Audit engagement

Budgeting application audit

A full review of how budget holders and controllers apply your budgeting sequence across cost centres, capital requests, and board packs.

Who this is for

Finance leaders who suspect that written budgeting instructions and living practice have drifted apart — especially after reorganisations, ERP changes that altered pack formats, or new board reporting calendars.

Result you can expect

A written findings pack that names concrete gaps: skipped review steps, informal side channels for capital spend, inconsistent variance narratives, and weak handoffs between planning and accounting. Each finding includes evidence from sampled packs or interviews and a suggested remediation order tied to your next fiscal close.

What is included

  • Kick-off scoping of entities, cost centres, and budget calendar milestones
  • Document pull: circulars, pack templates, approval matrices, sample packs from two recent cycles
  • Structured interviews with budget holders, reviewers, and the planning desk
  • Application map: where instructions are followed, bent, or bypassed
  • Findings workshop with your finance leadership
  • Final report and a 90-day remediation outline

What is excluded

We do not prepare your annual budget numbers, replace your planning team, or sell or configure budgeting software. Tax advice and statutory audit opinions are outside this engagement.

How we work

  1. Scope letter — entities, languages of packs (Japanese / English), interview list, and access to samples.
  2. Evidence week — we read packs before we talk; interviews test what the papers already suggest.
  3. Application map — a clear picture of how the budgeting sequence is applied in practice.
  4. Findings workshop — ranked issues, mild disagreements welcomed, decisions recorded.
  5. Close-out — report delivery and optional short follow-up call within 30 days.

Preparation

Please nominate a single coordination contact, confirm NDAs if required, and assemble sample packs from at least two complete cycles. Interview participants should block 45–60 minutes without presentation decks — we prefer working papers and honest recounting of last quarter’s process.

Constraints

Engagements in Japan typically require Japanese-language pack review capacity; we confirm language coverage in the scope letter. Multi-entity groups with more than twelve cost centres usually need the longer end of the duration range.

Next step

Request this audit with your fiscal close date and approximate cost-centre count. We reply from the Nagoya office within two business days.

For CFOs, controllers, and planning leads in mid-size and large organisations in Japan

Typical duration 4–7 weeks, depending on cost-centre count

Delivery On-site in the Nagoya area or hybrid with remote document review

Pricing Fixed engagement fee based on entity count and interview volume

Request this audit