Schedules auditors actually open first during year-end fieldwork

The first folders we request are rarely glamorous: bank reconciliations aged to the statement date, fixed-asset roll-forwards with additions and disposals, and aged receivables with subsequent cash receipts noted.

Inventory clients should add a bridge from floor count sheets to the general ledger, including cutoff invoices for goods in transit. Missing that bridge is the most common reason our observation day stretches into a second visit.

Related-party ledgers deserve early attention. Intercompany balances that do not eliminate cleanly delay consolidation work and often surface only after we have left the premises.

Send drafts even if they still carry open reconciling items. Knowing which differences exist lets us plan substantive tests instead of waiting for a perfected pack that arrives the night before the exit meeting.