02/04/2026
When an auditor asks how you got to a number, what they're really asking for is to understand the path from the original invoice all the way through to the balance sheet.
Most finance teams I talk to have this under control and know exactly what they're doing. The thing is, the way you've got it set up often means connecting a few different places together, like a spreadsheet over here, some notes in an email, or some logic that lives in your head because you've been doing this for years and you know how it all fits.
It's mostly fine, but when you're walking an auditor through it, you end up explaining as you go rather than showing them a process they can follow themselves.
A few things I've noticed that seem to help quite a bit: keeping your supporting documents linked as best you can in the cloud or in your spreadsheets directly. In Excel, google how to "Add An Object" if you don't know already - this is how you can embed another file directly into your existing file. It carries forward to might send the file to as well.
Try and build your processes out so you can trace backward from any line on the balance sheet all the way back to the original invoice or requirement, because that's genuinely what auditors want to see.
Doesn't need to be super complicated, but it does need to be connected. When it is, audit becomes something that's straightforward instead of something you're defending as you go through it, and that makes the whole thing a bit easier.
