Dubai companies often discover too late that a clean statutory audit does not answer the question the board actually asked. Where did the stock go. Why does the payroll file disagree with the WPS SIF. Can we still trust the cashbook before we sign the SPA. Since 2024, CA Audit Dubai has run these assignments as separate engagements, with a scope letter that names the process, the period and the report the reader will receive. Workpapers stay in this office.
Internal, stock and payroll reviews
Internal audit here is not a recycled checklist. We map the cycle that actually moves money or goods — procurement to payment, sales to cash, inventory to the warehouse gate — and test whether the control exists on a Tuesday afternoon, not only in the manual. Stock and inventory audits include attendance at count, cut-off, slow-moving provisions and the reconciliation to the ledger that a free-zone or bank inspector will still ask for. Payroll audit ties contracts, WPS files, leave, end-of-service and the general ledger so a discrepancy is a finding, not a shrug.
Forensic, due diligence and special-purpose work
Forensic and investigation assignments start from a suspicion or a complaint, not from a year-end timetable. We preserve what can be preserved, reconstruct what the books will still support, and write a report that a lawyer or a partner can use without us dressing up a guess as a fact. Due diligence for a purchase, a capital raise or a partner entry looks at quality of earnings, related parties, licence risk and tax exposure in the UAE file — VAT, Corporate Tax, ESR — not a glossy CIM. Special-purpose audits are whatever the contract, the court or the investor letter named: we will not expand them into a full statutory opinion unless you ask.
Process, compliance and systems audit
Process and compliance reviews test whether the company still matches the licence, the VAT group, the WPS setup and the board’s own policies. IT and systems audit looks at who can post, who can approve, whether backups exist, and whether the accounting file could survive a laptop that does not come back on Sunday. Findings are ranked. We do not deliver a fifty-page catalogue of theoretical risk to a ten-person trading house.
What this desk covers
Internal audit
Cycle-based testing of controls and exceptions, reported to the owner or the board with a short, ranked action list.
View this service →Stock and inventory audit
Count attendance, cut-off, valuation and ledger reconciliation for traders, wholesalers and companies with bonded or zone stock.
View this service →Forensic and investigation audit
Fact-finding on suspected misstatement, diversion or related-party leakage, written so counsel can read it.
View this service →Due diligence audit (M&A / investment)
Quality of earnings, licence and tax exposure, and the working-capital picture a buyer or investor in the UAE will actually use.
View this service →Process and compliance audit
Walkthroughs of the processes that sit behind the trade licence, VAT, WPS and internal authorities.
View this service →Payroll audit
Contracts, WPS files, MOL/MOHRE records and the payroll ledger — one reconciliation, named exceptions.
View this service →IT / systems audit
Access, posting rights, backup and whether the accounting system can support an FTA or bank request next week.
View this service →Special-purpose audit
A scoped opinion or factual findings report for a contract, a court, a partner dispute or a lender’s side letter.
View this service →Questions we are asked
Is a business audit the same as a statutory audit?
No. A statutory audit gives an opinion on the financial statements as a whole. A business audit answers a narrower question — stock, payroll, fraud, a deal — and the report is written for that reader. Mixing the two in one letter is how companies get a document nobody can use.
Can you attend a warehouse count in Dubai or a free zone?
Yes. Inventory work that matters includes attendance, not a spreadsheet review from the office. Tell us the location, the count date and whether the stock is on mainland, in a zone, or with a third-party warehouse.
Do you work for the buyer or the seller on due diligence?
We take one side of the table and say so in the letter. Conflict checks happen before we open the data room. If we already audit the target, we will not also write the buyer’s due diligence without a conversation about independence.
What do you need to start a forensic assignment?
A written brief of what is alleged or missing, access to the books and bank files, and a named contact who can authorise system access. We do not begin by interviewing the whole company. Scope first, then evidence.