September to November: audit season
Audit season 2026: how to handle AGSA requests for information without losing control of the file
The audit of the 2025/26 statements runs from September to November. A simple register, one point of contact and a few evidence rules keep it from turning into a scramble.
The 2025/26 financial statements were due at the Auditor-General by 31 August. From now until the audit report lands at the end of November, the finance office will receive a steady flow of requests for information, communications of audit findings, and questions about numbers that looked fine in July. How a municipality handles those three months decides whether the audit outcome improves or slips.
The AGSA's latest MFMA general report shows how much is still at stake. Only 39 municipalities, about 15 percent, achieved a clean audit, and 76 percent of municipalities submitted financial statements that contained material misstatements. Just 24 percent would have received an unqualified opinion without relying on corrections during the audit. In other words, most municipalities still fix their statements while the auditors are in the building. That is where a good audit process earns its keep.
Why the query stage goes wrong
In our experience it is rarely a lack of knowledge. It is a lack of control. Requests arrive by email to whoever the auditor met last, the same schedule is sent three times in three versions, deadlines are missed because nobody owned them, and by week six the finance manager cannot say which findings are open. The auditors then form a view about the control environment from the way the audit itself is run, and that view finds its way into the management report.
Set up the file before the first request arrives
A working audit file is a folder structure that mirrors the financial statements: one folder per note, each holding the lead schedule, the supporting documents and the reconciliation to the general ledger and the trial balance. Every number in the AFS should be traceable to that structure within minutes. If a schedule was prepared in Excel, keep the version that agrees to the AFS and lock it. If it changes during the audit, the new version gets a new name and a note of why it changed.
The two areas that generate the most requests are the fixed asset register and receivables. Confirm before the audit starts that the register agrees to the ledger by class, that additions, disposals and depreciation reconcile to the movement note, and that the impairment on consumer debtors ties to the age analysis on the same date. If those two reconciliations are already on file, a large share of the audit queries answer themselves.
Run a request register from day one
Every request for information gets a number, the date received, the date it is due, the person responsible, the date it was answered and a reference to what was provided. It does not need to be sophisticated; a shared spreadsheet is enough, provided one person owns it. The register does three things. It shows management and the audit committee at a glance how many requests are open and which are overdue. It stops duplicate answers. And it becomes your evidence, at the end of the audit, of how responsive the municipality was, which matters when the auditors assess the control environment.
What to capture on the request register
- Reference number, date received and the auditor who raised it.
- What is being asked, in one plain sentence, and which AFS note it affects.
- Due date under the engagement letter, and the internal owner.
- Date answered, what was provided, and where it sits in the audit file.
- Status: open, answered, follow-up received, or closed.
One point of contact, one version of every document
Appoint an audit coordinator who receives every request and every finding and routes it to the right person. Auditors should not be chasing individual clerks, and clerks should not be sending documents directly to auditors. The coordinator checks each answer before it goes out: does it actually answer the question, does it agree to the AFS, and is it the same version the auditors already have. A clear answer sent on time is worth far more than a long answer sent late.
Respond to findings, not just requests
Communications of audit findings are different from requests. A finding is the auditor telling you what they believe is wrong. Read it against the standard or the section of the Act quoted, decide whether you agree, and answer within the period stated on the finding. If you agree, say so and describe the correction. If you disagree, say why, with reference to the standard, the transaction and the evidence. A finding left without a response is generally treated as accepted, and an accepted finding on a material balance becomes an adjustment or a qualification.
Keep management's responses factual. "The municipality will implement controls" without a date, an owner and a description is not a response the AGSA can rely on, and it will reappear in next year's management report as an unresolved prior-year finding.
Corrections during the audit: do them properly
If a material misstatement is identified, correct it through a documented journal, reissue the affected notes, update the lead schedules and give the auditors the corrected set with a reconciliation from the submitted AFS to the corrected AFS. Piecemeal corrections in email are how statements end up internally inconsistent, and an inconsistent set of statements late in the audit is what turns an unqualified opinion into a qualified one.
Also remember that the 31 August submission is a statutory event under section 126 of the MFMA. Late submission is reported, so the aim is to submit once, correct only what the audit legitimately identifies, and document each correction.
Keep the audit committee in the loop
A short weekly summary from the request register, listing open requests, overdue items and findings received, gives the audit committee and the municipal manager the information they need without waiting for the management report. It also makes the audit committee's own review of the AFS and the audit process far easier to evidence.
Where we help. Ambition Partners Advisory runs the audit process for municipalities and municipal entities during September to November: the audit file, the request register, reviewing responses before they go to the AGSA, and preparing the corrected statements when an adjustment is needed. If you are in the middle of the audit and the file is not under control, it is not too late to fix that. Read about our audit readiness service or message us on WhatsApp.
Discuss your municipality’s requirements
Ambition Partners Advisory is a Chartered Accountant (SA) led practice working with municipalities, municipal entities, government departments and public entities across South Africa. Tell us where you are in the reporting cycle and we will send you a scope, timeline and fee.