Year-End Audit UAE: Auditor Portal & Audit Schedules

Shorten the UAE year-end audit: prepare audit schedules from the books, tie them to the trial balance and give your auditor a secure read-only login.

For many UAE finance teams the year-end audit means weeks of exporting ledgers, ageing reports and invoices, emailing them to the auditor, and then answering the same requests again when a number changes. There is a simpler way: prepare the schedules in the accounting system and let the auditor pull what they need.

1. Start from a complete audit schedules checklist

Auditors ask for broadly the same schedules every year: trial balance and general ledger, receivable and payable ageing, subsequent collections, fixed asset additions and disposals, inventory listings and ageing, bank balances, related-party transactions, payroll joiners and leavers and end-of-service benefits. Working from a fixed checklist makes the request list predictable.

2. Tie every schedule to the trial balance

The most common audit query is a schedule that does not agree with the trial balance. Each schedule should show its total, any reconciling items, the trial balance figure and the difference. Direct journals to control accounts and entries posted after the period end are the usual causes, and they are easier to find before the auditor does.

3. Fix differences in a controlled way

Correct the entry in the books and refresh the schedule

Explain it with a documented reconciling item

Accept a small difference within an agreed limit, approved by a second person

4. Decide what to share

Not every document needs to go to the auditor by default. Items can be shared, shown view only, made available on request, or not shared with a recorded reason — and a release summary shows exactly what the auditor will see.

5. Give the auditor a read-only login

With a secure portal the auditor exports schedules to Excel or PDF, selects samples, searches any invoice or bill by number within the audit period and downloads its attachments, and raises queries in one place. Every view and download is logged.

The RQM Books Audit Hub does all of this and is included in every plan. For companies that also need In-Country Value certification, RQM Books ICV uses the same portal for your ICV certifying body.

This article provides general information and is not audit or professional advice. Agree the scope of information and access with your auditor.