AUDIT THAT ADDS VALUE

Over the years there has been an increasing demand for providers of external Audit services to deliver more in terms of value addition.

The roles of certified auditors like JW & PARTNERS and others has changed over the years but sadly most audit firms have not upgraded their abilities to squarely rise up to the occasion..

let me explain….

The ever changing business environment brings in new challenges that are responsible for the collapse of many big businesses of yesterday. Reducing them to just ordinary business generating far fewer sales than they used to. This puts a lot of demand on business owners and managers at levels of key decision making to seek more innovative ways and value addition capability to improve their organizations so that they, not only remain afloat, but also ensure a sustained growth and maximize compliancy to policies. Audit being the most fundamental business analysis activity, it follows that value addition will be demanded more from Audit service providers.

So how does an Audit give more value apart from the assurance?. It has been stated that the changing roles of an auditor or audit firm now demands a comprehensive understanding of the client’s business and the industry sector that he is found. There is more to understanding the business than just reading about it in their memorandum and articles of association or profile. An auditor, needs to among other virtues have a good understanding of business processes, and the mechanisms of how they are applied in each business or organisation in a sector.

The business processes include;

a)    Marketing processes

b)    Human resources management

c)    Administrative  management

d)    Operational management

e)    Accounting and financial Information management etc…

Value addition is key for prosperity of a business. Clients have often gotten raw deals when choosing Auditors paying lots of money on audit fees for far less value. You can tell an Audit firm that will add value to your business by how they describe you the client, the nature of your organization/business from a business process point of view, your challenges as a sector, opportunities and how they all affect the financial statements to which he will conclude by giving an assurance statement on. 

You see, the quality of an audit is not seen in the presentation of financial statements. After all they are prepared by the accountant of the organization which are (financial statements) also in turn generated from an Accounting software package.

You gauge the quality of audit from how the auditor conducts the exercise in interviews and meeting. How he engages staffs responsible while reminding or uncovering risk. Not only compliancy risks but also critical management risks that could have serious LEGAL consequences and other unrecoverable loses to the business or organization.

 The true value of Audit is in the qualities of QUERIES raised during the Audit and the recommendations suggested in the management letter. Quite often unreasonable queries raised during audits are as a result of shear ignorance and complete lack of understanding of the Auditee (client) by the Auditor most especially in the areas of management process. In addition to that some of the recommendations in the management letters if applied only cause more bureaucracy, clogging work flow and hence affecting efficiency.

As a client, you need a assurance that your business model is free of black spots and it is properly being applied to greatly guarantee that the business enjoys high levels of efficiency and a sustained growth with maximum compliancy to policies and regulations in the prevailing economic climate. This assurance can only come from an audit procedure that comprehensively takes into account the business processes and accurately relates it to management’s finance and accounting information of the client’s enterprise.

SO WHO EXACTLY ARE WE?

JW & PARTNERS is a certified Public Accounting firm offering Audit, Tax and a wide range of accounting and management consulting services. Formed in 1984 by two partners all indigenous, JW & PARTNERS has for over 29years served clients in various industry sectors. A journey that has seen it through some of the toughest times that only a resilient firm can go through. 

Our strategy is to serve clients with a service menu that will create development impact to their businesses or organization through value addition. We continuously research various industry sectors in Uganda and East Africa to ensure that our services stand out from most Audit firms. 

Our strength among others, is hinged on our comprehensive understanding of business processes and its application in various industry/business sectors. This is how we have built capacity to raise quality Audit queries to management and also make impactful recommendations in our management letters.

We don’t boast about experience because we have been around long enough and have served quite a number of clients in various sectors. Neither do we boast of academic qualification because they are the standard qualifications needed to practice CPA, ACCCA,FCCA….,But we boast of our in depth understanding of business processes. Our continuous research of industry sectors in Uganda and East Africa increases our innovative ability to deliver Audit value to clients.    

Benefit of a JW & PARTNERS’ Audit;

1.    New Clients will for the first time, be furnished with valuable concepts of enterprise management that will help them revitalize their business processes.

Out of our management reports, Management and owners will have more to discuss during their board and management meetings on how, to improve on their strategies or develop new ones. This is because our team of auditors form the core of all our innovative researcher department. 

Call for Action.

Try us. Offer us an opportunity to serve you with our Audit service.

To access this service you can call or write to us on email: jwandpartners@gmail.com , or call Managing Partner Mr. John Ochola +256 70 024835, Director Business Advisory Mr. Omony Patrick +256 772 564808  Office line; 0414 256408

Other related services offered;

Apart from External or Statutory Audit service, we offer a wide range of specialized management audits that would help improve management’s day to day capability to make profitable and effective cost cutting decisions.

These specialized audit services include;

·         Stock/inventory management Audit

·         Procurement management Audits

·         Fixed assets Management Audits

·         Human Resource Management audits 

·         Management policy reviews

·         Internal Audits (Accounting, Finance and internal control audits)

DEVELOP AN AUDIT MANUAL FOR YOUR ORGANISATION

Most organizations even though they undertake routine or regular audit exercises, are still are unable to fully exploit the benefits of an audit service simply because they do not posses an audit manual. 

An audit manual is a carefully crafted document that will help the organization evaluate, assess and understand what it’s Audit needs are.

Audit needs are activities, events, procedures, processes that an would entity desires to have an independent report on. This report apart from looking at the statutory compliancy aspects, should also point out to leaders of the organization the direction and trends of the organization in terms of management efficiency and effectiveness as well as strategy. 

Pre- Audit exercise,Terms of Reference and Scope of Audit:
An audit manual will help guide the organization on how to prepare for this very important exercise like stock taking, verification of account balances and registers, develope Terms of Reference(ToRs),scope of Audit,duration etc..

This prior preparation provides good of information that would help the auditor understand the entity better and appreciate its audit needs which is very critical for effective audit planning and execution. 

So many organizations shun audit thinking it’s a waste of money and time and only do it because the law requires it or to show that they are a legitimate entity.


Audit expectations and Auditor's liability:

The manual will guide the engagement process and clearly state what the entity's expectations from the Audit and also lay down a mechanism that would hold the Auditor liable should anything damaging or un professionalism should it come out of the report.

Management's Responsibility:

An audit manual will hold management more accountable, to carry out its duties cautiously fully aware that they will have to keep good evidence of what has transpired for the auditor to examine. Its important to note that not every document is audit evidence, but the audit manual will help guide on that.

Developing an Audit manual is not quite that simple and JW & PARTNERS helps entities in this area.

It is also sufficient to say that an audit manual will continuously be adjusted through reviews or change in management’s strategic objectives. 

This will enable the entity put out well expressed Tender bids for Audit service that will help the organization identifying the most suited Auditor. It will also help an organization look beyond the auditors experience in auditing similar entities but assess the auditor’s understanding of  the entity’s  audit needs from the perspective of industry and sector, and management processes  from  his/her response to the Expression of Interest (EoI) for audit service. 

To develop a good Audit manual, requires someone with not only a good level of audit experience but rich knowledge of organizational strategy and structural development. 

Like all our other services, Designing audit manual is a service that JW & PARTNERS does very well, and we would be happy to service your organization in this respect.

Fixed Assets Accounting and Management information Systems

Fixed Assets Accounting and Management information Systems. 

Fixed assets are properties owned by an organization whose use are for economic gain to the organization. They should therefore be managed in systematized manner if this objective is to be realized.

When we make reference to system we mean a structure of coordinated and synchronized activities comprising of People, processes, Procedures and Technology.

There are many software application and various kinds of technology created to help an organization manage its Fixed assets and associated cost effectively and ensure good returns on investments.

It will be disastrous at this point for an organization to imagine that there is this piece of technology that will solve all its fixed assets management problems.

A fixed assets management manual should be designed. This will not only help the organization properly account for its fixed assets in the financial statement but also help management make proper decisions for the organization concerning its fixed assets.

Fixed Assets Policy and Procedures Manual.

The fixed Assets system is a subsystem of the entity’s accounting system that can be sub divided further into fixed asset accounting system and a fixed assets management system.

Fixed asset Accounting system is a system of policies, procedures and methods for recording and reporting monetary amounts associated with fixed assets’ transactions.

Fixed asset management system is a system of methods, policies and procedures which address the acquisition, use, control, protection, maintenance and disposal of assets.

A fixed asset management manual is not for the large organization. It is a necessary tool for an organization that wants to clearly relate its Fixed assets to its economic advantages or disadvantages.

JW & PARTNERS is your trusted partner to help your organization develop a tailor made manual that will give management structure for Fixed assets management in your organization …contact us...

PLEASE NOTE; Even when your fixed Assets system is working perfectly it is good practice to have the system reviewed to get assurance…Read Fixed Assets system Review…

Well Come to JW & PARTNERS

What is JW & PARTNERS?

J W & Partners is a medium size Registered Public Accounting Firm in Uganda.It is registered by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (I.C.P.A.U).

JW & PARTNERS was established in 1984 by two partners all of them indigenous .It offers Accounting,Audit, Tax and a wide range of Management consulting services. The quality of our advisory services hinges on our detailed knowledge and understanding of local customs, regulations and requirements.

We have served a wide range of clients in the categories of Public entities, Private businesses,   community based organisations (CBOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO).

Our Goal;
Our goal is to offer development impact service to our clients and also grow the industry’s knowledge of the service that we offer.

Our strategy;

Being an Advisory firm, our strategy is to build credibility and increase clients and prospects confidence in the firm and its services. We do this by delivering quality service in addition to giving out FREE resources on organizational development in our blogs and we encourage our clients and prospects to subscribe to our newsletters and visit our site for free Resource that they can use to improve their management style in their organisations and businesses. 

We have also developed Online service platform for our services. Here a client can be served online for all or the greater part of the engagement. This will save both time, travel cost and any other inconveniences. It will also increase our coverage and capacity to service more clients with a small work force…Read more about our online services… 

Category of Services Offered are;-
Statutory services 
 1. Audit:-

• External Audits
• Management/Internal Audits
• Procurement management Audit
• Fixed Asset management Audits
• Store/Inventory management Audit
• Forensic/Investigative Audit.

2.  Taxation:-
3.  Company Secretarial:-
4.  Business Process Management Consultancies

Business Process Management systems are the key driving tools for a successful organization or enterprise there is unfortunately a misconception about what a management system is. Quite often a management system has been thought to mean a soft-ware application and the supporting hardware like computers and accessories. But this not correct a system is a structure of synchronized methods of achieving a particular objective. This involves people, processes, procedures and the technology or tools needed to help the people carry out processes using the laid down rules or procedures.

We major in the following management systems consultancy:-

• Accounting and financial management System:- 
• Procurement Management system 
• Fixed Assets Management system.
• Stock/Store/Inventory Management systems.
• Human Resource system.

5. Outsourced services(BPO).
Business Process Outsourcing services offered by JW & PARTNERS include;-

• Accountancy services:- 
• Making Business plans and Budget preparation.
• Training accounting and financial management:-
• Recruitments in finance and Accounts department.

6. Specialized Consultancies.
Our specialized consultancies are;-

• Industrial Analysis
• Market research
• Policy Research

Who is JW& PARTNERS?

JW & PARTNERS has Mr. John Charles Ochola as the engagement Partners and   Mr. Omony  Mooni Patrick who is charged with business development

....click here for more about John Ochola and Patrick Mooni Omony.

We recognize that as professionals we need to have specialized knowledge and skills in order to carry out the assurance function. It rests at the back of our mind that owners of organisations and businesses may depend on our independent report to evaluate the stewards ship of resources they have laid under the control of management.

The International Education Standards (IESs) which defines an Audit professional accountant as a professional accountant with responsibility for significant judgments in an audit of financial statements, forms our basis of setting our highest level of professional knowledge, skill, values, ethic and attitude towards our practice. 

Vision:
Our vision is to offer a holistic most affordable, customer focused and quality service in the        market.
Mission:
To continually Improve and expand our range of services to meet our client’s needs.
Goals:

• To tailor our services to suit clients individuals needs.
• To educate and continuously update our clients while serving them on policies.
• To develop good and long lasting professional relationships with our clients.
• To acquire and retain clients by employing a strategy that is customer focused

Building other people. 

The Partners of JW& PARTNERS have adopted the spirit of nation building. Jw & partners does this by offering opportunity for interns to gain skills and experience .The firm has a policy which demands that at least one intern or other persons gets a chance to acquire experience, to develop his/her carrier in the Audit and Accounting Industry in the firm. The policy creates a slot for people without exposure to gain much needed on job training and experience by including them as part of the work force in the projects running in the firm. The firm also offers free career guidance to students and other individuals.                                                                                                                                           

 Forming Consortium.

JW & PARTNERS's exceptional leadership skills birthed out of the spirit of equal distribution of wealth, has enabled the firm fully understand the concept of consortium formation and its benefits. The firm stands out as a trusted entity to spear head association with other firms of similar size. This guarantees the firm’s ability to successfully take on bigger projects that are usually reserved for the very big firms.

 Business Process Out sourcing (BPO)

Out sourcing core activities can give an entity considerable mileage in terms of cost cutting  and efficiency hence a competitive edge in its industry, and also, improve its quality of out put with   the extra time and man power availed as a result. BPO services offered by JW & PARTNERS include;-

1. Accountancy services:
2.  Recruitment
3. Management Meeting Facilitation
4. Hire of Consultants

Many organisations find it easy to outsource less technical services like cleaning services, catering, security services etc.. 

 However in UGANDA and many parts of Africa , a huge gap still remains about the BPO Management model amongst the local entities both profit making and not for profit(NGO).There exists a challenge   in outsourcing technical core activities or functions such as Marketing, Accounting, Fixed asset management, Store/stock management, HR management services, procurement etc.., because many of them (entities) have not properly understood this concept. Only Organisations with fairly good working Internal control systems can safely make decisions to have part of , or whole of    their core function outsourced, with good measurement of its benefits to the Organisation.

Though outsourcing brings in great benefits to an Organisation and gives it more time to focus on core issues that matter to the Organizations’ sustainability and growth, Many businesses/organisations have still been frustrated with PBO. An organization has to develop working systems upon which it can decide on which part of the process or activity to outsource.

 JW & PARTNERS’ business out sourcing experts understands the numerous challenges and Risks associated with outsourcing. We help entities build good internal systems, and advise, on how they can  gainfully  engage in outsourcing of technical core functions...more on Outsourcing services...

TAX ACCOUNTING AND TAX ADVISORY SERVICE

The Ugandan government's plan to finance over 70% of its budget  from its revenue sources means it will demand for increased compliancy whose effect will be felt in Increased drastic enforcement measures.

What this means for a tax payer like you and me is to be more cautious in the way we handle our business and personal affairs in relation to tax, if we are to avoid unobjectionable tax assessments. We therefore come to you with this proposal for you to SIGN-UP for our Tax Accounting and Tax Advisory service;

Tax payers will begin to see tax amendmends that will give the tax authorities power to raise assessments in business areas or sectors that were earlier overlooked in the income tax law.

With increased pressure on tax compliancy, many firms like JW & PARTNERS and individuals do come up to try and help tax payers with their tax matters.

Word of caution though; Not all who purport to be tax consultants are competent enough to handle tax matters. Some business owners have sadly found that out the hard way. So the snag is How do you tell a genuine tax consultant from a quack?. Simple. You listen to them. If you are unable to asses them due to lack of technical knowledge, JW & PARTNERS has a service code named Hire of consultant service click here for more.

But if you feel you have fairly good tax knowledge to asses the competence of a firm then I advise that you ask them to make a pitch  on this service. Most of what you will hear is how good they are in Tax matters, who they have worked for and their experience, but that is not enough because any one can make those claims. what you would like to know about them is how they understand you as an entity and how they will go about this service to help you and its benefits.

Its important to note that Very few tax consultants are competent in all industry sectors. They specialize in sectors. High profile consultants have sometimes let down there clients by exposing them to incur high tax liability because they attempted to advise in sectors they (Tax consultant) were not familiar with.

JW & PARTNERS we are different .We shall tell you if we cannot handle your situation and will refer you to someone we know that can help you if there is genuinely a chance for you to eliminate or reduce the tax liability you are faced with.

So how does our Tax Accounting and Tax advisory service  proposal look like?

We have often received clients with complicated tax problems whose mess resulted from serious disclosures or non-disclosures of transactions in their Tax return over a period sometimes covering several financial years to which assessments have been raised. In most cases it is too late for them to be helped. But situations like these are avoidable, if one signed up for this service (Tax Accounting and Tax advisory service) before assessments are raised. This will enable us put your tax affairs in order through amendments and rewriting of your accounting records.

Remember a disclosure in your Tax return that was made in ignorance of the prevailing tax laws according to section 142(2) of the income tax, demands that the tax payer proves that he was ignorant of the law at the time of filing the return. Tax Authorities have argued that some scrupulous tax payers have attempted to evade taxes sighting ignorance.

When you Sign-up for the Tax Accounting and Tax Advisory services, we assign you a Team which will examine all disclosures in your tax returns ie VAT, PAYE, WHT, Income tax, custom Tax before filing it (return) with URA and also look at intended transactions of imports or domestic nature so that we can advise on the tax implications and avert the risks.

Our team will be able to help you avoid making wrong disclosures that may attract serious tax recomputations. This we do through proper TAX PLANNING which may include characterization of transactions in your tax return in a way that gives you (the tax payer) greater tax relief and security benefit.

Secondly our tax accounting service is where we help you appropriately treat every tax sensitive transaction in your accounting records. Now let me explain what this means…..take the simplest example of disposal of assets. When a company disposes of its assets, it is not enough to indicate the fair value gain from disposal in your return. Tax payers need to show in there accounting records that this asset had a certain amount of capital allowance so that the net of this income is allowed for tax purpose. Tax payers should arrive at this chargeable income from disposal of asset by calculating it out of the entity’s accounting system; However if this is not done correctly, it will come to haunt you when the Tax authorities request for the accounting records to trace this transaction. And if found that accounting records were not properly kept it becomes an offense to which a penalty is sought. That’s why its advisable to use a Tax consultant who is an accountant. 

Our Tax accounting service will ensure that management is properly advised that when capturing records in their accounting system, that, they also cautiously make proper description of transactions to avoid them being disallowed by the tax man which then can result into more tax.

Our Tax Advisory service will ensure that the tax payer safely registers new investments or enters transactions wisely drafting contract agreements that will make light the tax burden on him. Your Imports, acquiring or disposing of assets, management fees etc…will be safely handled.

OUR APPROACH;

Signing up for this service means you bring us on board to work with your Accounts and Finance department. Our Team will specifically be looking at your monthly returns ie. VAT, PAYE, WHT, Income Tax, Import tax return.

 Your accounting department prepares the returns but before submitting to URA, it hands it over to us to examine, we also look at the accounting records to ensure that the information in the tax return have been properly captured in the accounting system. Our team will ensure that all transactions are properly characterized and also establish if any transactions with serious tax implication had been omitted or prematurely included in the tax return.

All this work will ensure that you minimize your Taxes as much as possible or as much as allowable by the law.

To access this service you can call or write to us on email: jwandpartners@gmail.com , or call Managing Partner Mr. John Ochola +256 70 024835, Director Business Advisory Mr. Omony Patrick +256 772 564808  Office line; 0414 256408

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE SERVICE.

We have two categories of clientele that you can choose to be serviced as;

a)    Regular Clients

b)    Retainers Client

Regular client Category;

This is a one off or walk in client. He is charged per the assignment. Say if he has a one off transaction or undertaking that he/she wishes to be advised a bout the Tax implication. He receives a quotation for that assignment.

Retainer Client Category;

This is long term. Here a client signs with us a contract where he pays an agreed monthly retainer fee for which he receives unlimited consultations at no extra charge for all his company Tax needs. This may range from acquisition of credit, managing of company assets, mortgages, expansions etc….

Thank you

Regards

Patrick Omony ,

Director Business Advisory,

JW & PARTNERS 0772 564808

Other services we offer that is of great benefits to your company are;

a.    Company secretarial/Registration Advisory service

When you register an organization there are rules and regulations called company procedures which you are expected to abide with when managing the affairs of your organization. The basic ones are filing Annual returns, Appointing Auditors and holding annual general meetings.

Failure to comply with company procedures can be serious. The most important aspect of this that will cause you to incur a liability with the Authorities more specifically URA, is when they examine the information that you have disclosed to them in your annual return.

The income Tax law requires that companies or organization must keep proper records. Now reference to proper records do not only refer to invoices, receipts and LPOs , agreements and so forth, it  includes other supporting documents that need to be filed with the registrar of companies at the Uganda registration service bureau.

b.    Accounting Information and control management service.

In this we help you set up an acceptable and efficient way of how you can capture and manage your accounting records for both management and Tax purpose. This will came in handy especially when objecting to TAX assessments raised by URA.