Home / Audit Readiness

Audit readiness,
done before the auditor

Your free zone has asked for audited accounts. We build the file, tell you what the auditor will raise, and fix it first. The opinion is signed by your registered auditor.

AED 50mRevenue above which audited accounts are mandatory

9 monthsCorporate tax filing deadline after year end

7 yearsRecord retention under the Tax Procedures Law

AED 750Review fee for a nil or dormant year

Ask a consultant Read the detail

The boundary, stated plainly

What we do and do not do

Only an auditor entered in the Register of Practising Auditors of the UAE Ministry of Economy may conduct a statutory audit and sign an audit opinion. That is Federal Law No. 12 of 2014. My Eloah Business Hub is not a registered audit firm.

✓ We prepare the file — We assemble and index the audit-ready file pack so the auditor finds nothing missing. The pack shortens the audit. It does not replace it.

✓ We review readiness — We run the verification gates the auditor will run, and state the outcome your records would presently support: unmodified, qualified, adverse or disclaimer.

✓ We review the auditor's draft — When your appointed auditor sends a draft report, we review it against ISA 705 and the source evidence. We list corrections by priority. We do not rewrite it.

✓ We do not sign the opinion — Our work is advisory work product. It is never called an audit report, never carries an Opinion section, and is never signed as auditor.

✓ We do not prepare anything to be rubber-stamped — ISA requires the auditor to obtain their own sufficient appropriate audit evidence. If a file is wanted that an auditor can just sign, we decline and explain why.

✓ We do not submit our review as audited accounts — An Audit Readiness Review may not be filed with a bank, a licensing authority, a free zone authority or the Federal Tax Authority as audited financial statements.

Who is actually required to have one

When audited accounts are mandatory

Two separate demands get confused. Corporate tax law requires audited financial statements only in defined cases. Your free zone may require them as a condition of licence renewal regardless.

Requirement	Source	Who it applies to
Audited financial statements	Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025	Taxable persons with revenue above AED 50,000,000 in the tax period
Audited financial statements	Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025	Every Qualifying Free Zone Person, regardless of revenue
Audited special purpose statements	Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025	All tax groups; the AED 50,000,000 threshold does not apply to groups
Annual appointment of an auditor	Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021	LLCs and joint stock companies, appointed by the general assembly for a renewable one-year term
Audited accounts on the portal	Free zone authority rules	Customarily DMCC, JAFZA, DAFZA, DIFC, ADGM, RAKEZ, DSO, SAIF Zone and Hamriyah
Varies by licence type	Free zone authority rules	IFZA, SHAMS, Meydan, SPCFZ, ANCFZ and Ajman Free Zone apply it more flexibly

The readiness review

We run the checks the auditor runs

A management-prepared schedule is a claim, not evidence. Each of these checks exists because it has failed in live work. We record a pass, a fail or a cannot test for every one, and report failures to you before anything is produced.

✓ The financial year — We take the year end from the trade licence and MOA, then prove it against the bank by finding the date on which the statements actually produce your balance sheet cash figure. Wrong headings pass their error to every figure below.

✓ Legal identity — Share capital comes from the MOA only, never from a trial balance line called equity. We check the registered address against the address the bank holds, and we check the licence expiry date.

✓ Cash at both ends — Opening and closing cash tied to the bank, for every account and every currency sub-account. Opening cash of nil is a red flag, not a fact.

✓ Trial balance to statements — Every financial statement line agreed to the trial balance, with every difference quantified. An expense moved into a category with a nil trial balance is a fabricated line, not a reclassification.

✓ The balancing figure test — Closing retained earnings less opening retained earnings must equal profit for the year, adjusted for dividends and reserve transfers. Any residual is a plug and we call it one.

✓ Tax computed and booked — Corporate tax at 9% above AED 375,000, computed and placed in the balance sheet. For a free zone entity we record the Qualifying Free Zone Person assessment. We also compare the incorporation date with your first set of accounts, because years in between are unreported and untaxed.

The primary deliverable

The audit-ready file pack

Fourteen indexed schedules, each stating its evidence source and cross-referencing the supporting document. This is how an audit gets fast and cheap legitimately: nothing is missing, and the auditor still audits.

Ref	Schedule	Tied to
A	Trial balance to financial statement mapping, every line	Trial balance
B	Bank reconciliations, all accounts, opening and closing	Bank statements
C	Bank statement index by month, gaps identified	Bank statements
D	Revenue listing by customer, invoice and currency	Sales invoices
E	Purchase listing by supplier and invoice	Purchase invoices
F	Advances and loans schedule with counterparty, date, amount, agreement reference, terms and related party status	Agreements
G	Related party schedule in IAS 24 format	Shareholder register and MOA
H	Expense analysis with personal expenditure separately identified	Bank statements
I	Payroll reconciliation to WPS	WPS records
J	Foreign exchange rates used, with source and basis	IAS 21
K	Equity movement, each movement evidenced	Board resolutions
L	Corporate tax computation with add-backs and QFZP assessment	Corporate Tax Law
M	Prior period position and unreported profit analysis	Prior statements
N	Document request list built from the bank narratives	Bank statements

Draft reviews and nil years

Reviewing a draft, and dormant years

Two situations come up constantly. Your auditor has sent a draft and something reads wrong. Or the year was nil and you still need accounts filed.

✓ We confirm what is right first — We test the auditor's figures against source evidence and record what agrees. That stops the auditor reworking items that were already correct.

✓ Opinion wording against ISA 705 — We check the heading matches the text, the opening words, the opinion paragraph, the basis paragraph, the responsibilities section, key audit matters, the regulatory section, and the signature, date and registration number.

✓ Contradictions inside the draft — A report headed disclaimer of opinion cannot then say the statements present fairly. An auditor who obtained no evidence cannot confirm there were no contraventions.

✓ Verifying the auditor — We check the registration number against the Ministry of Economy register and the relevant free zone approved auditor list. Where we cannot verify it from available sources, we say so and tell you to check.

✓ What we argue and what we do not — We never argue against a correctly reasoned modification. We argue the wording, the disclosures and the evidence that was not pursued.

✓ Nil and dormant years — A dormant year still needs a clean file and a correct position. The review fee for a nil or dormant year is AED 750. Opening cash and related party balances must still be stated correctly.

Fee guide

Our fee for this

Service	Fee (AED)
Audit readiness review — nil or dormant	AED 750
Audit readiness review — turnover 0 to 5 million	AED 1,470
Audit readiness review — turnover 6 to 10 million	AED 2,010
Audit readiness review — turnover 11 to 15 million	AED 2,550
Audit readiness review — turnover 16 to 20 million	AED 3,000
Audit readiness review — turnover 21 to 30 million	AED 3,450
Audit readiness review — turnover 31 to 50 million	AED 3,990
Audit readiness review — turnover above 50 million	On request

Advisory fees banded by turnover for the year reviewed, never an audit fee; the statutory audit fee itself is the registered auditor's and is not charged by us.

Government charges are separate and are paid to the authority, not to us.

FAQ

Common Questions.

No. Under Federal Law No. 12 of 2014, a statutory audit may only be conducted, and an audit opinion only signed, by an auditor entered in the Register of Practising Auditors of the UAE Ministry of Economy. My Eloah Business Hub is not a registered audit firm. We prepare the file, review readiness and review your auditor's draft; the opinion comes from your registered auditor.

The trade licence and MOA first, because the year end and the share capital come from those. Then bank statements for the full financial year covering every account and every currency sub-account, the trial balance or general ledger, sales and purchase invoices, debtors and creditors ageing, payroll and WPS records, VAT returns and TRN, corporate tax registration, and the prior period financial statements. We tell you plainly what is missing and what each missing item would change.

Both can be true. Ministerial Decision No. 84 of 2025 makes audited financial statements mandatory for taxable persons with revenue above AED 50,000,000, for every Qualifying Free Zone Person regardless of revenue, and for all tax groups. Separately, most free zones require audited statements as a condition of licence renewal. Deadlines and penalties are set by each authority and change, so we confirm the current position on your authority's portal.

We can reconstruct a cash-basis picture from bank statements, but it will not support an unmodified opinion. Receivables, payables, inventory, fixed assets, accruals, revenue cut-off and opening balances cannot be verified from a bank statement. The likely outcome is a qualified opinion where those areas are material but not pervasive, or a disclaimer where no ledgers exist at all.

It is fourteen indexed schedules running from trial balance mapping and bank reconciliations through to the corporate tax computation and a document request list drawn from your bank narratives. Each schedule states its evidence source. It does not replace the audit. It shortens the audit because nothing is missing, and the auditor still performs their own testing.

Yes, as a technical review memorandum listing corrections by priority. We confirm the figures that agree with source evidence first, then test the wording against the ISA 705 checklist and apply the same verification gates to the draft. We do not argue against a correctly reasoned modification. We argue the wording, the disclosures and the evidence that was not pursued.

Talk to a consultant

Has your free zone asked for audited accounts?

Tell us your year end and your authority, and we will confirm what is required and what we need from you.

Tell us your situation and a consultant replies with what actually applies to you, what it costs and what we need from you to start.

Audit readiness, done before the auditor