Audit services covering external, internal and compliance audits, signed by auditors licensed to practise in the UAE — prepared under IFRS and accepted by the free zones where our clients operate.
That distinction decides what an audit costs you and how long it takes. A company with reconciled monthly books hands over a file and gets a signed opinion in weeks. A company handing over twelve months of bank statements and a folder of invoices is paying us to rebuild its accounting before the audit can even begin.
We are a chartered practice with audit licensed in-house. For clients whose books we also keep, the audit draws on records we already understand — there is no second firm learning your business from scratch, and no reconciling two versions of the same numbers.
For clients who come to us for audit alone, we are equally direct about what we find. If the records will not support an unqualified opinion, you hear that early enough to do something about it, not in the week the report is due.
Beyond satisfying the free zone — an opinion that carries weight with the people who matter.
Where your zone requires audited statements, we file them well ahead of renewal so nothing cascades into visa and banking status.
Not sure this is the right list for your licence? Our overview of audit firms in the UAE maps every zone to the approved auditor list that governs it.
Audited figures materially change how a bank reads a facility application or an account review. Management accounts do not carry the same weight.
Audited statements are the strongest support for a corporate tax computation if the FTA opens an assessment.
No serious acquirer relies on unaudited numbers. Producing three years retrospectively during a deal weakens your negotiating position.
Our management letter names the specific control gaps we found and what to do about them — not boilerplate.
In-Country Value is calculated from audited data. A clean audit is the foundation of a better score.
Four stages, with the fieldwork sized to the state of your records.
We understand the business, identify where material misstatement is most likely, and agree scope, timing and the information request list.
Substantive testing and controls work across revenue, purchases, payroll, banks, fixed assets and related parties.
Partner review, resolution of any queries with you, and a draft opinion with the management letter.
Final signed statements issued and submitted to your free zone authority, with the file archived for the retention period.
Assumes reconciled books at handover. Reconstruction work is scoped and quoted separately.
The state of the records at handover — nothing else comes close. A reconciled file is a review; an unreconciled one is a reconstruction with an audit on the end. The second takes three times as long and costs accordingly.
Scope agreed, engagement letter signed, and the document request list issued.
Business understanding, materiality set, and the audit approach designed around your specific risks.
Testing across all material balances, with queries raised as they arise rather than in one batch at the end.
Draft financial statements and management letter issued for your review.
Final opinion signed and submitted to the relevant authority.
Driven by transaction volume and the state of the records — not by your revenue.
From AED 6,500
Single entity, low transaction volume, books already reconciled.
From AED 12,000
Higher volume, inventory or multiple bank accounts.
Custom
Multiple entities requiring consolidation.
Where books require reconstruction before the audit can begin, that work is scoped and quoted separately so you see the two costs clearly. Ranges are indicative for planning and are not a binding offer.
The completeness of this list is what determines your fee and your timeline.
They are not interchangeable, and asking for the wrong one is the most common reason a submission is rejected.
An independent opinion on your annual financial statements under IFRS or IFRS for SMEs, signed by a UAE-licensed auditor. This is what a free zone means when it asks for audited accounts at renewal, and what a bank means when it asks for audited financials.
In practice the same engagement as a statutory audit, but the phrase is usually used when the driver is a lender, an investor or a shareholder rather than a licensing authority. Same standard, same opinion, different audience reading it.
Not a legal requirement for most UAE SMEs and not a substitute for an external audit. It examines whether your own controls work — approvals, segregation of duties, stock handling, expense authorisation — and reports to management rather than to the outside world.
A test of whether the business is doing what a specific rule requires: VAT treatment applied correctly, AML procedures followed, ESR conditions met, licence conditions observed. Scoped to the regulation in question rather than to the whole entity.
We perform a defined list of checks you or a third party specify and report the factual findings. No opinion is expressed. Useful for grant conditions, revenue verification, franchise reporting or a specific concern where a full audit is more than the question needs.
A closing audit prepared as part of winding the company up, required by most authorities before a licence can be cancelled and the liquidator can issue their final report. We prepare it alongside the liquidation itself where clients want one firm handling both.
The zone does not just want an audit. It wants one it will accept from a firm it recognises.
Several UAE free zones maintain an approved auditor register. If your report arrives signed by a firm that is not on it, the zone does not negotiate — the submission is rejected, and you are back at the start with less time than you had before. We have taken over more than one engagement at that exact point, and it is a bad place to be six weeks from renewal.
Beyond the list, zones differ in what they actually want to see: the reporting framework, whether a management letter is expected, the submission portal, and how long before renewal the file must land. Those details are not published consistently, and they change. Knowing them is most of the value of appointing a firm that files in these zones every month.
Audited statements are required annually for renewal and must be filed through the DMCC portal by an auditor on the DMCC approved list. The zone is one of the stricter enforcers — a late or non-conforming submission blocks renewal rather than generating a reminder.
Both require audited financial statements for licence renewal. JAFZA entities holding warehousing or trading licences frequently need inventory verification as part of the fieldwork, which is worth planning for rather than discovering mid-audit.
SHAMS requires audited accounts for renewal across most licence categories. Sharjah zones are generally less prescriptive about the framework than DMCC, but no less firm about the deadline.
Audit requirements vary by licence category and have been extended in recent years rather than reduced. If you were told at incorporation that no audit was needed, that is worth re-checking before you rely on it this cycle.
Both common-law jurisdictions require full IFRS financial statements audited by a registered auditor, with tighter filing rules and a shorter tolerance for delay than the commercial free zones.
There is no blanket annual audit filing for every mainland LLC, but Commercial Companies Law requires proper books, and banks, investors and the FTA request audited accounts often enough that most established mainland businesses produce them anyway.
Requirements change by zone and by licence category. Send us your trade licence and we will confirm what applies to your entity this year rather than in general.
Almost every expensive audit we see started too late, not too badly.
Most UAE free zones expect audited statements within three to six months of your financial year end, and tie acceptance to your licence renewal date rather than to a fixed national deadline. That means your deadline is specific to your entity, and the only way to know it is to read your own licence.
Working backwards from renewal, here is the schedule we hold clients to:
Miss the six-week handover and each subsequent stage compresses. Miss it by a quarter and you are paying for reconstruction, not audit. The fee difference between those two engagements is routinely two to three times — and the stress difference is larger.
A lapsed licence is not a paperwork problem either. It cascades into visa status, bank account operation and, in some zones, a fine that grows monthly. That is why we would rather chase you in month two than rescue you in month eleven.
A licensed opinion is the minimum. What differs is how the engagement is run.
Our opinions are signed by UAE-licensed auditors and accepted by the free zones where our clients hold licences.
Not just signs it. On engagements this size the partner who met you is the partner who reads the work.
We work backwards from your renewal date with real margin, so an audit never becomes the reason a licence lapses.
Where we keep your records too, the audit is faster and materially cheaper — one set of numbers, one team.
Specific control findings with a recommended fix, not a generic template with your name at the top.
The statements we sign and the corporate tax return we file tell the same story, because they come from the same file.
Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates — approval is what matters, not distance.
We are based in Dubai with a second office at Sharjah Media City, and we sign audits for companies licensed anywhere in the country. What determines whether we can act for you is free zone approval, not distance.
Our approvals cover DMCC, JAFZA, DAFZA, IFZA, Meydan, SHAMS and RAKEZ. If you are unsure whether we hold the approval your authority requires, send the licence and we will confirm before quoting rather than after.
Most comparisons come down to fee, which is the least reliable basis — the number moves once work starts if the quote assumed clean records. Four questions separate firms more usefully.
We answer all four before an engagement letter. What actually moves the number is set out in our guide to audit fees in Dubai, and if you need controls work rather than an opinion, that is internal audit.
Search for audit firms in Dubai and you will find several hundred, ranging from the Big Four to one-room operations that sign whatever is put in front of them. The useful distinctions are narrower than the choice suggests, and only three of them matter.
First, approval. Free zones maintain approved auditor lists, and an audit signed by a firm not on your zone’s list will be rejected at renewal. Check the list before you engage, not after. Second, whether the firm audits companies like yours — a practice built around large groups will price you badly and understand you slowly. Third, whether the partner signing your opinion has actually read your file.
We are a chartered practice offering audit services in Dubai and audit services in the UAE more broadly, including Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Among auditing companies in Dubai we are deliberately mid-sized: large enough to sit on the approved lists that matter, small enough that a partner reads your file. Our guide to changing your auditor covers the mechanics if you are already engaged elsewhere, and what an audit actually costs covers fees without the evasion.
There is no single national audit deadline in the UAE. Each authority sets its own, and almost all of them run from your financial year end rather than a fixed calendar date. Two companies in the same building can have deadlines six months apart.
The table below is a planning aid, not a substitute for your licence. Authorities change their rules, and several publish nothing at all — where that is the case we say so rather than invent a figure.
| Authority | Audited accounts due | What missing it does |
|---|---|---|
| DMCC | Within 180 days of your financial year end, via the member portal | Blocks licence renewal; auditor must be on the DMCC approved list — full guide |
| DDA / TECOM (Media City, Internet City, Knowledge Park, Studio City, Design District, DIAC, DSP, DPC, DOC) | Within 6 months of year end — 30 June for a 31 December close | Penalties apply and renewal is affected — full guide |
| JAFZA | Commonly within 90 days of year end | Tied to renewal; portal sanction — full guide |
| DAFZA | Commonly within 3 months, and required at licence renewal | Updated trade licence not issued until filed |
| DIFC | Published guidance varies by entity type and turnover — confirm directly | Regulated environment; tighter filing rules than commercial zones |
| SAIF Zone | Required at renewal; commonly 6 months for FZE and FZC | Updated trade licence withheld — SAIF Zone setup |
| RAKEZ | Required at renewal, commonly within 6 months | Financial penalty and suspension of services on repetition — RAKEZ setup |
| Hamriyah (HFZA) | Required on commercial licence renewal | Updated trade licence not issued |
| DSO | Financial statement and liquidation report required for renewal and clearance | Request held; late renewal fines accrue |
| IFZA / Meydan | Varies by licence category, and has been extended in recent years rather than reduced | Re-check before relying on advice given at incorporation — full guide |
| SHAMS and several Sharjah / Ajman / UAQ zones | Accounts must exist and be retained; not always collected annually | Produce on request; still required for the 0% claim — full guide |
| Mainland (DED) | No blanket annual filing requirement | Commercial Companies Law still requires proper books; banks, investors and the FTA request audited accounts routinely |
The important correction: in most zones the consequence of filing late is not a fine you can absorb. It is a blocked licence renewal — which in turn affects visa status, establishment card validity and, eventually, your bank account. That is why we diarise from the year end rather than the deadline. See what to do if you have already missed one.
Companies plan for one and miss the other constantly. Your corporate tax return is due nine months after your year end. Most zone audit deadlines fall three to six months earlier. One audit can support both — but only if it is planned to the earlier date.
We audit mainland and free zone companies throughout the UAE. Where we hold a physical presence we say so; where we do not, we say that too.
Our base. Mainland DED companies and free zone entities across DMCC, DAFZA, JAFZA, DDA/TECOM, IFZA, Meydan, DSO, DWTC and Dubai South. Most of our work sits here.
We serve Abu Dhabi mainland, ADGM and the Abu Dhabi free zones including Masdar City and KIZAD, and we handle ICV certification for ADNOC and government tenders. We do not maintain an Abu Dhabi office and would rather say so plainly — see how we serve Abu Dhabi clients.
A genuine office at Sharjah Media City. We audit SHAMS, SPC, SAIF Zone, Hamriyah and Sharjah mainland companies — see our Sharjah practice.
The northern emirates zones — Ajman Media City, Ajman Free Zone, UAQ FTZ, RAKEZ, RAK ICC, Fujairah Free Zone and Creative City — are served from Dubai and Sharjah. For an annual audit that is rarely a constraint: the fieldwork is largely on records, not premises.
Most free zones maintain a list of auditors whose reports they will accept. Submitting a report signed by a firm not on your zone’s list means the submission is rejected and you commission a second audit, under deadline pressure, at a second fee.
Three checks, in this order, whichever firm you are considering:
We are registered with the Ministry of Economy as licensed auditors, and our reports are accepted across the major UAE free zones. If your zone requires a firm on its own approved panel, ask us directly about that zone and we will tell you plainly whether we are on it — rather than listing zones and leaving you to discover the answer at submission. Our guide to DMCC approved auditors explains how these lists work in practice.
Each engagement has its own page, because the questions differ:
Not sure which you need? How to choose an audit firm sets out the questions to ask us and everyone else on your shortlist.
Straight answers, with the caveats that actually matter.
DMCC, DAFZA, JAFZA and SHAMS are among the zones that require audited financial statements for annual licence renewal. Requirements change and zones have tightened rather than relaxed them, so confirm with your own authority each year rather than relying on what was true at incorporation.
No. The opinion must be signed by an auditor licensed to practise in the UAE, and many free zones maintain an approved auditor list. Submitting a report from a firm not on that list means it is rejected and you start again.
Fees are driven by transaction volume and the state of the records, not your revenue. A company with clean monthly bookkeeping is a review exercise. A company handing over a year of unreconciled statements is a reconstruction exercise and is charged accordingly — often two to three times more.
We tell you early, explain precisely why, and set out what would need to change. Sometimes it is fixable within the engagement; sometimes it is not, and a qualified opinion is the honest outcome. What we will not do is sign something the evidence does not support.
Yes, and it is common for SMEs in the UAE — but independence safeguards apply and are documented. Different staff handle each engagement and the audit partner is independent of the accounting work. For larger or regulated entities we will advise where a separate auditor is the better course.
Hand over within six weeks of your financial year end and the audit is comfortable. Start eight weeks before a renewal deadline with unreconciled books and it becomes expensive and stressful for everyone.
Most clients pair this service with one or more of the following.
Clean monthly records are what make an audit fast and cheap rather than a reconstruction.
Audited statements are the strongest support for a corporate tax computation under assessment.
Your ICV score is calculated from audited figures. We prepare both.
Tell us your free zone, year end and roughly where the bookkeeping stands. We will tell you what is required and what it will take.
Send us your trade licence, financial year end and an honest description of your record-keeping. We will quote the audit — and any reconstruction — separately and clearly.
Takes under a minute. No obligation, no sales script.
Each zone accepts reports from a different set of firms, and the registers change. These guides cover what each authority requires and how to verify a firm before you appoint them: DMCC, JAFZA, SAIF Zone, DIFC, Dubai South (DWC) and Sharjah. Choosing between firms is covered in how to choose an audit firm in Dubai and audit firms in Abu Dhabi.
