Professional Audit Services in Kenya
An audit is an independent opinion on whether your financial statements show a true and fair view. That opinion carries weight precisely because the person giving it has no stake in the answer.
Uwazi Consulting is based in Nairobi and carries out audit and assurance work for private companies, non-governmental organisations, SACCOs, schools and donor-funded projects. Most of our clients come to us for one of three reasons: the Companies Act requires an audit, a lender or donor has asked for audited accounts, or the board wants an independent look at how the money is being handled.
If you are comparing audit firms in Kenya, the questions worth asking are the same ones we would want answered: who signs the opinion, what licence do they hold, how long will it take, and what will it cost. This page answers all four.
Discuss Your Audit Requirements
Our Audit Services
Statutory Audit
The annual audit your company is required to have under the Companies Act, 2015. We examine the financial statements for the year, test the figures behind them, and issue a signed audit report for your directors, your members and the Registrar of Companies. This is the engagement most private limited companies need, and the one your bank or your board will usually be asking about.
External Audit of Financial Statements
An independent audit requested by someone other than the law — a donor, a lender, a franchisor, a parent company or a tender process. The work follows the same standards as a statutory audit, but the scope and the reporting format are set by whoever is asking for it. We confirm what the requesting party needs before we start, so the report you receive is the one they will accept.
Project and Grant Audits
Donors and development partners usually require a separate audit of the funds they have given you, covering expenditure against the approved budget and compliance with the grant agreement. We prepare the report in the format the funder specifies.
Internal Audit
Internal audit is not about signing off your accounts. It is a review of how your business actually runs: where cash can leak, which approvals are being skipped, whether stock records match the store. You get a findings report with practical recommendations, not an opinion.
Internal audit work and statutory audit work cannot be done by the same firm for the same client at the same time without compromising independence. If we are your internal auditors, you will need a separate external auditor, and we will say so at the outset rather than after you have signed.
When Does a Business Need an Audit?
Because the law says so. Under the Companies Act, 2015, an audit is the default for a Kenyan company. A private company escapes it only if it qualifies as a small company and its turnover for the year is not more than KSh 50 million and its net assets are not more than KSh 20 million. Public companies, and companies carrying on banking or insurance business, cannot use the exemption at all. Banks, deposit-taking SACCOs, insurers and licensed investment firms also answer to their own regulators, who require audited accounts regardless of size.
Because someone you deal with says so. This catches more businesses than the Act does. Loan agreements ask for audited accounts annually. Tenders ask for the last two or three years. Grant agreements build in an audit clause. Shareholder agreements often require one whatever the turnover. Check the document before you assume you are exempt — the exemption is in the Companies Act, not in your contract.
Because the shareholders want one. Members holding a sufficient stake can require an audit even where the company qualifies for the exemption. Where a founder has taken on outside investors, or two partners run a business neither fully sees, an annual audit is often the cleanest way to settle what actually happened in the year.
Because the business has outgrown trust alone. A growing company reaches a point where one person can no longer see everything. An audit will not catch every error, but it tests whether the controls you think exist are working.
What Does the Audit Process Involve?
- Acceptance and engagement. Before anything else we check that we can take the work: that we are independent of you, that we have the capacity, and that the scope is clear. You receive an engagement letter setting out what we will do, what we need from you, the timetable and the fee.
- Planning and understanding the business. We look at what you do, how money moves through the business, and where the risk of material error sits. A hotel, a transport company and an NGO carry risk in different places, and the audit plan reflects that rather than running down a standard checklist.
- Testing the controls. Where you have systems we can rely on — approvals, reconciliations, segregation of duties — we test whether they worked throughout the year, not just on the day we looked.
- Gathering evidence. This is the bulk of the fieldwork: confirming balances directly with your bank and with debtors and creditors, attending stock counts, agreeing samples back to invoices and contracts, inspecting assets, recalculating figures.
- Evaluating findings. We assess what the evidence shows, discuss any misstatements with management, and give you the chance to correct them before the report is finalised. Nothing in the final report should be a surprise.
- Reporting. You receive the audited financial statements and our audit report with its opinion. Alongside it, a management letter setting out control weaknesses we noticed and what we suggest you do about them — usually the more useful of the two documents for running the business.
How to Prepare for an Audit
Audits run long for one reason more than any other: the records were not ready when the team arrived. What makes the difference:
- A complete trial balance and draft financial statements. The audit starts from your figures. If the books are still being written up, the fieldwork stops before it starts. Where your records need work first, our bookkeeping services and accounting services can bring them up to date — though not for a company we are also auditing. See the independence note below.
- Bank confirmations requested early. Banks are slow. The request goes out at the start of the audit, not the week we need the answer.
- Supporting documents filed so they can be found. Invoices, receipts, contracts, lease agreements, loan statements, board minutes, insurance policies. We will ask for samples across the whole year, so a file by month beats a drawer.
- Reconciliations done. Bank, cash, mobile money, debtors, creditors, payroll. Every unreconciled balance becomes a question, and questions take time.
- Fixed asset and stock records agreed. A fixed asset register that ties to the ledger, and a stock count we can attend or verify.
- Someone available to answer questions. One person who knows the business and can be reached during fieldwork. That is worth more than any amount of filing.
Why Consider Uwazi Consulting for Audit Services?
Licensed for audit work, and happy to prove it. Under the Accountants Act, nobody may practise as an accountant in Kenya without a practising certificate and a licence in force — and audit and assurance is a licence category of its own on top of that. Uwazi holds a current practising licence covering audit and assurance work, and your audit report is signed by the licensed practitioner responsible for the engagement. You will know who that is before the work starts. Ask any firm you are considering for the same, and check it against the ICPAK register: an audit report signed outside the licence is not worth the paper it is on when your bank or your donor looks closely.
We tell you where the line is. Uwazi also provides accounting, bookkeeping and tax services. We do not audit financial statements we have prepared ourselves — an auditor reviewing their own work is not independent, and a report issued on that basis is worth little to the bank or donor reading it. If you already use us for accounting, we will tell you plainly that your audit belongs with another firm, and help you brief them.
Ten years of Kenyan practice. Uwazi is led by members of ICPAK and has worked with Kenyan businesses for over ten years, across company audits, NGO and grant engagements, and internal reviews.
You get dates, and we keep them. The engagement letter carries a fieldwork window and a reporting date. If something we find is going to move that date, you hear it while it is happening.
Findings you can act on. The audit opinion satisfies the Registrar. The management letter is what helps you run the business — written in plain terms, with recommendations ranked by what matters, not a list of technical observations.
More about the practice on our About Us page.
Audit Services FAQs
What is the difference between an internal and an external audit?
An external audit is for people outside the business — shareholders, the Registrar, lenders, donors — and ends in a formal opinion on the financial statements. An internal audit is for management and the board, looks at controls and processes rather than the final figures, and produces recommendations instead of an opinion. External audit is backward-looking and regulated; internal audit is continuous and shaped by what you ask for.
Does every company in Kenya need a statutory audit?
No, but most do. Under the Companies Act, 2015, a private company is exempt only if it qualifies as a small company and keeps turnover at or below KSh 50 million and net assets at or below KSh 20 million. Public companies and those in banking or insurance are excluded from the exemption entirely. And many exempt companies still get audited, because a lender, donor or shareholder agreement requires it.
How long does a business audit take?
For a small or medium company with records in order, fieldwork usually runs one to two weeks, with the report following two to three weeks after that. The variable is almost never our speed — it is the state of the records and how quickly third-party confirmations come back. We give you a timetable in the engagement letter and tell you early if anything threatens it.
What documents are required for an audit?
A trial balance and draft financial statements, the general ledger, bank statements and reconciliations for the full year, sales and purchase invoices, payroll records, the fixed asset register, stock records, loan and lease agreements, board or trustee minutes, statutory filings and your KRA returns. We send a tailored request list once we know your business, so you are not hunting for things we do not need.
How much do audit services cost in Kenya?
Fees depend on the size of the business, the number of transactions and locations, the condition of the records and the reporting deadline. We quote a fixed fee after an initial scoping discussion, and the quote names what is included. Be cautious of a fee quoted before anyone has looked at your books — either the scope will change later, or the work will be thin.
Talk to Us About Your Audit
If you have an audit deadline coming, a lender asking for audited accounts, or you are simply not sure whether your company is required to have one, start with a conversation. Tell us what kind of entity you are, what your last financial year looked like and who is asking for the report. We will tell you which engagement fits, what it involves, and what it will cost — and if independence means the work should go to another firm, we will tell you that too.
Contact Uwazi Consulting to discuss your audit requirements.