The Body Corporate manager acts on behalf of the committee of management which comprises of lot owners or proxies of lot owners. The committee makes decisions on various financial matters pertaining to the management of the common property and provides directions to the Body Corporate manager to act on these directions via decisions made at committee meetings. The Body Corporate manager then acts on the committee’s guidelines and performs the tasks assigned. The body corporate audit looks at the financial aspects and decisions made at these meetings via the minutes of meetings.
The management of the Body Corporate is governed by a contract of appointment of the manager and the services are provided by the various contractors who in turn hold contracts with the body corporate for services such as cleaning and maintenance of the common property. As part of the body corporate audit we shall run tests to determine if the management fee has been charged in accordance with the appointment agreement as well as contractor’s payments are strictly in accordance with agreements.
Sometimes mixed-use buildings may have multiple Body Corporates and this might give rise to the requirement to run multiple body Corporate audits. Cost allocations and record keeping becomes a major focus of any body corporate audit engagement.
The body corporate’s responsibilities include managing the common property, repairs and maintenance. They also have to prepare the financial statements and keep proper financial records.
Prescribed body corporates have a mandatory requirement to carry out a body corporate audit of financial accounts every year. Prescribed Body Corporates are those that have more than 100 lots. This includes; apartments, units, townhouses, storage, parking lots, retail as well as commercial properties
Even if your body corporate is not a prescribed body corporate, an audit of the financial statements provides assurance to the owners and managers of the owners corporation on the financial management of the body corporate. Managers can present the audited financial statements at the AGM’s.
While not being a mandatory Body Corporate audit, the committee may choose to have a voluntary audit conducted to ensure confidence in the management of the financial affairs of the Body Corporate to present at AGM’s to the other non-participating lot owners.
The benefits of a Body Corporate audit are as follows:
- Obtaining an independent, expert opinion regarding the truthfulness and fairness of the financial statements
- Detection of any errors
- Ensuring compliance with accounting principles & standards
- Detection & prevention of any fraudulent activity
In order to complete an effective and efficient body corporate audit, the following may be required:
- General Ledger or access to accounting software used
- Income and Expenditure Statement
- Balance Sheet
- Copy of the prior year’s audit report
- Trial Balance
- Receipts/Invoices for revenue earned during the financial year being audited
- A copy of the plan of subdivision
- Members Register
- Invoices paid during the financial year
- Bank statements during the course of the financial year being audited
- Insurance statement for the property being audited
- Minutes of all meetings held during the financial year being audited
- Approved budgets for the financial year being audited
- Contract of appointment of the manage
- Copy of Business Activity Statements (if applicable)
Online Body Corporate Audits:
The process to audit the fund of a Body Corporate can be carried out completely via correspondence. The advent of cloud-based reporting and accounting makes the process far simpler than earlier when an auditor would spend hours in person with the manager of the OC. One of our auditor’s shall be in touch with you requesting preliminary information to prepare an audit plan and based on this audit plan further documents shall be requested. These could be copies of invoices, contracts and minutes of meetings and using these supporting evidences we can complete the audit of Body Corporate completely via correspondence.