There’s a misconception that runs through most finance departments this time of year. It goes something like this: the audit doesn’t start until January, so we have time.
By the time January arrives, the trial balance is locked, the auditors are on-site, and every unanswered question becomes a fire drill. The controllers who sail through year-end aren’t the ones who worked hardest in December. They’re the ones who did the quiet, unglamorous work in October.
As one audit readiness framework puts it plainly: “A smooth audit is built before fieldwork begins”. The best time to prepare isn’t December. It’s now.
Here’s a practical framework for Calgary Controllers and Finance Managers.
Start With the Balance Sheet — Every Account
The single most valuable thing you can do in October is confirm that every balance sheet account is reconciled, with a named owner, a documented method, and a sign-off date.
This isn’t optional groundwork. Audit guidance is explicit that providing a general ledger detail dump is not acceptable audit evidence, every balance-sheet account should be reconciled on a monthly basis. Cash, investments, receivables, inventory, prepaids, fixed assets, payables, payroll liabilities, debt, and net assets, all of them.
Action item: Run a completeness check against your reconciliation schedule this week. If an account has no owner or hasn’t been touched since Q2, assign it now.
Clear the Stale Items Before They Become Findings
Long-standing reconciling items have a way of becoming audit adjustments. Old cheques, aged receivables, suspense accounts, unresolved intercompany differences, these are the items auditors circle.
Two areas deserve particular attention:
Related party and intercompany balances. Reconcile both sides, confirm transactions, and resolve outstanding differences before they reach the auditor. In multi-entity structures — common across Calgary’s construction, energy, and real estate companies — this is where year-end closes most often go sideways.
Cut-off and completeness. Capture unrecorded liabilities, deferred revenue, accrued payroll, inventory activity, and significant post-close invoices. Cut-off errors are the most common source of adjusting entries, and October is the last clean window to investigate them.
Action item: Pull an aging of every reconciling item older than 90 days. Investigate or write off, but don’t carry it forward.
Pressure-Test the General Ledger and Manual Journals
Auditors don’t just test balances. They test how those balances got there. Review the general ledger for incorrect postings, duplicate entries, unusual journal descriptions, missing narratives, and unsupported manual journals.
Manual and post-close journal entries deserve specific scrutiny. Require support and approval for every one. If a journal can’t be explained in one sentence, it probably shouldn’t exist.
Action item: Run a report of all manual JEs over a materiality threshold from the past nine months. Confirm each has documented support and appropriate approval.
Refresh the Internal Control Documentation
Controls drift. People leave, systems change, approval workflows get bypassed. October is the time to walk through key processes, purchasing, payroll, revenue, inventory, and confirm the documented control still matches reality.
Audit guidance recommends updating the internal control manual on an ongoing basis, not annually in a panic. And when documentation is sent to auditors, nothing should go until it agrees to the final trial balance and has documented preparer and reviewer sign-off.
Action item: Identify any control that has changed since last year’s audit, new systems, new personnel, new approval thresholds, and update the documentation now.
Communicate With Your Auditors in October, Not January
Reach out to your audit team before the end of October. Confirm the timeline, the PBC list, and any changes in scope, first-year audits, new entities, or internal control attestation requirements all add phases to the engagement.
Ask what kept them up at night last year. Ask what they’re seeing across their client base. Every conversation you have in October is one less surprise in February.
Action item: Schedule a year-end planning call with your external auditors before month-end. Walk through the prior-year findings and management’s remediation status.
Document the Judgment Calls
Every year has them, the treatment you debated, the estimate you landed on, the transaction where the standard wasn’t entirely clear.
If those calls were made in the moment without documentation, write them up now. Auditors don’t just want the answer; they want the reasoning.
Action item: List your significant transactions and estimates from the year. Document the accounting rationale for anything that involved judgment.
What Good Looks Like by November 1
A finance team that’s genuinely audit-ready enters November with:
- Every balance sheet account reconciled and signed off
- A clean aging of reconciling items, with nothing stale carried forward
- All manual journals supported and approved
- Internal control documentation updated for any changes during the year
- A confirmed audit timeline and PBC list
- Judgment calls documented and ready to defend
That’s not a heroic effort. It’s a disciplined one, spread across a few focused weeks in October.
Where This Leaves You
The audit isn’t a test you cram for. It’s the output of twelve months of financial discipline. October is the last chance to close the gaps quietly, before the pressure of fieldwork makes every issue feel urgent.
Work the checklist. Have the hard conversations. Document what needs documenting. By the time the auditors arrive, the hard part will already be done.
At BullsEye Recruitment, we’re seeing continued demand for Controllers who can run a disciplined close, manage audit relationships, and bring structure to finance functions that need it.
About BullsEye Recruitment Inc.
BullsEye Recruitment Inc. is a Calgary-based boutique recruitment firm specializing in placing experienced accounting and finance professionals at senior levels. We understand the Alberta economy, the challenges finance leaders face, and what it takes to find the right people the first time.
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