It’s often difficult, as a small independent consulting business, to get a look-in at some of the work that bigger businesses could offer us – why?
Well, in a nutshell, many medium to large businesses go straight to their auditors when they need some financial or business consulting or interim work doing – why?
It’s easy.
But easy isn’t always best, and it certainly isn’t best value.
Although they may assume that their auditor knows their business, so that they can hit the ground running, my experience tells me that this is often not the case. And many of the ‘big four’ charge a small fortune for relatively inexperienced resource.
The good news (for independent consultants) is that Michel Barnier, the EU Internal Market Commissioner, is contemplating banning audit firms from offering consultancy services to companies whose books they also check. The statement (as part of a speech to a Federation of European Accountants conference in Brussels) is part of an ongoing review of auditor independence which has been questioned since the run-up to the financial crisis.
Barnier is planning to publish draft law by November to include curbs and perhaps even a ban on auditors offering consultancy services to the same companies they audit.
The draft law will be of great interest to the big audit firms, and consultants alike.
Consult.Autus, as a small financial and business consultant and ICAEW member firm, is looking forwards to the longer term improvement in competition…