What audits cost on average
The Financial Reporting Council looked at around 70,000 audits of small and medium-sized companies in 2023. The average fee was about £19,000 for a small company and about £35,000 for a medium-sized one, and about £22,000 across all of them.
Averages hide a wide range. A straightforward trading company with clean records sits at the lower end. A group with several companies, overseas parents, stock in several places or a tight deadline sits at the top, and above it. The FRC also found that the cost of an audit can be disproportionate for the smallest companies, which is one reason the audit thresholds went up in April 2025.
Fees have been rising. Audit fees for listed companies rose by about 75% between 2018 and 2023. No equivalent figure is published for private companies, but firms of every size report the same pressures: regulation, training and the cost of qualified staff.
What makes an audit cost more or less
The fee follows the time the work takes. These are the things that change it most:
- How many companies are being audited. A group needs an audit of each UK company plus the group accounts.
- Stock. Counting and valuing stock across several sites takes time, and someone has to attend the count.
- How you earn your revenue. Long contracts, deposits, subscriptions and staged billing all need more testing than simple sales.
- The state of the records. Reconciled bank accounts, a fixed asset register and clear schedules shorten the audit noticeably.
- The first year. A new auditor has to check the opening figures, so the first year usually costs more than the second.
- Deadlines. A company that needs its accounts signed quickly, for a lender or a parent, needs the team at a particular time.
- The accounting framework. IFRS and overseas group reporting add work compared with UK GAAP alone.
Want to talk it through? Tell us about the company and speak to the audit team. The budget and timetable are agreed before any work starts.
Talk to usHow the fee should be agreed
Before you appoint anyone you should have a fixed fee in writing, along with what it covers: which companies, which accounts, which deadlines and how many meetings. You should also know how a change in scope will be dealt with.
Ask for the fee and the scope on the same page. If the scope is vague, the fee is too.
How to keep the fee down
The cheapest audit is a well-prepared one. Send the information on the request list when it is asked for, reconcile the bank and the main balance sheet accounts before the auditors arrive, keep board minutes and contracts in one place, and tell your auditor early about anything unusual in the year: a new loan, an acquisition, a dispute. The first audit guide has a full checklist.
Questions
Why has our audit fee gone up?
Audit firms have been raising fees across the market as regulation, training and staff costs have risen. A rise can also come from a change in the company: a new entity, a new revenue stream, more stock, or records that took longer to audit than planned. Ask your auditor which of those applies, in writing.
Can an agreed fee change?
It covers the scope set out in the engagement letter. If the scope changes, for example you buy a company or add a new system part-way through the year, the fee can change. What matters is that any change is agreed with you before the extra work is done.
Can we get a quote without a meeting?
A rough idea, yes, from the size of the company, its year end and how many entities it has. A firm figure follows a short conversation about the business, because two companies of the same size can need very different amounts of work.