Our list ranges from beefing up internal audit to avoiding posh steakhouses for those working lunches.
Think there’s no way around sky-high audit costs? Think again. A recent study of 1000 companies by The Hackett Group found that the average company spends $584,000 per $1 billion of revenue on audit fees. The companies that earned the "world-class" designation, based on a variety of factors, however, paid only $307,500 per billion— nearly 50 percent less.
What sets the best apart from the rest? Below, we offer tips and advice from Hackett and a number of finance executives on how to winnow down audit costs.
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1. Beef up internal audit staff. Jeffrey Jones, CFO of $828 million Vail Resorts, added staff to his internal audit group last year and dedicated some to helping the auditors through the company's Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts. He found that the salaries paid for themselves within a year thanks to a reduction in audit fees.
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