference between a clean process and a drawn-out one.
We prepare, we do not audit
Independence matters, and a firm that prepares the accounts should not opine on them. We build the file and handle queries alongside whichever auditor you appoint. See audit support.
General guidance, not advice on a specific business. Figures checked against published sources in September 2026; UAE rules change, so confirm current Ministry of Finance or FTA guidance, or ask us to review your position, before acting.